1915
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Hear What Ma'am Goose Says!
My dear little Blossoms, there are now in this world, and always will
be, a great many grannies beside myself, both in petticoats and
pantaloons, some a deal younger, to be sure, but all monstrous wise and
of my own family name. These old women, who never had chick or child of
their own, but who always know how to bring up other people's children,
will tell you with long faces that my enchanting, quieting, soothing
volume, my all-sufficient anodyne for cross, peevish, won't-be-comforted
little bairns, ought be laid aside for more learned books, such as
_they_ could select and publish. Fudge! I tell you that all their
batterings can't deface my beauties, nor their wise pratings equal my
wiser prattlings; and all imitators of my refreshing songs might as well
write another Billy Shakespeare as another Mother Goose--we two great
poets were born together, and shall go out of the world together.
No, no, my melodies will never die,
While nurses sing, or babies cry.
_From "The Only True Mother Goose Melodies,"_
_Published by Munroe & Francis, Boston. 1833_
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