Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1909 — MAYBE. [ARTICLE]

MAYBE.

SOME evenin's I reach for my hat. And down the stepe I rush a-sttrm-blin’, Like I was blind as any bat. And growlin’ all the way and grumblin' Till you would laugh at me or you Would sympathize some with me maybe. But anyhdw that's-how I do , When my wife starts to spank ths baby. I know If I butt In at all My wife will not be apt to thank Sue, And still I hear my baby call To me, "Please, dad, don’t let her 'pank me!" And I Just have to rush outside Anil down the street a-gallivantln', And in my ears at every stride My baby's pleadin' voice comes ha'ntln’. And sometimes I halfway turn back At the remembrance of her pleadin’. Halfway worked up to fly the track. Although I know the baby's needin' A tender dingbat now and then, When her wee feet go widely strayin’. When she has run away or when She's mussed her clean dress up a-playin'. But that don't make It easy none For me when mother spanks the baby. And I just grab my hat and run And don't come back again till maybe The babies are all tucked in bed. Ail snuggled in and soundly Bleepin’, With all their lay-mes softly said And with an end to all their weepin’. That baby Is the cutest slip And says the quaintest things, doggone it'! Sometimes when mamma says, , “I’ll whip!” She says: “You tan’t. I'm settin' on it!” Now, after a reply like that Who could watch baby get the paddle? No wonder I reach for my hat And don’t look back as I skedaddle I like to think I'd hear the call .And go to war long with the quickest And stand firm where the bullets fall And where the slayin’ blows fall thickest. Maybe I would stand up and fight. And I'd die facin' tjie foe maybe. I think the bravest men take flight When It gets time to spank the baby.

—J. M. Lewis

in Houston Post.