The Tersest Bathing Suit

When to the seashore Robert went, with Ma and Sister Nell, He met a wise professor, who soon taught him to spell, Likewise to read of fairy lore and use a real steel pen To write to his own father dear, who like most all the men Must ever stay at home and work to earn the cents to pay For wife and children's outing 'till the summer slips away. Now all the strange, uncommon words which little Bob could find, He stored away and tried to keep in his small, active mind So as to use in writing notes to his dear fat old Dad, And when the big folks used strange words it made him very glad. So one day when of something TERSE he heard his sister tell, He asked her for its meaning and he thus rewarded Nell By writing to his father, dear, "Oh, Daddy, you should see Nell's awful TERSEST bathing suit, which won't reach to her knee."