All hands employed to wash, to rinse, to wring,

To fold, and starch, and clap, and iron, and plait.

Then would I sit me down, and ponder much

Why washings were. Sometimes through hollow bowl

Of pipe amused we blew, and sent aloft

The floating bubbles; little dreaming then

To see, Montgolfier, thy silken ball

Ride buoyant through the clouds—so near approach

The sports of children and the toils of men.

Earth, air, and sky, and ocean, hath its bubbles,