Poor Jane and little Tom excited a thrill as “cautionary” Babes in the Wood. They succumbed to the fatal fascination of scarlet berries:
“Alas! had Tommy understood
That fruit in lanes is seldom good,
He might have walked with little Jane
Again along the shady lane.”
Small listeners decided privately that Peter was an indifferent sportsman to turn the red-hot poker against himself; they would prove at the first opportunity that he bungled the thing. But when other children cried, it amused them to agree with Miss Turner that
“A rod is the very best thing to apply
When children are crying and cannot tell why!”
The names of her two little books[206] have no obvious connection with the verses. She explains The Daisy in a Cowslip rhyme:
“Like the flow’ret it spreads, unambitious of fame,