The Sun-Bonnet Girl

I don’t know why she thus should wear

     A large sunbonnet gay;

Be sure it makes her look demure

     And roguish, in a way.

She looks from out its lacy folds

     A picture fair to see;

Yet she imagines, I opine,

     It hides her witchery.

Mayhap the ostrich argument

     Impels her thus to wear

This bonnet large, and soft and deep,

     To hide her beauty rare.

Tho’ I suspect one other cause –

     Tho’ it were wrong to tell:

If she perchance should choose to kiss

     ‘Twould hide two heads as well.

June 8, 1904