Though ten years old, I never told the neighbors of the gown; For grandma said, "This secret, Ned, must not be breathed in town." The sitting-room for days of gloom was in a dreadful mess When that quaint dame, Miss Kelsey, came to make the wondrous dress: To fit and baste and stitch a waist, with whale-bones in between, Is precious slow, as all folks know who've made a bombazine.
With fortitude dear grandma stood the trial to the end (The nerve we find in womankind I cannot comprehend!); And when 'twas done resolved that none should guess at the surprise, Within the press she hid that dress, secure from prying eyes; For grandma knew a thing or two,--by which remark I mean That Sundays were the days for her to wear that bombazine.
I need not state she got there late; and, sailing up the aisle With regal grace, on grandma's face reposed a conscious smile. It fitted so, above, below, and hung so well all round, That there was not one faulty spot a critic could have found. How proud I was of her, because she looked so like a queen! And that was why, perhaps, that I admired the bombazine.
But there _were_ those, as you'd suppose, who scorned that perfect gown; For ugly-grained old cats obtained in that New England town: The Widow White spat out her spite in one: "It doesn't fit!" The Packard girls (they wore false curls) all giggled like to split; Sophronia Wade, the sour old maid, _she_ turned a bilious green, When she descried that joy and pride, my grandma's bombazine.
But grandma knew, and I did, too, that gown was wondrous fine,-- The envious sneers and jaundiced jeers were a conclusive sign. Why, grandpa said it went ahead of all the girls in town, And, saying this, he snatched a kiss that like to burst that gown; But, blushing red, my grandma said, "Oh, isn't grandpa mean!" Yet evermore my grandma wore _his_ favorite bombazine.
And when she died that sombre pride passed down to heedless heirs,-- Alas, the day 't was hung away beneath the kitchen stairs! Thence in due time, with dust and grime, came foes on foot and wing, And made their nests and sped their guests in that once beauteous thing. 'Tis so, forsooth! Time's envious tooth corrodes each human scene; And so, at last, to ruin passed my grandma's bombazine.