Mother Truth's Melodies. Common Sense For Children. A Kindergarten — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Mother Truth's Melodies. Common Sense For Children. A Kindergarten
John Stuart Mill · en
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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_NANNY'S PLAY._
Our Nanny helped her mother
In many a childish way,--
She picked up chips to feed the fire,
And "played that it was play."
She loved the hens and chickens
And fed them day by day,
And dubbed them each with quaintest name,
And this was always play.
She hunted through the big barn
For hens' nests in the hay,
And fetched the eggs right carefully,
And this again was play.
She donned her mother's dust-cap
And danced about so gay,
And planned how she would house-keep,
And this was "truly play."
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With basin full of water
She scrubbed the door one day,
And splashed about till mother dear
Must work instead of play.
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With brush and broom a-sweeping
She fluttered like a fay;
The broken cup soon told her
'Twas anything but play.
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She romped around the hay-field
And shook the new-mown hay,
And with her baby-rake she gleaned
The meadow for her play.
She ran to pick the berries
That ripened by the way,
And with her basket full to brim
This was the best of play.
So many things, so many,
Far more than I can say,
Our Nanny in her childhood
Has "played that it was play."
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_NANNY'S LESSONS._
Our Nanny was but four years old
When mother said, "My love,
Your needle learn with skill to use,
It will a blessing prove."
So Nanny learned to "overhand,"
And "hem" so fine and neat,
To "backstitch," "run," and many a join
That she could scarce repeat.
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She learned to "catch-stitch" and to "cross,"
To "patch" and "darn," as well,
To "gather," "plait," "box-plait" and "side,"
To "feather-stitch" and "fell."
She sewed the buttons fast, and "worked
The buttonholes" so neat,
That many an eld accomplishes
With less success, the feat.
"Be sure your thread is smooth and strong,
A goodly knot or two,
A double stitch for first, and then
A fastening sure when through;
"And thus your seams will never rip,
Your sewing never wear,--
Like buttons loose and hooks awry,--
A slip-shod, shiftless air."
All this and more her mother taught,
And Nanny conned it o'er
Till she was versed in all the arts
That point the seamster's lore.
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