SAFE SLEEPING.

Safe sleeping on its mother's breast,
The smiling babe appears
Now sweetly sinking into rest,
Now wash'd in sudden tears:
Hush, hush, my little baby dear,
There's nobody to hurt you here.

Without a tender mother's care
The little thing must die;
Its chubby hands too feeble are
One service to supply:
And not a tittle does it know
What kind of world it's come into.

Full many a summer sun must glow,
And lighten up the skies,
Before its tender limbs can grow
To any thing of size:
And all the while the mother's eye
Must every little want supply.

Then surely when each little limb,
Shall grow to healthy size;
And youth and manhood strengthen him
For toil and enterprize,
His mother's kindness is a debt
He never, never will forget.

Jane Taylor.