Вещи, о которых мало кто имеет верное представление

Впрочем, что мы всё о грустном. Вот песня о трезвости - несомненно, Том Сойер, маршируя в рядах общества трезвости, пел что-нибудь похожее.

TEMPERANCE SONG.

Ladies and gentlemen,
List to my song:
Hurrah for temperance
All the day long;
I'll taste not, handle not,
Touch not the wine,
For every little boy like me
The temperance pledge should sign.

I'm a temperance boy
Just six years old,
And I love temperance
Better than gold;
I'll taste not, &c.

Let every little boy
Remember my song,
For God loves the children
That never do wrong.
I'll taste not, &c.

"Oh, fie, Amelia; I'm ashamed
To hear you quarrel so:
Leave off those naughty tricks, my child -
Go play with your sister, go."

"I sha'n't, mamma, the little girl
May play with whom she can;
And while she lives, she shall not have
My waxen doll again."

"Poor little Betsey Smith, she sits
Day after day alone;
She had a darling sister once,
But now she's dead and gone.

"Betsey was quite a fretful child,
And when she used to play
With pretty little Emeline,
She quarreled every day.

"One day her sister said to her,
'Don't, Betsey, be so cross;
Indeed, I am not well today,
And fear I shall be worse.'

" 'Not well? Oh yes, you're very sick!
I don't believe it's true;
You only want to coax mamma
To get nice things for you.'

"But Emma lingered here a while,
Then closed her eyes and died:
Ah, who can tell the sorrow now,
That fills poor Betsey's mind?

"And now she goes away and sits,
Day after day alone;
She does not want to sing or play,
Since sister Emma's gone."

THE HEATHEN MOTHER.



See that heathen mother stand
Where the sacred current flows;
With her own maternal hand
Mid the waves her babe she throws.

Hark! I hear the piteous scream;
Frightful monsters seize their prey,
Or the dark and bloody stream
Bears the struggling child away.

Fainter now, and fainter still,
Breaks the cry upon the ear;
But the mother's heart is steel,
She unmoved that cry can hear.

Send, O send the Bible there,
Let its precepts reach the heart;
She may then her children spare -
Act the mother's tender part.

(Hastings' "Nursery Songs")

A PENNY
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Книжка детских стихов: Songs For the Little Ones At Home

The Beggar-Girl

There's a poor beggar going by,
I see her looking in;
She's just about as big as I,
Only so very thin.

She has no shoes upon her feet,
She is so very poor;
And hardly anything to eat:
I pity her I'm sure.

But I have got nice clothes, you know,
And meat, and bread, and fire;
And dear mamma, that loves me so,
And all that I desire.

If I were forced to stroll so far,
Oh dear, what should I do?
I wish she had a kind mamma,
Just such a one as you.

Here, little girl, come back again,
And hold that ragged hat,
And I will put a penny in:
There, buy some bread with that.