(TO BE SUNG TO THE AIR OF THE "WHISTLING OYSTER.")AN elderly person a prophet by trade
With his quips and tips On withered old lips,He married a young and a beautiful maid;The cunning old blade!
Though rather decayed,He married a beautiful,beautiful maid.
She was only eighteen,and as fair as could be,With her tempting smiles And maidenly wiles,And he was a trifle past seventythree:
Now what she could see Is a puzzle to me,In a prophet of seventy seventythree!
Of all their acquaintances bidden (or bad)With their loud high jinks And underbred winks,None thought they'd a family have but they had;A dear little lad Who drove 'em half mad,For he turned out a horribly fast little cad.
For when he was born he astonished all by,With their "Law,dear me!"
"Did ever you see?"
He'd a pipe in his mouth and a glass in his eye,A hat all awry An octagon tie
And a miniature miniature glass in his eye.
He grumbled at wearing a frock and a cap,With his "Oh,dear,oh!"
And his "Hang it!'oo know!"
And he turned up his nose at his excellent pap "My friends,it's a tap Dat is not worf a rap."
(Now this was remarkably excellent pap.)He'd chuck his nurse under the chin,and he'd say,With his "Fal,lal,lal""'Oo doosed fine gal!"
This shocking precocity drove 'em away:
"A month from today Is as long as I'll stay Then I'd wish,if you please,for to toddle away."
His father,a simple old gentleman,he With nursery rhyme And "Once on a time,"
Would tell him the story of "Little BoP,"
"So pretty was she,So pretty and wee,As pretty,as pretty,as pretty could be."
But the babe,with a dig that would startle an ox,With his "C'ck!Oh,my!Go along wiz 'oo,fie!"
Would exclaim,"I'm afraid 'oo a socking ole fox."
Now a father it shocks,And it whitens his locks,When his little babe calls him a shocking old fox.
The name of his father he'd couple and pair (With his illbred laugh,And insolent chaff)With those of the nursery heroines rare Virginia the Fair,Or Good Goldenhair,Till the nuisance was more than a prophet could bear.
"There's Jill and White Cat"(said the bold little brat,With his loud,"Ha,ha!")"'Oo sly ickle Pa!
Wiz 'oo Beauty,BoPeep,and 'oo Mrs.Jack Sprat!
I've noticed 'oo pat MY pretty White Cat I sink dear mamma ought to know about dat!"
He early determined to marry and wive,For better or worse With his elderly nurse Which the poor little boy didn't live to contrive:
His hearth didn't thrive
No longer alive,He died an enfeebled old dotard at five!
MORAL.
Now,elderly men of the bachelor crew,With wrinkled hose And spectacled nose,Don't marry at all you may take it as true If ever you do The step you will rue,For your babes will be elderly elderly too.
