Nellie Clark

    I was only eight years old;
    And before I grew up and knew what it meant
    I had no words for it, except
    That I was frightened and told my
    Mother; And that my Father got a pistol
    And would have killed Charlie, who was a big boy,
    Fifteen years old, except for his Mother.
    Nevertheless the story clung to me.
    But the man who married me, a widower of thirty-five,
    Was a newcomer and never heard it
    'Till two years after we were married.
    Then he considered himself cheated,
    And the village agreed that I was not really a virgin.
    Well, he deserted me, and I died
    The following winter.