But now-a-days they know enough, before they know their letters;
And young ones that can hardly walk will contradict their betters.
Young women now go kiting round, and looking out for beaux;
And scarcely one in ten is found, who makes or mends her clothes!
But then, I tell my daughter,
Folks don’t do as they’d ought’-ter.
When I was young, if a man had failed, he shut up house and hall,
And never ventured out till night, if he ventured out at all;
And his wife sold all her china plates; and his sons came home from college;
And his gals left school, and learned to wash and bake, and such like knowledge;