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The Jilted Lover

Edith Nesbit

You needn't pray for me, old lady,
I don't want no one's prayer,
I'm fit and jolly as ever I was,
You needn't think I care.

When I go whistling down the road,
When the warm night is falling,
She needn't think I'm whistling her,
It's another girl I'm calling.

If I pass her house a dozen times,
Or fifty times a day,
She needn't think I think of her,
My work lies out that way.

If they should tell her I've grown thin
(For that is what they've told me)
This cursèd weather counts for that,
And not the girl who sold me.

And if they say I'm off my feed
I still can tip a can;
If I get drunk what's that to her?
I am not her young man.

I know I've had a lucky let-off
She ain't no class, she ain't,
For all she looked like a bush o' roses
And talked like a story book saint.

I never give a thought to her.
Don't worry your old head,
I've quite forgot her pretty ways
And the cruel things she said.

There's lots of other gals to be had
As any chap can see,
So you cheer up, you've got no call
To go and pray for me.

But all the same, if you want to pray,
You'd best pray God take care of them,
For if I catch them two together,
By hell! I'll swing for the pair of them.

The Jilted Lover To His Mother.

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