A Jolly Jingle-Book

Excerpt

A JOLLY BOOK

How can they put in black and white
What little children think at night,
When lights are out and prayers are said,
And you are all tucked up in bed?

Such funny dreams go dancing through
Your head, of things nobody knew,
Or saw, or ever half believes!—
They're all inside these singing leaves.

And little children laugh and go
A-ring-a-round-a-rosy-O;
And birds sing gay—you'd almost think
You listened to a bobolink.

Look at the pictures, one by one!
The rhymes are only half the fun.
It laughs and bubbles like a brook—
My pretty, jolly jingle-book!

A little red man in a little red house
With gates of ivory!
He might stay there, as still as a mouse,
And nobody could see;
But talk he will, and laugh he will,
At everything you do;
And come to the door and peep, until
I know his name—don't you?

KISSES

"Here's a kiss for every year,
And here is one to grow on!"
Father says and mother says
And auntie says, and so on.

"Here's a pat and there's a pat!"
If growing comes of kisses,
I know how one girl found a way
To grow as big as this is!

Boohoo, boohoo, boohoo, boohoo!
My mother says I can't take Sue
And Grace and Maud and Clarabel
And Ruth and Beth and sweet Estelle,
Unless I pack them with our things.
Oh dear! oh dear! my heart it wrings
To put them in that hot, dark place,
With paper wrapped around each face.
I'm sure they all would suffocate
Or meet some other dreadful fate.
I'd gladly take them on my arm
And keep them safe from every harm,
But mother says that that won't do;
She draws the line at more than two.
I'd like to know what she would say
To sending me packed in a tray.

REBECCA DEMING MOORE.

THE QUARREL

The Wooden Dog and the China Cat
Face to face in the doll-house sat,
And they picked a quarrel that grew and grew,
Because they had nothing else to do.
Said the dog, "I really would like to hear
Why you never stir nor frisk nor purr,
But sit like a mummy there."

Up spoke in a temper the china puss,
Glad of an opening for a fuss:
"Dear Mr. Puppy, I can't recall
That I ever heard you bark at all.
Your bark is a wooden bark, 'tis true,
But as to that," said the China Cat,
"My mew is a china mew."

So they bristled and quarreled, more and more,
Till the baby came creeping across the floor.
He took the cat by his whiskers frail,
He grasped the dog by his wooden tail,
And banged them together—and after that
Left them, a wiser Wooden Dog
And a sadder China Cat.

Now, children, just between you and me,
Don't you think in the future they will agree?

NANCY BYRD TURNER.

When Willie comes to visit me
We play menagerie.
He says, "Pretend that you're a lamb,
And I'll a lion be."
Then he begins to growl and roar
And make a dreadful noise.
I don't mind much when he goes home;
It's hard to play with boys.

When Julia comes to visit me
I am her waiting maid,
While she's a lady, grand and stern.
Of her I'm 'most afraid.
She sends me for my mother's hat,
Then takes her nicest skirt,
And trails it all around the house
Until it's full of dirt....