Explore "The Cuckoo Clock" by Joseph C. Lincoln on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When Ezry, that's my sister's son, come home from furrin parts, / He fetched the folks a lot of things ter brighten up their hearts; / He fetched 'em silks and gloves and clothes, and knick-knacks, too, a stock, / But all he fetched fer us was jest a fancy cuckoo clock. / 'T was all fixed up with paint and gilt, and had a little door / Where sat the cutest little bird, and when 't was three or four / Or five or six or any time, that bird would jest come out / And, 'cordin' ter what time it was, he'd flap his wings and shout: / "_Hoo_-hoo! _Hoo_-hoo! _Hoo_-hoo!"
Well, fust along we had it, why, I thought 'twas simply prime! / And used to poke the hands around ter make it "cuckoo" time; / And allers when we'd company come, they had ter see the thing, / And, course they almost had a fit when "birdie" come ter sing. / But, by and by, b'gosh! I found it somehow lost its joys, / I found it kind er made me sick to hear that senseless noise; / I wished 't was jest a common clock, that struck a gong, yer know, / And didn't have no foolish bird ter flap his wings and go: / "_Hoo_-hoo! _Hoo_-hoo! _Hoo_-hoo!"