First the teacher called the roll,
 Clos't to the beginnin',
“Addeliney Bowersox!”
 Set the school a-grinnin'.
Winter-time, and stingin' cold
 When the session took up—
Cold as we all looked at her ,
 Though she couldn't look up!

Total stranger to us, too—
 Country folks ain't allus
Nigh so shameful unpolite
 As some people call us!—
But the honest facts is, then ,
 Addeliney Bower-
Sox's feelin's was so hurt
 She cried half an hour!

My dest was acrost from hern:
 Set and watched her tryin'
To p'tend she didn't keer,
 And a kind o' dryin'
Up her tears with smiles—tel I
 Thought, “Well, ‘Addeliney
Bowersox’ is plain, but she's
 Purty as a piney!”

…

It's be'n many of a year
 Sence that most oncommon
Cur'ous name o' Bowersox
 Struck me so abomin-
Nubble and outlandish-like!—
 I changed it to Adde-
Liney Daubenspeck —and that
 Nearly killed her Daddy!