Little Mary one day most loudly did call,
"Mamma! oh, mamma, pray come here!
A fall I have had--oh! a very sad fall."
Mamma ran in haste and in fear;
Then Mary jump'd up, and she laugh'd in great glee,
And cried, "Why, how fast you can run!
No harm has befallen, I assure you, to me,
My screaming was only in fun."
Her mother was busy at work the next day,
She heard from without a loud cry,
"The big dog has got me! O help me! Oh! pray!
He tears me--he bites me--I die!"
Mamma, all in terror, quick to the court
And there little Mary she found;
Who, laughing, said, "Madam, pray how do you do!"
And curtsey'd quite down to the ground.
That night little Mary, when long gone to bed,
Shrill cries and loud shriekings were heard;
"I'm on fire, O mamma, come up or I'm dead!"
Mamma she believ'd not a word.
"Sleep, sleep, naughty child," she call'd out from below,
"How often have I been deceived?
You're telling a story, you very well know:
Go to sleep, for you can't be believed."
Yet still the child scream'd--now the house fill'd with smoke.
That fire is above Jane declares.
Alas! Mary's words they soon found were no joke,
When ev'ryone hastened upstairs.
All burnt and all seam'd is her once pretty face,
And how terribly mark'd are her arms,
Her features all scarr'd, leave a lasting disgrace,
For giving Mamma false alarms.