When the brawny hands, that can rend an oak,
Went both into Mammy's mouth for a joke!—
And the feet that stand like the solid rock,
Were "tootsies pootsies, bless'em!"
When to howl was the only accomplishment rife
In our 'tight little bundle' of wailing and strife,
And pap was the summum bonum of life,
To a mouth in perpetual pucker;
When "Ma" was a semi-intelligent lump,
Possess'd by a mania for making us "plump,"