Babies Don't Keep

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth

Hang out the washing, make up the bed

Sew on a button and butter the bread

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

Pat-a-cake darling and peek peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo

Look!  Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait til tomorrow

But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep

-- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton