Volume 1 — A BOY’S MOTHER[O]
Reading edition
A BOY’S MOTHER[O]
BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
My mother she’s so good to me, Ef I was good as I could be, I couldn’t be as good—no, sir!— Can’t any boy be good as her.
She loves me when I’m glad er sad; She loves me when I’m good er bad; An’, what’s a funniest thing, she says She loves me when she punishes.
I don’t like her to punish me— That don’t hurt—but it hurts to see Her cryin’.—Nen I cry; an’ nen We both cry an’ be good again.
She loves me when she cuts an’ sews My little cloak an’ Sund’y clothes; An’ when my Pa comes home to tea, She loves him ’most as much as me.
She laughs an’ tells him all I said, An’ grabs me up an’ pats my head; An’ I hug her, an’ hug my Pa, An’ love him purt’ nigh much as Ma.