BLESSINGS on thee, little man,
Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!
With thy turned-up pantaloons,
And thy merry whistled tunes;
With thy red lip, redder still
Kissed by strawberries on the hill;
With the sunshine on thy face,
Through thy torn brim’s jaunty grace;
From my heart I give thee joy,—
I was once a barefoot boy!...
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I Love it, I love it! and who shall dare
To chide me for loving that old arm-chair?
I ’ve treasured it long as a sainted prize,
I ’ve bedewed it with tears, I ’ve embalmed it with sighs.
’T is bound by a thousand bands to my heart;
Not a tie will break, not a link will start;
Would you know the spell?—a mother sat there!
And a sacred... -
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
...
Sailed off in a wooden shoe—
Sailed on a river of misty light
Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring-fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we,” -
I Thought it was the little bed
I slept in long ago;
A straight white curtain at the head,
And two smooth knobs below.I thought I saw the nursery fire,
And in a chair well-known
My mother sat, and did not tire
With reading all alone.If I should make the slightest sound
To show that I ’m awake,
She ’... -
When I was sick and lay a-bed,
I had two pillows at my head,
And all my toys beside me lay
To keep me happy all the day.And sometimes for an hour or so
I watched my leaden soldiers go,
With different uniforms and drills,
Among the bed-clothes, through the hills;And sometimes sent my ships in fleets
All up and down... -
A Fair little girl sat under a tree
Sewing as long as her eyes could see;
Then smoothed her work and folded it right,
And said, “Dear work, good night, good night!”Such a number of rooks came over her head,
Crying, “Caw, caw!” on their way to bed,
She said, as she watched their curious flight,
“Little black things, good night, good... -
Dear Lord, let me recount to Thee
Some of the great things thou hast done
For me, even me
Thy little one.It was not I that cared for Thee,—
But Thou didst set Thy heart upon
Me, even me
Thy little one.And therefore was it sweet to Thee
To leave Thy Majesty and Throne,
And grow like me... -
All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad,
The sheep with their little lambs
Passed me by on the road.The sheep with their little lambs
Passed me by on the road;
All in the April evening
I thought on the Lamb of God.The lambs were weary, and crying
With a weak, human cry.
I thought on the... -
LITTLE Ellie sits alone
Mid the beeches of a meadow,
By a stream-side on the grass,
And the trees are showering down
Doubles of their leaves in shadow,
On her shining hair and face.She has thrown her bonnet by,
And her feet she has been dipping
In the shallow water’s flow.
Now she holds them nakedly... -
We built a ship upon the stairs
All made of the back-bedroom chairs,
And filled it full of sofa pillows
To go a-sailing on the billows.We took a saw and several nails,
And water in the nursery pails;
And Tom said, “Let us also take
An apple and a slice of cake;”—
Which was enough for Tom and me
To go a-sailing on, till...