PLAYING WITH FIRE.
I’ve seen a little girl, mama,
That had got such a dreadful scar,
All down her arms, and neck, and face,
I could not bear to see the place.
Poor little girl, and don’t you know
The shocking trick that made her so?
’Twas all because she went and did
A thing her mother had forbid.
For, once, when nobody was by her,
This silly child would play with fire;
And long before her mother came,
Her pin-a-fore was all in flame!
In vain she tried to put it out,
’Till all her clothes were burnt about,
And then she suffered ten times more,
All over with the dreadful sore.
For many months, before ’twas cured,
Most shocking torments she endured;
And even now in passing by her,
You see what ’tis to play with fire!