In Business

I’m only just a little girl,

     But half as big as you;

But just the same, though I’m so small,

     I know a thing or two.

I know a year or two ago

     We lived just somethin’ swell,

‘Cuz pa was on a salary

     An’ we wuz doin’ well.

We had vacations every year,

     And dressed to beat the band;

When ma wuz rigged up for a ball

     She looked just somethin’ grand.

We had a cottage at the beach,

A power boat and such;

But pa has gone in bizniz now,

     And we don’t have so much.

I don’t know why the diffrunce is,

     Course I am very small;

Pa is a great, big bizniz man,

     But we’ve no cash at all.

Ma says life ain’t the same for her,

     A’ thinks ‘twon’t never be;

I wish pa’d quit his bizniz now

     An’ get his salary.

Aug. 10, 1911