Note 21 — Chapter III · (continued 3)
Reading edition
This idea is advanced also in The Mother Country, A Song, which Jared Sparks thought was probably written by Franklin about the time of the Stamp Act or a little later:
"We have an old mother that peevish is grown; She snubs us like children that scarce walk alone; She forgets we're grown up and have sense of our own; Which nobody can deny, deny, Which nobody can deny. If we don't obey orders, whatever the case, She frowns, and she chides and she loses all pati- Ence, and sometimes she hits us a slap in the face, Which nobody can deny, etc. Her orders so odd are, we often suspect That age has impaired her sound intellect. But still an old mother should have due respect, Which nobody can deny, etc. Let's bear with her humors as well as we can; But why should we bear the abuse of her man? When servants make mischief, they earn the rattan, Which nobody should deny, etc. Know too, ye bad neighbours, who aim to divide The sons from the mother, that still she's our pride; And if ye attack her we're all of her side, Which nobody can deny, etc. We'll join in her lawsuits, to baffle all those, Who, to get what she has, will be often her foes; For we know it must all be our own, when she goes, Which nobody can deny, deny, Which nobody can deny."