LILEY-YOUNG.
CHUMS
We're chums, and we love it---dear father and I!
He's tall and grown-up, of course--ever so high!
But _you_ don't mind that, though you're little as me;
He always stoops down, or you sit on his knee
When you're chums.
We go for long walks--he says, "Now for a hike!"--
With beautiful talks about things that I like;
Some folks do not care about beetles and toads
And little green snakes that you find in the roads,
But we're chums.
Sometimes mother gets into trouble with me;
She tells him about it, and he says, "I see!"
His arm gets around me, and pretty soon, then,
I'm telling him I'll never do it again,
'Cause we're chums.
We tell all our secrets, and when things go bad
And worry-lines come in his face, I look glad
And get him a-laughing, and smooth them away.
He says, "Little Partner, it's your turn today!"
So we're chums.
A TOUCH OF NATURE
A little maid upon my knee
Sighs wearily, sighs wearily;
"I'm tired out of dressin' dolls,
And havin' stories read," says she.
"There _is_ a book, if I could see,
I should be happy, _puffickly_!
My mamma keeps it on a shelf--
'But _that_ you cannot have,' says she!"
"But here's your Old Man of the Sea,
And Jack the Giant!" (Lovingly
I tried the little maid to soothe.)
"The _interestin'_ one," says she,
"Is that high-up one!--seems to me
The fings you want just has to be
Somethin' you hasn't got; and _that's_
The interestin' one!" says she.
A LESSON IN NATURAL HISTORY
"Now who can tell," the teacher said,
"Who the five members be
(The one who knows may go to the head)
Of the cat family?"
"I guess I know as much as that,"
Cried the youngest child in glee;
"The father cat and the mother cat,
And the baby kittens three!"
PICTURE-BOOK TIME
Whenever the rain-drops come pattering down,
And the garden's too dripping for play,
Whenever poor nursie's determined to frown,
Or mother dear's just gone away,
Then up to the nursery book-shelves we climb,
For trouble time's always a picture-book time!
When some one's been naughty, and some one is sad,
When the new walking bear will not go,
When the kitten is lost or the puppy is bad,
When Mary hates learning to sew,
Then up to the nursery book-shelves we climb,
For trouble time's always a picture-book time!
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