A Song of Sweetness

(The price of sugar, twice that of the world’s parity, is severely felt in many small homes.)

Mother wants to make some jam.
        (Ah, lack-a-day!)
Father raves at member's flam—
        (Ah, dearie me!)
All us kids we hangs about,
Half in hope and half in doubt.
Sugar we’re to go without.
        (Ah, lack-a-day!)

Will the price be coming down?
        (Ah, dearie me!)
Mother’s searching all the town—
        (Ah, dearie me!)
Seeking shops where sugar’s cheap;
But no grocer such things keep
And we children weep and weep
        (Ah, dearie me!)

When will Ministers wake up?
        (Ah, lack-a-day!)
So that we can have a cup—
        (Ah, lack-a-day!)
A cup of tea with sugar in.
We’re weary of the empty tin,
And mother says it is a sin.
        (Ah, lack-a-day!)

It seems to us that household cares
        (Ah, dearie me!)
Should not be mixed with such affairs—
        (Ah, dearie me!)
A Minister who will postpone
Their statements, while we sit and
groan
And take our tea with milk alone.
        (Ah, dearie me!)

You scorned this verse—I knew you
did!
        (Ah, lack-a-day!)
But were you ever once a kid—
        (Ah, lack-a-day!)
Who yearned for sugar, day and night,
While mother wept and pa sat tight
And said, “Well, Mr Rodgers might.”
        (Ah, lack-a-day!)

They say that Mr Rodgers might—
        (Ah, dearie me!)
When he wakes up have things put
right.
        (Ah, dearie me!)
But all the toffee and the jam
Seem things of dreams; and, straight,
I am—
Although a kid, inclined to —
        (Ah dearie me!)