A Mistake.

"MY dears, whatever are you at?
    You ought to be at home;
I told you not to wet your feet -
    I told you not to roam.

"Oh, dear! I'm sure you will be drowned!
    I never saw such tricks
Come home at once, and go to bed,
    You naughty naughty chicks."

Now most of them were five days old,
    But one, whose age was six -
"Please, ma'am," said he, "I think we're ducks;
    I don't believe we're chicks!"

Lizzie Lawson

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Lizzie Lawson

Hopes And Fears.

Lizzie Lawson, Simple Poetry

A Slander.

Lizzie Lawson, Simple Poetry

Nearly Bedtime.

Lizzie Lawson, Simple Poetry

The Little He And She.

Lizzie Lawson, Simple Poetry

English

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Bedtime.

"It's bedtime, bedtime, Cissy dear,
    It's time to put away,
Your little Noah's ark dear
    Until another day,
You know it isn't right at all
    To tire yourself with play.

And they too must be tired dear,
    The elephants want to go
To bed, - if they're much later,
    They'll all be ill I know,
And every well bred camel,
    Is in bed long ago.

And surely you can see dear,
    It really isn't right,
The little dove's so tired dear,
    She scarce can stand upright.
It does not do to keep them up
    So very late at night."

Lizzie Lawson

To Mystery Land.

Oh, dear, how will it end?
Peggy and Susie how naughty you are.
You little know where you are,
Going so far, and so high,
Nearly up to the sky.
Perhaps it's a Giant who lives there,
And perhaps it's a lovely Princess.
But you very well know
You've no business to go;
You'll get yourselves into a mess.

Oh, dear, I'm sure it is true;
Whatever on earth can it matter to you?
For you know it--oh, fie--
That it's naughty to pry
Into other's affairs--
Into other folks houses to go,
Where you know
You're not asked.
So you'd better come back
While there's time, it is plain.
Go home--and be never
So naughty again.

Kate Greenaway

The Yellow Fly.

A TALE WITH A STING IN IT.

Ah!
There you are!
I was certain I heard a strange voice from afar.
Mamma calls me a pup, but I'm wiser than she;
One ear cocked and I hear, half an eye and I see;
Wide-awake though I doze, not a thing escapes me.

Yes!
Let me guess:
It's the stable-boy's hiss as he wisps down Black Bess.
It sounds like a kettle beginning to sing,
Or a bee on a pane, or a moth on the wing,
Or my master's peg-top, just let loose from the string.

Well!
Now I smell,
I don't know who you are, and I'm puzzled to tell.
You look like a fly dressed in very gay clothes,
But I blush to have troubled my mid-day repose
For a creature not worth half a twitch of my nose.

How now?
Bow, wow, wow!
The insect imagines we...

Juliana Horatia Ewing

Puss In The Corner.

"You are a naughty pussy-cat,
I think it right to mention that,
To all who see your picture here,
'Twas you who broke my Bunny dear.

An hour ago, as you can tell,
I left him here, alive and well;
And now he's dead and, what is more,
You've broke his leg I'm pretty sure.

For you my puss I'll never care,
No never, never, never, there,
And you are in disgrace you know,
And in the corner you must go.

What crying? Then I must cry too
And I can't bear to punish you;
Perhaps my Bunny isn't dead,
Perhaps you've only stunned his head.

And though I'm sure you broke his leg,
It may be mended with a peg,
And though he's very, very, funny,
My Bunny's not a real Bunny,
And I'll forgive and tell you that,
...

Lizzie Lawson

Papa Poodle.

Can any one look so wise, and have so little in his head?
How long will it be, Papa Poodle, before you have learned to read?
You were called Papa Poodle because you took care of me when I was a baby:
And now I can read words of three syllables, and you sit with a book before you like a regular gaby.
You've not read a word since I put you in that corner ten minutes ago;
Bill and I've fought the battle of Waterloo since dinner, and you've not learned BA BE BI BO.
Here am I doing the whole British Army by myself, for Bill is obliged to be the French;
And I've come away to hear you say your lesson, and left Bill waiting for me in the trench.
And there you sit, with a curly white wig, like the Lord Chief Justice, and as grave a face,
Looking the very picture of goodness and wisdom, when you're reall...

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Letter VII. The Tame Duck's Reply. (The Bird And Insects' Post-Office.)

COUSIN WILDING,

I confess I did not at all expect to hear from you; for I always believed you to be one of those thoughtless young creatures which are to be found in other stations of life as well as in yours and mine, who, as soon as they get fledged and able to get abroad, care no more for their parents and those who brought them up than I care for a shower of rain. However, you have escaped danger twice, and you have reason to congratulate yourself. I have been sitting here upon ten eggs for three weeks past, and of course have another week to be confined; but then the thoughts of the pleasure I shall have in hatching and guiding my young ones to the water, is ample payment for all my pains. They will look so clean and so delighted, and will do as they are bid by the smallest quack that I can utter, that I must be a b...

Robert Bloomfield