Pretending Not To See

Sometimes at the table, when He gets misbehavin', then Mother calls across to me: 'Look at him, now! Don't you see What he's doin', sprawlin.' there! Make him sit up in his chair. Don't you see the messy way That he's eating?' An' I say: 'No. He seems all right just now. What's he doing anyhow?' Mother placed him there by me, An' she thinks I ought to see Every time he breaks the laws An' correct him, just because There will come a time some day When he mustn't act that way. But I can't be all along Scoldin' him for doin' wrong. So if something goes astray, I jus' look the other way. Mother tells me now an' then I'm the easiest o' men, An' in dealin' with the lad I will never see the bad That he does, an' I suppose Mother's right for Mother knows; But I'd hate to feel that I'm Here to scold him all the time. Little faults might spoil the day, So I look the other way. Look the other way an' try Not to let him catch my eye, Knowin' all the time that he Doesn't mean so bad to be; Knowin', too, that now an' then I am not the best o' men; Hopin', too, the times I fall That the Father of us all, Lovin', watchin' over me, Will pretend He doesn't see.