Dirty Jim Yet there it was content to bloom, And there diffused a sweet perfume, Then let me to the valley go, In sweet humility. 107 Jane Taylor [1783-1824] DIRTY JIM THERE was one little Jim, 'Tis reported of him, And must be to his lasting disgrace, That he never was seen With hands at all clean, Nor yet ever clean was his face. His friends were much hurt To see so much dirt, And often they made him quite clean; But all was in vain, He got dirty again, And not at all fit to be seen. It gave him no pain To hear them complain, Nor his own dirty clothes to survey; His indolent mind No pleasure could find In tidy and wholesome array. The idle and bad, Like this little lad, May love dirty ways, to be sure; But good boys are seen, To be decent and clean, Although they are ever so poor. Jane Taylor [1783-1824] THE PIN "DEAR me! what signifies a pin, So onward tripped the little maid, To its hard fate resigned; Nor did she think (a careless chit) 'Twas worth her while to stoop for it. Next day a party was to ride, To see an air balloon; And all the company beside Were dressed and ready soon; But she a woeful case was in, For want of just a single pin. In vain her eager eyes she brings, There was not one, and yet her things Were dropping off her back. She cut her pincushion in two, But no, not one had fallen through. At last, as hunting on the floor, The carriage rattled to the door, But poor Eliza was not in, For want of just a single pin! There's hardly anything so small, Jane and Eliza And wilful waste, depend upon't, Brings, almost always, woeful want! 109: Ann Taylor [1782-1866] JANE AND ELIZA THERE were two little girls, neither handsome nor plain, They were both of one height, as I've heard people say, 'Twas fancied by some, who but slightly had seen them, There was not a pin to be chosen between them; But no one for long in this notion persisted, So great a distinction there really existed. Eliza knew well that she could not be pleasing, While fretting and fuming, while sulking or teasing; Not to break her bad habits, but only to hide. 1 So, when she was out, with much labor and pain, And in spite of her care it would sometimes befall And because it might chance that her share was the worst, But Jane, who had nothing she wanted to hide, But her face always showed what her bosom was feeling. At home or abroad there was peace in her smile, Ann Taylor [1782-1866] MEDDLESOME MATTY ONE ugly trick has often spoiled Which, like a cloud before the skies, Sometimes she'd lift the tea-pot lid, To peep at what was in it; Her grandmamma went out one day, Her spectacles and snuff-box gay Too near the little maid; "Ah! well," thought she, "I'll try them on, As soon as grandmamma is gone." Forthwith she placed upon her nose The glasses large and wide; "I know that grandmamma would say, So thumb and finger went to work The mighty mischief did; Contented John For all at once, ah! woeful case, The snuff came puffing in her face. Poor eyes, and nose, and mouth, beside, In vain, as bitterly she cried, Her folly she repented. In vain she ran about for ease; She could do nothing now but sneeze. # She dashed the spectacles away, To wipe her tingling eyes, And as in twenty bits they lay, Her grandmamma she spies. "Heydey! and what's the matter now?" Matilda, smarting with the pain, And 'tis a fact, as I have heard, .' Ann Taylor [1782-1866] CONTENTED JOHN ONE honest John Tomkins, a hedger and ditcher, Though cold were the weather, or dear were the food, "For why should I grumble and murmur?" he said; |