if no one ever marries me

If no-one ever marries me--
    And I don't see why they should,
For nurse says I am 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.

-Laurence Alma-Tadema, 1897-
song by Nathalie Merchant