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Poetry

16 from Struwwelpeter: Merry Stories and Funny Pictures by Heinrich Hoffman (1844; translated 1848)

The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb

The Story of Little Suck-A-Thumb; Conrad gets a lecture and then sucks his thumb anyway. One day Mamma said “Conrad dear,
I must go out and leave you here.
But mind now, Conrad, what I say,
Don’t suck your thumb while I’m away.
The great tall tailor always comes
To little boys who suck their thumbs;
And ere they dream what he’s about,
He takes his great sharp scissors out,
And cuts their thumbs clean off—and then,
You know, they never grow again.”Mamma had scarcely turned her back,
The thumb was in, Alack! Alack!
The great, long, red-legged scissor-man cuts Conrad's thumb.
Conrad stands with no thumbs. The door flew open, in he ran,
The great, long, red-legged scissor-man.
Oh! children, see! the tailor’s come
And caught out little Suck-a-Thumb.
Snip! Snap! Snip! the scissors go;
And Conrad cries out “Oh! Oh! Oh!”
Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast,
That both his thumbs are off at last.Mamma comes home: there Conrad stands,
And looks quite sad, and shows his hands;
“Ah!” said Mamma, “I knew he’d come
To naughty little Suck-a-Thumb.”

 

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