The Sugar Plum Tree
By Eugene Field
Have
you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?
‘Tis a marvel of
great renown!
It blooms on the
shore of the Lollypop Sea
In the garden of
Shut-Eye town;
The Fruit that
it bears is so wondrously sweet,
(As those who
have tasted it say),
That good little
children have only to eat
Of that fruit to
be happy next day.
When
you get to the tree, you would have a hard time To capture
the fruit which I sing; The tree is
so tall that no person can climb To the
boughs where the sugar-plums swing; But up it
that tree sits a chocolate cat, And a
gingerbread dog prowls below, And this is
the way you contrive to get at Those
sugar-plums tempting you so:
You
say but the word to that gingerbread dog,
And he barks
with such terrible zest
That the chocolate
cat is at once all agog,
As her swelling
proportions attest.
And the
chocolate cat goes cavorting around
From this leafy
limb unto that,
And the
sugar-plums tumble, of course to the ground.
Hurrah for
that chocolate cat!
There
are marshmallows, gumdrops and peppermint canes, With
stripings of scarlet and gold, And you
carry away of that treasure that rains As much as
your apron can hold! So come,
little child, cuddle closer to me In your
dainty white nightcap and gown, And I’ll
rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree In the
garden of Shut-Eye Town.