April 5, 1856

5 April 1856

FRESH FERN LEAVES.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by R. BONNER, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

SOLILOQUY OF OVERGROWN FIFTEEN.

I sprang up, like Jonah's gourd, in a night; I am as tall as a bean stalk and as green; I am thick where I ought to be thin, and thin where I should be thick; I am too big to drive hoop, and not old enough to wear one; too tall to let my hair loose on my shoulders, and not old enough to twist it up with a comb; I am too large to wear an apron, and I can't keep my dress clean without one; I have out-grown tucks, and am not allowed to wear flounces; I have to pay full price in the omnibusses, and yet gentlemen, because of my baby-face, never pull the strap for me; I have lost my relish for "Mother Goose, and am not allowed to read love stories; old men have done giving me sugar plums, and young men have not begun to give me "kisses;" I have done with gingerbread hearts, and nobody offers me the other sort; I have given up playing with "doll-babies," and am forbidden to think of a husband; if I ask my mother for a "dress hat," she says, "Pshaw! you are nothing but a child;" if I run or jump in the street, she says, "My dear, you should remember that you are a young lady now." I say it's real mean; so there now, and I don't care.

Source Text:

Fanny Fern, "Soliloquy Of Overgrown Fifteen," The New-York Ledger (5 April 1856): 4

To cite this project:

Fanny Fern, "Soliloquy Of Overgrown Fifteen," Fanny Fern in The New York Ledger, Ed. Kevin McMullen (2018) http://fannyfern.org.