Book 2 — The Tin Gee Gee

I was strolling one day down the Lawther Arcade,

That place for children's toys,

Where you can purchase a dolly or spade

For your good little girls and boys.

And as I passed a certain stall, said a wee little voice to me:

O, I am a Colonel in a little cocked hat, and I ride on a tin Gee Gee;

O, I am a Colonel in a little cocked hat, and I ride on a tin Gee Gee.

Then I looked and a little tin soldier I saw,

In his little cocked hat so fine.

He'd a little tin sword that shone in the light

As he led a glittering line of tin hussars,

Whose sabers flashed in a manner à la military.

And that little tin soldier he rode at their head,

So proud on his tin Gee Gee.

Then that little tin soldier he sobbed and he sighed,

So I patted his little tin head.

What vexes your little tin soul? said I,

And this is what he said:

I've been on this stall a very long time,

And I'm marked twenty-nine, as you see;

Whilst just on the shelf above my head,

There's a fellow marked sixty-three.

Now he hasn't got a sword and he hasn't got a horse,

And I'm quite as good as he.

So why mark me at twenty-nine,

And him at sixty-three?

There's a pretty little dolly girl over there,

And I'm madly in love with she.

But now that I'm only marked twenty-nine,

She turns up her nose at me,

She turns up her little wax nose at me,

And carries on with sixty-three.

And, oh, she's dressed in a beautiful dress;

It's a dress I do admire,

She has pearly blue eyes that open and shut

When worked inside by a wire,

And once on a time when the folks had gone,

She used to ogle at me.

But now that I'm only marked twenty-nine,

She turns up her nose at me.

She turns up her little snub nose at me,

And carries on with sixty-three.

Cheer up, my little tin man, said I,

I'll see what I can do.

You're a fine little fellow, and it's a shame

That she should so treat you.

So I took down the label from the shelf above,

And I labeled him sixty-three,

And I marked the other one twenty-nine,

Which was very, very wrong of me,

But I felt so sorry for that little tin soul,

As he rode on his tin Gee Gee.

Now that little tin soldier he puffed with pride,

At being marked sixty-three,

And that saucy little dolly girl smiled once more,

For he'd risen in life, do you see?

And it's so in this world; for I'm in love

With a maiden of high degree;

But I am only marked twenty-nine,

And the other chap's sixty-three—

And a girl never looks at twenty-nine

With a possible sixty-three!

Fred Cape.