If no one ever marries me

William Mouat Loudan’s painting of a little girl gazing in a mirror was inspired by this charming 1897 poem by English novelist Laurence Alma-Tadema.

If no one ever marries me, –
And I don’t see why they should,
For nurse says I’m not pretty,
And I’m seldom very good –

If no one ever marries me
I shan’t mind very much;
I shall buy a squirrel in a cage,
And a little rabbit-hutch;

I shall have a cottage near a wood,
And a pony all my own,
And a little lamb quite clean and tame,
That I can take to town;

And when I’m getting really old, –
At twenty-eight or nine –
I shall buy a little orphan-girl
And bring her up as mine.