Father calls me William, sister calls me Will,
Mother calls me Willie, but the fellers call me Bill!

(Eugene Field (1850-1895), U.S. poet, humorist. Jest 'fore Christmas (l. 29-36). . . One Hundred and One Famous Poems. Roy J. Cook, comp. (Rev. ed., 1958) Reilly & Lee Company; reprinted 1981 by Contemporary Books.)

The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;

(Eugene Field (1850-1895), U.S. poet, humorist. The Duel (l. 1-2). . . Oxford Book of American Light Verse, The. William Harmon, ed. (1979) Oxford University Press.)

They found no trace of dog or cat;
And some folks think unto this day
That burglars stole that pair away!
But the truth about the cat and pup
Is this: they ate each other up!
Now what do you really think of that!
The old Dutch clock it told me so,
And that is how I came to know.)

(Eugene Field (1850-1895), U.S. poet, humorist. The Duel (l. 29-36). . . Oxford Book of American Light Verse, The. William Harmon, ed. (1979) Oxford University Press.)

Love to chawnk green apples an' go swimmin' in the
lake.?
Hate to take the castor-ile they give for belly-ache!
'Most all the time, the whole year round, there ain't no flies on
me,
But jest 'fore Christmas I'm as good as I kin be!

(Eugene Field (1850-1895), U.S. poet, humorist. Jest 'fore Christmas (l. 5-8). . . One Hundred and One Famous Poems. Roy J. Cook, comp. (Rev. ed., 1958) Reilly & Lee Company; reprinted 1981 by Contemporary Books.)

Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace.

(Eugene Field (1850-1895), U.S. author, critic. Quoted in Alexander Woollcott, "Capsule Criticism," The Portable Woollcott (1946). Writing for the Denver Post, Field was referring to Creston Clarke's performance of King Lear in Denver, c. 1880.)

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe?
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.

(Eugene Field (1850-1895), U.S. poet, humorist. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (l. 1-4). . . Oxford Book of American Light Verse, The. William Harmon, ed. (1979) Oxford University Press.)

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
Is a wee one's trundle-bed.

(Eugene Field (1850-1895), U.S. poet, humorist. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (l. 37-40). . . Oxford Book of American Light Verse, The. William Harmon, ed. (1979) Oxford University Press.)

Say "Yessum" to the ladies, an' "Yessur" to the men,
And when they's company, don't pass yer plate for pie again;
But, thinkin' of the things yer'd like to see upon that tree,
Jes 'fore Christmas be as good as yer kin be!

(Eugene Field (1850-1895), U.S. poet, humorist. Jest 'fore Christmas (l. 37-40). . . One Hundred and One Famous Poems. Roy J. Cook, comp. (Rev. ed., 1958) Reilly & Lee Company; reprinted 1981 by Contemporary Books.)

The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stanch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And the musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.

(Eugene Field (1850-1895), U.S. poet, humorist. Little Boy Blue (l. 1-8). . . Oxford Book of American Light Verse, The. William Harmon, ed. (1979) Oxford University Press.)

And they wonder, as waiting the long years through
In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
Since he kissed them and put them there.

(Eugene Field (1850-1895), U.S. poet, humorist. Little Boy Blue (l. 21-24). . . Oxford Book of American Light Verse, The. William Harmon, ed. (1979) Oxford University Press.)