A Mother's Year Book

by Unknown

FEBRUARY FIRST

I wonder so that mothers ever fret

At little children clinging to their gown;

Or that the footprints, when the days are wet

Are ever black enough to make them frown,

If I could find a little muddy boot,

Or cap or jacket on my chamber floor,

If I could kiss a rosy, restless foot

And hear it patter in my house once more;

If I could mend a broken cart to-day,

To-morrow make a kite to reach the sky—

There is no woman in God's world could say

She was more blissfully content than I.

Mary Louise Riley Smith

FEBRUARY SECOND

The very souls of children readily receive the

impressions of those things that are dropped into

them while they are yet but soft.

Plutarch

FEBRUARY THIRD

As babes will sigh for deep content

When their sweet hearts for peace make room,

As given, not lent.

Jean Ingelow

FEBRUARY FOURTH

Childhood soberly she wears,

Taking hold of woman's cares

Through love's outreach, unawares.

Lucy Larcom

FEBRUARY FIFTH

I searched for love through many a weary mile,

Till, sick and weary, to my homestead turning

Thou earnest to greet me with a mother's smile

And there upon thy dearest features burning

I saw that love I long had sought in vain.

Heine