The Hapless Child - Michael Mantler

There was once a little girl named Charlotte Sophia

Her parents were kind and well-to-do

She had a doll whom she called Hortense

One day her father, a colonel in the army, was ordered to Africa

Several months later he was reported killed in a native uprising

Her mother fell into a decline that proved fatal

Her only other relative, an uncle, was brained by a piece of masonry

Charlotte Sophia was left in the hands of the family lawyer

He at once put her into a boarding-school

There she was punished by the teachers for things she hadn’t done

Hortense was torn limb from limb by the other pupils

During the day Charlotte Sophia hid as much as possible

At night she lay awake weeping and weeping

When she could bear it no longer she fled from the school at dawn

She soon lost consciousness and sank to the pavement

A man came and took the locket with her parents' pictures inside

Another man came from the opposite direction and carried her off

He brought her to a low place

He sold her to a drunken brute

Charlotte Sophia was put to work making artificial flowers

She lived on scraps and tap-water

From time to time the brute got the horrors

Charlotte Sophia’s eyesight began to fail rapidly

Meanwhile, her father, who was not dead after all, returned home

Every day, he motored through the streets searching for her

At last the brute went off his head

Charlotte Sophia, now almost blind, ran into the street

She as at once struck down by a car

Her father got out to look at the dying child

She was so changed, he did not recognize her