A PANIC ABOUT WOPSY TOPSY.
Briggs has a baby boy, about ten months old, who is admitted to look just like his father, and to be the smartest baby boy in G. street. The Other morning the child was sitting on the floor, pirn mg with five or six buttons on a string, and jgk'pg an occasional nibble at an apjdp to bring
out his first crop of teeth. Mrs. Briggs and a neighbour were talking away as only women can gossip, when the baby hid the buttons under a mat, and started to finish the apple. A bit of the skin got in his throat., and he gave a sough, and a whoop, and pawed the ah*, and rolled over on his head.
* Oh, them buttons! He has swallowed them buttons!’ cried the mother, as she yanked him up and shook him, '‘Pound him on the back!’ yelled the other woman, trying to hold the baby’s'legs still. ‘ Run for the neighbours!’ cried Mrs. Briggs.. ‘ Oh, he’ll die! lie'll die !’ screamed the other, as she ran out.
And the neighbours came in, and made h'tn lie on his stomach and cough, and then turned him on his back, rubbed his stomach, and jogged him about all sorts of ways ■until he got mad and went to howling. Then the bov ran for Briggs, and Briggs ran for the doctor, and the doctor came and choked tho baby, and ordered sweet oil and a mustard plaster, and told them to hold him on his back. Everybody know that those six buttons were lodged' in the babv’s throat, because he was rod in the face, anil because he strangled ns he howled and wept. They poured the sweet oil down his throat, and put a mustard plaster across his chest, and wept over him, and the mother said she never could forgive herself.
The doctor was looking serious, and Briggs was thinking he hadn’t done anything to deserve such a blow, when one 0 f the women pushed the mat and discovered the buttons. Then everybody laughed and danced, and they kicked the sweet oil bottle under the bod. threw the mustard plaster at the doctor, and Mrs. Briggs hugged the howling angel to her bosom, calling him her “wopsy-topsy-bopsy-dropsy-popsy little cherub.’—American paper.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WSTAR18740613.2.23
Bibliographic details
Western Star, Issue 31, 13 June 1874, Page 6
Word Count
381A PANIC ABOUT WOPSY TOPSY. Western Star, Issue 31, 13 June 1874, Page 6
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