WILLIE TEESDALE.

A kind of folk story in verse summing up a human life

When Little Willie Teesdale

Was only four or five,

His granny went to Jesus

and he learned he was alive.

For the first time Willy Teesdale

Knew he was alive.

When Little Willie Teesdale

Was only nine or ten

His papa died whilst working

and Willie knew again,

He knew about mortality

when he was nine or ten.

Then little Willie Teesdale

grew up and knew no blame

till his mother coughed her lungs up

and the Undertaker came,

and he learned to cry that winter

when that Undertaker came.

More years passed for Willie

and he grew slowly old

his face grew lined with wrinkles,

and he felt the winter's cold,

the years passed by for Willie

and he shivered in the cold.

Then little Willie Teesdale

felt a pain real deep inside,

a throbbing and an aching

that ended when he died,

and they buried him at Michaelmas,

when Willie Teesdale died.