Toots and His Friends

by Kate Tannatt Woods

PAUL'S VIEWS AT EIGHT YEARS OF AGE.

WHEN Paul grew older and the little sister could go with him to school he changed his mind about her value. Sometimes, I am sorry to say, he led her into mischief, and once they were lost a whole day in the woods because Paul wanted to show her how the flowers grew and the trees sang, but after all the little girl made him a better boy as we shall see.

What's that you say? "She's only a girl?"

Well, so much the better for that;

Her eyes are the prettiest I ever saw,

Just peep at them under her hat.

She talks in the funniest broken way,

Just as I did once! Well, who cares?

I never could smile the way she does,

Or pit-a-pat on the stairs.

I wonder at girls, I do, Jim Pool,

Let me try as hard as I will,

To put my feet down easy and soft,

They will pound and thump down still.

And I never yet tried to close the door

As gentle as sister pan do,

That it doesn't go bang and shake the house,

"That's queer; it's just so with you."

[Original]

Well, Jim, we are boys, only boys you see,

And apt to be noisy and rough;

But my little sister, she just teaches me,

One look of her eyes is enough.

I can't tell just why, but as true as you live,

I am better since she came here;

"She's only a girl!" Yes, I know, Jim Pool,

And I'm only a boy, that's clear.

My mother was once a girl like her,

And she's just as good as gold;

What's that? oh, nonsense, I know, Jim Pool,

My mother won't ever "grow old."

What's that? False hair and teeth for her?

Go home, Jim Pool, I won't play

With a boy who says my mother dear

Will ever be "ugly and gray."

But never mind, Jim, you ain't to blame,

You've no sister or mother, you see;

If mine grows ugly, and wrinkled, and lame,

She will still be mother to me.

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