GIRL AND BOY
Alfred is gentle as a girl,
But Judith longs to be a boy!
Would cut off every pretty curl
With eager joy!
Hates to be called "my dear"—or kissed:
For dollies does not care one fig:
Goes, sticking hands up to the wrist
In jackets big.
Would like to do whate'er boy can;
Play cricket—even to go school:
It is so grand to be a man!
A girl's a fool!
But Alfred smiles superior love
On all these innocent vagaries.
He'd hate a goose! but yet a dove
Ah, much more rare is!
She's anything but dove, good sooth!
But she's his dear and only sister:
And, had she been a boy, in truth
How he'd have missed her.
So, gradually her folly dies,
And she'll consent to be just human,
When there shines out of girlish eyes
The real Woman.