| |
| GRANDMA told me all about it, | |
| Told me so I could n’t doubt it, | |
| How she danced—my Grandma danced!— | |
| Long ago. | |
| How she held her pretty head, | 5 |
| How her dainty skirt she spread, | |
| Turning out her pretty toes; | |
| How she slowly leaned and rose— | |
| Long ago. | |
| |
| Grandma’s hair was bright and sunny; | 10 |
| Dimpled cheeks, too—ah, how funny! | |
| Really quite a pretty girl, | |
| Long ago. | |
| Bless her! why, she wears a cap, | |
| Grandma does, and takes a nap | 15 |
| Every single day; and yet | |
| Grandma danced the minuet | |
| Long ago. | |
| |
| Now she sits there rocking, rocking, | |
| Always knitting Grandpa’s stocking— | 20 |
| (Every girl was taught to knit | |
| Long ago.) | |
| Yet her figure is so neat, | |
| And her ways so staid and sweet, | |
| I can almost see her now | 25 |
| Bending to her partner’s bow, | |
| Long ago. | |
| |
| Grandma says our modern jumping, | |
| Hopping, rushing, whirling, bumping, | |
| Would have shocked the gentle folk | 30 |
| Long ago. | |
| No—they moved with stately grace, | |
| Everything in proper place, | |
| Gliding slowly forward, then | |
| Slowly curtseying back again, | 35 |
| Long ago. | |
| |
| Modern ways are quite alarming, | |
| Grandma says; but boys were charming— | |
| Girls and boys I mean, of course,— | |
| Long ago. | 40 |
| Bravely modest, grandly shy,— | |
| She would like to have us try | |
| Just to feel like those who met | |
| In the graceful minuet | |
| Long ago. | 45 |
| |
| With the minuet in fashion, | |
| Who could fly into a passion? | |
| All would wear the calm they wore | |
| Long ago. | |
| In time to come, if I, perchance, | 50 |
| Should tell my grandchild of our dance, | |
| I should really like to say, | |
| “We did it, dear, in some such way, | |
| Long ago.” | |
| |
