ONLY SEVEN
by
Lilian Grey (1918)

Becos I’m only seven, Jimmy Jones wot lives next door,
He isn’t ’alf a swanker ’cos he’s lived a few years more;
He says that I’m a baby just ’cos once he saw me cry,
I couldn’t help it, could I, if the soap got in my eye?
Of course I know he’s quite growed up, but wait till I’m eleven.
I’ll teach him not to bully little boys wot’s only seven.

Aunt Susie says I’m troublesome and noisy in the house.
Does she suppose a chap of seven can sit still like a mouse?
Of course I have to run about and shout like other boys;
You can’t play “shooting Germans without a bit of noise.
And when my bedtime comes, I’ve heard Aunt Susie say “Thank Heav’n!”
I do fink grow’d-up folks is mean to little boys wot’s seven.

My farver says “Hello, old chap, my word, you’re growing tall,
I think you’ll be a man before your muvver after all.”
And when I do my lessons, then he says he wishes he
Was going back to school again and learning fings like me.
Do you believe that’s true? I don’t; he sits up past eleven,
And I’ve to go to bed at six, becos I’m only seven.

But muvver says she finks that seven’s the nicest age to be,
And wishes she could grow again a little one like me,
And when she comes to tuck me in and kisses me goodnight,
She says a little pray’r wiv me before she takes the light,
And then she says the nicest fings that ever came from Heav’n
Is little boys and girls like me, wot’s only just turned seven.