WHAT IS IT?
What is that ugly thing I see
Which follows, follows, follows me,
Which ever way I turn or go?
What is that thing? I want to know.
If I but turn to left or right
It does the same with all its might;
It looks so ugly and so black
When o’er my shoulder I look back.
Sometimes it runs ahead of me,
Sometimes quite short it seems to be,
And then again it’s very tall;
I don’t know what it is at all.
I’ll climb into my little bed,
And on my pillow lay my bead,
For when I’m there I never see
That thing in front or back of me.
JOHN’S BRIGHT IDEA.
Mrs. Meredith was a most kind and thoughtful woman. She spent a great deal of time visiting the poor. One morning she told her children about a family which she had visited the day before. There was a man sick in bed, his wife who took care of him, and could not go out to work, and their little boy. The little boy—his name was Bernard—had interested her very much.
“I wish you could see him,” she said to her own children, John, Harry, and Clara, “he is such a help to his mother. He wants very much to earn some money, but I don’t see what he can do.”
After their mother had left the room, the children sat thinking about little Bernard.
“I wish we could help him to earn money,” said little Clara.
“So do I,” said Harry.
For some moments John said nothing, but, suddenly, he sprang to his feet and cried: