His children now are grown-up people, proper, most polite.
They never hang up stockings, that is nonsense in their sight.
The little son has bank notes, and the girls some jewels gay;
A sober “thank you,” or a frown are what they bring the day.
Paul fills his time with wondering why mother gave him “that,”
And Helen wishes she had had instead “that stunning hat.”
(No. 5 Tableau—Children Discontented.)
Oh, deary me! How sweet ’twould be to have them at my knee,
A-listening to the sweet old tales that mine once heard from me.
Now when I was a little girl, I had my stockings hung