The Spotted Heifers [poem by C. J. Dennis]

[Editor: This poem by C. J. Dennis was published in A Book for Kids, 1921.]

The Spotted Heifers

Mr. Jeremiah Jeffers
Owned a pair of spotted heifers.
These he sold for two pounds ten
To Mr. Robert Raymond Wren,

Who reared them in the lucerne paddocks
Owned by Mr. Martin Maddox,
And sold them, when they grew to cows,
To Mr. Donald David Dowse.

A grazier, Mr. Egbert Innes,
Bought them then for twenty guineas,
Milked the cows, and sold the milk
To Mr. Stephen Evan Silk,

Who rents a butter factory
From Mr. Laurence Lampard-Lee.
Here, once a week, come for his butter
The grocer, Mr. Roland Rutter,

Who keeps a shop in Sunny Street
Next door to Mr. Peter Peat.
He every afternoon at two
Sent his fair daughter, Lucy Loo,

To Mr. Rutter’s shop to buy
Such things as were not priced too high,
Especially a shilling tin
Of “Fuller’s Food for Folk Too Thin.”

This food was bought for Lucy Loo —
A girl of charming manners, who
Was much too pale and much too slight
To be a very pleasant sight.

When Lucy Loo beheld the butter
Stocked by Mr. Roland Rutter,
She said, “I’ll have a pound of that.”
She had it, and thenceforth grew fat.

We now go back to Mr. Jeffers,
Who sold the pair of spotted heifers.
He had a son, James Edgar John,
A handsome lad to gaze upon,

Who had now reached that time of life
When young men feel they need a wife;
But no young girl about the place
Exactly had the kind of face

That seemed to suit James Edgar John —
A saddening thing to think upon,
For he grew sad and sick of life
Because he could not find a wife.

One day young James was passing by
(A look of sorrow in his eye)
The shop of Mr. Roland Rutter,
When Lucy Loo came out with butter.

At once James Edgar John said, “That
Is just the girl for me! She’s fat.”
He offered her his heart and hand
And prospects of his father’s land.

The Reverend Saul Sylvester Slight
Performed the simple marriage rite.
The happy couple went their way,
And lived and loved unto this day.

Events cannot be far foreseen;
And all this joy might not have been
If Mr. Jeremiah Jeffers
Had kept his pair of spotted heifers.

Source:
C. J. Dennis. A Book for Kids, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, [1921], pages 100-102