If No One Ever Marries Me

(Laurence Alma-Tadema (1865 - 1940))

If no one ever marries me,-
And I don't see why they should,
For nurse says I'm not pretty,
And I'm seldom very good-

If no one ever marries me
I shan't mind very much;
I shall buy a squirrel in a cage,
And a little rabbit-hutch:

I shall have a cottage near a wood,
And a pony all my own,
And a little lamb quite clean and tame,
That I can take to town:

And when I'm getting really old,-
At twenty-eight or nine-
I shall buy a little orphan-girl
And bring her up as mine.