THE STOP FAMILY.
"I'm a dot with a quirk," whispers little Miss Comma,
"And you'll please not to pause long for me."
"I'm a dot over Comma," says Miss Semicolon,
"And you'll pause twice as long where I be."
"I am dot over dot," Master Colon speaks out,
"You'll pause longer for me than they say:"
"I am one dot alone," Period says with a tone
That means: "Stop when you see me obey!" [{227}]
"I'm a hook over dot," says Dame Interrogation,
"I ask questions; but answer? O, nay!"
"I'm a splash over dot," says old Sir Exclamation;
"I show wonder, delight, or dismay!"
"I'm a line east and west," says Miss Dash, "and I'm best
At changing of subjects, you know."--
"I am Dash's small sister," says Hyphen, and kissed her;
"I unite words, or syl-la-bles, so."
Then said Marks of Parenthesis (carefully curved),
"We inclose what you well may omit;
But we're often displaced by Miss Dash (in your haste),
Whom you sadly mistake for a wit."
Now Apostrophe, Caret, Quotation, exclaimed:
"We are commas and hyphens combined;
We leave out, or put in, or reveal to your kin
What you've said, when their backs you're behind."
Then Star, Daggers, Parallels, Paragraph too,
Started up, staring wildly about, [{228}] With "We rise to explain on the margin, 'tis plain,
Or to point a new paragraph out."
Of the whole Punctuation, each knew his own station.
Each did his own duty, we see;
If we do ours as well, and of their's, too, can tell,
We shall soon learn good readers to be.
* * * * *
"All is not gold that glitters;"
Yet think not, children mine,
That all that glitters is not gold;
The true must ring and shine.
LITTLE MISCHIEF.