1.A fair little girl sat under a tree,Sewing as long as her eyes could seeThen smoothed her work,and folded it right,And said,“Dear work,good night!good night!”
2.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 night!”
3.The horses neighed,and the oxen lowed;The sheep‘s “Bleat!bleat!”came over the road;All seeming to say with a quiet delight,“Dear little girl,good night!good night!”
4.She did not say to the sun,“Good night!”Though she saw him there,like a ball of light;For she knew he had God’s time to keep All over the world,and never could sleep.
5.The tall pink fox-glove bent his head;The violets bowed and went to bed;And good little Lucy tied up her hair,And said,on her knees,her favourite prayer.
6.And while on her pillow she softly lay,She knew nothing more till again it was day;And all things said to the beautiful sun,“Good morning!good morning!our work isbegun!”
THE TWO LITTLE KITTENS
1.Two little kittens,one stormy night,Began to quarrel,and then to fight;One had a mouse,the other had none,And that was the way the strife had begun.
2.“I‘ll have the mouse,”said the bigger cat.“You’ll have the mouse!we‘ll see about that.”“I will have that mouse,”said the elder one;“You shan’t have that mouse,”said thelittle one.
3.I told you before ‘twas a stormy night When these two kittens began to fight.The old woman seized her sweeping-broom,And swept the two kittens out of the room.
4.The ground was covered with frost and snow,And the two little kittens had nowhere to go;So they laid them down on a mat at the door,While the old woman finished sweeping the floor.
5.Then they crept in as quiet as mice,All wet with snow and as cold as ice;For they thought ’twould be better that stormy nightTo lie down and sleep than to quarrel and fight.