The Dinner-pot
The homeliest things are highest worth,
The dinner-pot's a treasure
Compared with diamonds, chains and rings,
Which serve alone for pleasure;--
Enwreathe the dinner-pot with flame,
And fill it with love's mixings,
And it possesses charms beyond
All gold or fancy fixings.
And then, our bony frame-work, too,
So stiff and hard and homely,
Will serve when plumpness all is gone,
And lost is all that's comely.
Fling beauty, grace and sweetness round,
Festoon your lives with flowers,
But ne'er forget that plainest things
Are life's most precious dowers.
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Somebody's Boy
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In the spring when the grass Had sprung up in the pass, And the meadows with velvet were green, We children would tease, "O, dear mother, please Let us doff shoes and stockings, (Ah! naught gave us shockings), ... The Dinner-pot
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Now Susy's such a naughty dirl, And I ain't any better, And so we thought we just would wite The dear dood Dod a letter. And tell him all about our bad, Betause he'd have to know, Or else he touldn't mate us dood, And... The Little Housewife
This little girl knows how to make A batch of bread, or loaf of cake; She helps to cook potatoes, beets, To boil or bake the fish and meats. She knows to sweep and make a bed, Can hem a handkerchief for Ned; In short, a little hou... The Little Street-sweeper
Look at that little girl sweeping the crossing; See how the mud her bare legs is embossing! And her feet are so slippered with mud, that it seems As though from the ground she grew up 'mongst the teams; And why she's not run over surely... The Mammoth Cave
"WHAT is the Mammoth Cave?" I hear the Children say, Where fishes have no eyes nor sight, And where 'tis dark by day? You all have seen a ledge Of big rocks piled, or stone?-- Now just suppose a door-way made, Or entr... The Meadow Quails
Over in the meadow where the men make hay, In an elm-tree shadow on a bright summer day, Two speckled quails ponder as to what will be best, Should the stout mower blunder on their pretty home-nest. But a cloud in a minute from her gr... The Mocking-bird
The New World boasts the Mocking-bird And whether caged or free, His wondrous voice pours forth in songs Of rarest melody. His notes swell out and die away, As if a joyous soul Were wrought to highest ecstacy, All mus... The New Book
COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO, A picture-book for you,-- Keep it nice, and in a trice Sing Cock-a-doodle-doo. ... The New White Jattet
I never seen such naughty dirls As Susy Jones and Ellen; They laughed, O desht as hard's they tould When I twipped up and fell in The old toal-hole. And see, mamma, I tore my new white jattet; And when I twied, they laughed ... The Oxen
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"Phoe-be, phoe-be," why, 'tis a little bird, "Phoe-be, phoe-be," singing the pretty word; "Phoe-be, phoe-be," brown feathers cover him, Gray breast, with blackish stripes scattered all over him. "Phoe-be, phoe-be," here comes his litt...