Book-Manners
If you scribble on your books,
How disgustable it looks!
Here a word, and there a scrawl,
Silly pictures over all!
Take a paper, or a slate,
If you want to decorate!
Poor Mother!
Oh! Isn’t it shocking!
Just look at your stocking!
Just look at your brand new boots!
Your waist is all torn
And your trousers are worn—
Just look at the holes in your suits!
Your father is working
All day, without shirking,
To pay for the clothes that you wear;
Your mother is mending
All day, and attending
To you, with the kindest of care.
And so, while you’re playing,
Think of father, who’s paying,
And mother, who’s working so hard;
While you kneel on your knees,
Or climb up the trees,
Or make your mud pies in the yard!