If No One Ever Marries Me

(Laurence Alma-Tadema, 1865–1940)

From the album Leave Your Supper

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.