The Book of the Little Past

MAKING A HOUSE
TO Alison AND OLDER CHILDREN
NOTE
Of the poems of child-life brought together in this book many are wholly new; some are reprinted from The Singing Leaves, published in 1903; and others have appeared in Harper's Monthly Magazine, to the editor of which I am indebted for permission to reprint them. J. P. M. JULY, 1908

irst of all, I draw the Smoke Trailing up the sky; Then the Chimney, underneath; And Birds all flying by; Then the House; and every Window, Watching, like an Eye.
Everybody else begins With the House. But I Love the Smoke the best of all; And you don't know why!... Here it goes,—like little feathers, Sailing up the sky!
have so many things to do, I don't know when I shall be through.
To-day I had to watch the rain Come sliding down the window-pane.
And I was humming, all the time, Around my head, a kind of rhyme,
And blowing softly on the glass, To see the dimness come and pass.