A RAINY DAY PLAN

The world's wet and stormy,
The wind's in a rage.
We are shut in the house
Like poor birds in a cage.
There's a sigh in the chimney,
A roar on the wall.
Good-by to "I Spy"
And to swinging and all!
But the child that complains
Cannot better the day,
So the harder it rains,
Why, the harder we'll play!

There are tears on the window
And sighs in the trees,
But who's going to fret
Over matters like these?
If the sky's got to cry,
Then it's better by half
That the longer it weeps,
Why, the louder we'll laugh!
And look! I declare,
There's the sun coming out
To see what on earth
All the fun is about!

NANCY BYRD TURNER.

THE BIRTHDAY ONES

I am the birthday baby,
And this is the birthday horse.
They gave him to me because I was three
And knew how to drive, of course.
He's trotted and walked and galloped,
And traveled the whole birthday;
He's carried a load up the hilly road,
And once he has run away.

I've fed him high in the stable,
I've watered him at the trough,
I've curried him down to a glossy brown,
And taken his harness off.
Now we are resting a little,
Because there has got to be
A long, stiff run before we're done,
For the birthday horse and me!

NANCY BYRD TURNER.

A DUTCH WISH

The little Dutch children,
With little Dutch shoes,
Go clitter-clatter
Wherever they choose.

But we must move lightly,
In slippers, at that,
And walk on our tip-toes,
And go like a cat.

But, oh, noise is lovely!
We wish very much
That we were Dutch children
With shoes that were Dutch.

[Illustration: The Dutch Wish]

A SIGN OF SPRING

The blue-bird is a-wing;
he has heard the call of spring;
And a dozen times this morning
I have heard a robin sing;
But I know a sign that's surer,
and I see the twinkling feet
Of a score of little children
at the corner of the street.

The crocus-bed's abloom;
in the shadow of my room
Glows a vase of golden jonquils
like a star amid the gloom;
But the sign that's sure and certain
is the children's merry feet
Dancing round the organ-grinder
at the corner of the street.

Song of bird or hum of bee,
there's no sign of spring for me
Like the jolly little dancers
and the frolic m