Classic Poem

I met by chance, as I traveled,
My Darling's whole family,
Small sister, and father, and mother,
And gladly they greeted me.

They asked how I was most kindly,
And said, ere I told my tale:
I was not the least bit altered,
Except that my face was pale.

I asked after aunts and cousins,
And many a bore of mark,
And after the little puppy
With his wheezy little bark.

Then after my married Sweetheart
I asked with polite sangfroid ,
They beamed on me with the answer
That she was then in the straw.

With cordial congratulations
I begged them, stammeringly,
To greet her with heartiest good wishes
A thousand times from me.

Then out burst the little sister:
" That small fat puppy of mine
Grew big, went mad, got so horrid,
We drowned him in the Rhine. "

The young one is like her sister,
In laughing especially;
She has the self-same eyes too
That wrought me such misery.