LINES WROTE AFTER BEIN’ SCOLDED FOR NOT DOIN’ AS CHILDREN USED TO

I yearn'st to live to be ten times as old

As wast Mathusalem, the patriarch:

Then when some older person durst remark:

“When I wast young the children were n't so bold

And always loved to do as they wert told,

And went to bed soon after it wast dark;”

I'llst say to him: My errin’ friend, now hark

To one who wilt no longer hear thee scold:

I knew thy great-great-great-grand-parents when

They wert sly youngsters vexin’ their poor nurse,

And children now art good as they wert then!

They always have been stubborn, mean, perverse,

And always wilt be, since, alas! like men,

They're just as heaven makes them — only worse!