T h e T a l e o f t h e S t o r e G i r l

by O Hana San.

Illustration by Adrian Machefert.

ES, ma’am, to the right. No, ma’am, not this store.”

“Say, Sade, ain’t those dames a terrible bore

With their questions all day?

Perhaps now I can say

What I want to you, of me friend Johnny Ray.

Was the party real swell? Well,

I’m dying to tell

You of the dandy fine floor, and just what I wore

The price of that, ma’am? Well, ain’t she a ham

To get off her ear just because it’s too dear?

As I was just sayin’, there was dancin’ and playin’,

And cute Johnny Ray, say! was with me all day

Two yards of that lace? (My, Sade, what a face!)

Sure, ma’am, I’ll attend;

I don’t mean to offend

Either you or any other old lady.

Fresh? Can you beat that now, Sadie?

She’s gone to complain to the floorwalker chap—

It’s all up with me, maybe, but I don’t give a rap.

“As I was just sayin’.”

’Cos Johnny wants me for his own little pet,

And maybe I ain’t lookin’ for marriage just yet!

I can beat it—and quick—to a store on Broadway.

Hear me hand that to him,

With a merry ‘Good day?’”

And she did, and what happened is easy to write;

She married young Ray; that’s her end, so good night.

MORAL.

And the moral is simple for girls high and low:

You’ll never get left with two strings to your bow.

A good business one to pull at your will,

Or, a true lover’s knot may be better still

In case you get “fired,” like the girl in the store,

Who had two strings to her bow

And who knows?—some more!