The April Fool

By Annie Malin

I jumped out from behind the door
One day, just after school,
To scare my sister Margaret,
An’ called out “April Fool.”
But Margaret can’t take a joke
And mentioned “Golden Rule,”
An’ said the one who tried the game
Was really “April Fool.”

I called out to my brother Dick
To hurry out to see
A hundred thousand little cats
All hangin’ in a tree.
An’ when he looked around, he laughed
An’ said, “You’re ‘April Fool,’
For pussy willows are not cats,”
Then hurried off to school.

An’ then my cousin Eleanor,
Who doesn’t go to school,
Said “Look behind you, Walter dear,
An’ see an ‘April Fool.’”
An’ when I turned an’ looked behind
The “April Fool” to see –
Right in the great big lookin’ glass
Was no one, ’ceptin’ me.

Well, I don’t think that it is fair
For all the older folks
to make out that the younger ones
Don’t know about the jokes.
An’ when I’m bigger, big as Dick
An’ goin’ to High School,
I bet I’ll fool somebody then,
An’ not be ‘April Fool.”

(1918)