h. See a Pin (page 59) suggests in its harmless superstition a good lesson in economy.
i. Little Boy Blue (page 33) makes the lazy boy and the sluggard unpopular.
j. Come, Let’s to Bed (page 34) ridicules sleepiness, slowness and greediness.
V. Mother’s loving care, at morning and evening, when dressing and undressing the baby or when putting the little folks to bed, has prompted several of the rhymes:
a. This Little Pig (page 5) the mother repeats to the baby as she counts his little toes.
b. Pat-a-Cake (page 4) is another night or morning rhyme; and here mother “marks it with” the initial of her baby’s name and puts it in the oven for her baby and herself. Another of similar import is: Up, Little Baby (page 7).
c. Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling (page 7) has kept many a little boy awake till he was safely undressed.
d. What an old rhyme must Bye, Baby Bunting be (page 6)! It goes back to the days when “father went a-hunting, to get a rabbit skin to wrap Baby Bunting in.” Some one, more recently, has added the idea of buying the rabbit skin.
e. The simple little lyric, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (page 44) has filled many a childish soul with gentle wonder, and many a night-robed lassie has wandered to the window and begged the little stars to keep on lighting the weary traveler in the dark.
VI. Some of the rhymes are pure fun, and even as such are worthy of a place in any person’s memory: