One day Mamma said 'Conrad dear, <br />I must go out and leave you here. <br />But mind now, Conrad, what I say, <br />Don't suck your thumb while I'm away. <br />The great tall tailor always comes <br />To little boys who suck their thumbs; <br />And ere they dream what he's about, <br />He takes his great sharp scissors out, <br />And cuts their thumbs clean off—and then, <br />You know, they never grow again.' <br /> <br />Mamma had scarcely turned her back, <br />The thumb was in, Alack! Alack! <br /> <br />The door flew open, in he ran, <br />The great, long, red-legged scissor-man. <br />Oh! children, see! the tailor's come <br />And caught out little Suck-a-Thumb. <br />Snip! Snap! Snip! the scissors go; <br />And Conrad cries out 'Oh! Oh! Oh!' <br />Snip! Snap! Snip! They go so fast, <br />That both his thumbs are off at last. <br /> <br />Mamma comes home: there Conrad stands, <br />And looks quite sad, and shows his hands; <br />'Ah!' said Mamma, 'I knew he'd come <br />To naughty little Suck-a-Thumb.'<br /><br />Heinrich Hoffmann<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-story-of-little-suck-a-thumb/
