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"Dignity and Impudence."
Words from "Little Folks."
Music by Burnham W. Horner.
In moderate time.
1. Said a wee little bird, with a pert little look, To an adjutant stork by the river—"I suppose that you think you're as wise as a book, And in fact that you're wondrously clever! You're a picture of dignity, that I'll admit, But alas! that is all I'll allow, ... For indeed you're not quarter as wise as a tit, That hops to and fro on the bough."
2. Said the adjutant-stork to the wee little bird, With a dignified kind of a stare— "Little creatures like you should be seen and not heard, And your impudence well we can spare! You had better by far go back to your nest, And be pert where they'll heed what you do; For you see that in height I'm six feet and the rest, While you are just no feet two!"
3. So it is with us all as we pass through the day: For we each of us think we're most clever— Whether impudent bird that chatters away, Or "Dignity" stork by the river. On our size or our form or our talents we pose, And we hold ourselves up every hour: If the Queen of the Garden be known as the Rose, Then we are that wonderful flower!