To Harriet Demest Packard
"A Little Shoe" (1899)
Words by William Lightfoot Pisscher
Music by Carrie Jacobs-Bond, 1862-1946

from "Four Songs", #3
Plate No. 29-9
[Source: 105/057c@Levy]

1.
Thar ain't much poetry, that's a fact,
In a pa'r o' worn out shoes,
But I've seen truck agoin that lacked
As much of soul or muse.
I've got a shoe, 'bout big's my thumb,
All gone at the heel an' toe.
That makes me poor old heart-strings thrum,
To the tune of "Long ago!"

2.
It's the shoe of a little baby boy,
Who was two or three worlds to me.
He come and he went, and took all the joy
That ever I reckon to see.
The mother that bore him went along,
And it broke my heart in two.
Some times I hear her lulaby song
When I'm holdin' that little shoe.

3.
And I hear the patter of wee, small feet,
That fitted it when it was new,
But all that's left is the mem'ry sweet
And the little worn out shoe.
Thar ain't no poetry much in this,
But I think I've got the clue
To a road that leads in a mite of bliss,
If I follow this baby shoe.