LITTLE WILLIE BY EUGENE FIELD
SAN FRANCISCO PRIVATELY PRINTED 1921 This edition comprising two hundred copies was printed by John Henry Nash of San Francisco for Louis A. Kohn of Chicago in October, Nineteen Hundred & Twenty-one. HEN Willie was a little boy Not more than five or six, Right constantly he did annoy His mother with his tricks. Yet not a picayune cared I For what he did or said, Unless, as happened frequently, The rascal wet the bed. LOSELY he cuddled up to me And put his hands in mine, Till all at once I seemed to be Afloat in seas of brine. Sabean odors clogged the air And filled my soul with dread, Yet I could only grin and bear When Willie wet the bed. IS many times that rascal has Soaked all the bedclothes through, Whereat I’d feebly light the gas And wonder what to do. Yet there he lay, so peaceful like; God bless his curly head, I quite forgave the little tyke For wetting of the bed. H me! those happy days have flown, My boy’s a father too, And little Willies of his own Do what he used to do. And I, ah, all that’s left for me Are dreams of pleasures fled; Our boys ain’t what they used to be When Willie wet the bed. AD I my choice no shapely dame Should share my couch with me, No amorous jade of tarnished fame, No wench of high degree. But I would choose and choose again The little curly head, Who cuddled close beside me when He used to wet the bed. NOTE: Mr. Field said that his wife took the boy away on a visit, and he found in their absence he couldn’t sleep till he got up and poured water on his nightshirt.
