WHICH GRANDMA WAS RIGHT?

Otago Witness, Issue 1320, 17 March 1877, Page 19

WHICH GRANDMA WAS RIGHT?

Dear me, I wonder what I is doin' to do wis oo ? Oo is a bad, bad dolly, and I know and fink oo is a naughty child to oo's musser. And one thing I can tell 00, oo sant go wia me to see oo's grandma. Why tan't oo be 'tickler about oo's clothes? Why don't oo play wis nice, proud, 'spectable little girls instead of doin' wis girls dat is poor and dirty? Oh ! dolly, dolly, I left oo all clean and nicej and now I turns back and finds oo all dirt, and 'long wis dat girl dat is de cook's girl, all grease, cause her lives in de kitchen. Oh ! dolly, I'se real mad wia 00. Will oo never, never have a bit of style about oo ?

Don't oo know I is rich, and dat oo's papa is too, and dat oo must not mix up wis poor peoples if oo wants to be 'spectable like us is 1 Oo's grandma says oo must be important, and oo muan't act like common people's children, and oo mustn't touch dere hands or oo will get de plague, or something, I don't know what oo's grandma calls it, only it is'nt good to have ; 'sides if Mrs Brown's chil'en turns over here, and finds oo sociatin' wis low folks, as is not rich, dey will cut us, altogeser; least dats what oo's grandma says. Den she says dey are rich folks, awful rich, and dat dafc is all anybody needs, or wants in the world ; but, Dolly, darling, I don't believe it, for I know that peoples has to be dood, and Brown's folks' children ain't dood, for I heard dem swear and say bad words, and I aaw them slap a poor little cold, starved girl in the face, 'cause she wanted something to eat, one day when oo and I was visiting there. Oh, Dolly, oo won't tell ou's grandma if I tells 00, but my own very own grandma, told me dat I must always 'member the dear little children dat come round de house when dey was poor, for she said dey was God's own children as much as we is, and I do mean to mind my own grandma, but oo must mind oo's. Oh ! I will dust ask my own dear papa which of the gran'mas was right, cau3e I feel as if I must 'member my own gran'ma's words, for she died, and so I will never, never scold oo for playin' wis de cook's little girl any more, for she is a poor little diii, and loves dollies just as much aa I do, and her

hasnt got any, and so oo'll be dood while? I run and ask my own dear pecious papa to buy her one, cause it waa his own musser dat taught me to be good arid kind to poor folks, and I must 'member it, if even oo's gran'ma scolds me — Aunty CJicbric.