Heinrich Hoffmann

“ You surely will make yourself blind.
What reason on earth for such sobbing and sighing,
I pray, can you possibly find?
There is no real sorrow, there's nothing distressing,
To make you thus grieve and lament. ”

“ The schoolboys, when they Betsy saw,
Would point her out, and cry,
“Oh! Betsy, what a sight you are!
Oh! Slovenly Betsy, fie!”
One rainy day her parents went
Some pleasant friends to meet.
They took Betsy along with them,
All dressed so clean and neat. ”

“ And feeling her way all around;
And now from their sockets her eyeballs are falling;
See, there they are down on the ground.
My children, from such an example take warning,
And happily live while you may ”