A Woman’s History

When Mary Price was five years old,

And had a bird that died,

And laid its body under flowers;

And called her friends to pray to God,

And sing sad hymns for hours.

When she, before her fifteenth year,

Was ruined by a man,

The neighbours sought him out, and said-

“You come along and marry her,

Or hang till you are dead.”

When they found the child he wronged

And playing with her doll,

“I’ll come along with you,” she said-

“But I’ll not marry any one

Unless my doll’s with me.”

With no more love’s heat in her than

The was upon her arm;

With no more love-light in her eyes

Than in the glass eyes of her doll-

Nor wonder, nor surprise.

When Mary Price was thirty-five,

And he was lying dead,

She wept although her heart would break:

But neighbours winked to see her tears

Fall on a lover’s neck.

Now, Mary Price is seventy-five,

And skinning eels alive:

She, active, strong, and full of breath,

Has caught the cat that stole an eel,

And beaten it to death.