Love Songs of Childhood by Eugene Field - HTML preview

"BOOH!"

      On afternoons, when baby boy has had a splendid nap,

      And sits, like any monarch on his throne, in nurse's lap,

      In some such wise my handkerchief I hold before my face,

      And cautiously and quietly I move about the place;

      Then, with a cry, I suddenly expose my face to view,

      And you should hear him laugh and crow when I say "Booh"!

      Sometimes the rascal tries to make believe that he is scared,

      And really, when I first began, he stared, and stared, and stared;

      And then his under lip came out and farther out it came,

      Till mamma and the nurse agreed it was a "cruel shame"—

      But now what does that same wee, toddling, lisping baby do

      But laugh and kick his little heels when I say "Booh!"

      He laughs and kicks his little heels in rapturous glee, and then

      In shrill, despotic treble bids me "do it all aden!"

      And I—of course I do it; for, as his progenitor,

      It is such pretty, pleasant play as this that I am for!

      And it is, oh, such fun I am sure that we shall rue

      The time when we are both too old to play the game "Booh!"