Aint as fly as what I might be
On them topics, little Joe.
* * * * *
——Don’t you have no fear.
Heaven was made fur such as you is—
Joe! what makes you look so queer?
Here! wake up! Oh, don’t look that way!
Here’s yer flowers—you dropped ’em—Joey,
Oh, my God! can Joe be dead?”
David Law Proudfit, Poor Little Joe (1883).