CARE OF CHILDREN.
All as the painful ploughman plies his toil
With shear and coulter shearing through the soil,
That costs him dear and ditches it about,
Or crops his hedge to make it undersprout,
And never stays to ward it from the weed,
But most respects to sow therein good seed;
To th' end when summer decks the meadows plain,
He may have recompense of costs and pain.
Or like the maid who careful is to keep
The budding flower, that first begins to peep
Out of the knop and waters it full oft,
To make it seemly show the head aloft,
That it may (when she draws it from the stocks)
Adorn her gorget white and golden locks.
So wise Merari all his study styl'd
To fashion well the manners of his child.
HUDSON.