Acknowledgment is also made to the Bobbs-Merrill Company for the use of the selections from the writings of James Whitcomb Riley, and to D. Appleton & Co. for the selections from Bryant.
Acknowledgment is due the courtesy of the New York Sun and the Denver News for the use of the selections credited to them.
An effort has been made to find the name and the author of each selection used so that proper credit could be given with each. This has not been always possible and I have chosen not to leave out a beautiful selection on that account.
George MacDonald says, "He who drops a beautiful thought into the heart of a friend gives as the angels do"; and Emerson says that "Next to the originator of a beautiful thought is the one who first quotes it." So I do not think that any one who has said anything beautiful about childhood would wish to be left out of a Mother's Year Book even if the credit for his work was not given quite correctly.
FRANCIS MCKINNON MORTON.
JANUARY
JANUARY FIRST
Where did you come from, Baby Dear?
Out of the Everywhere into the here.
. . . . . . . .
But how did you come to us, you Dear?
God thought of you and so I am here.
George MacDonald
JANUARY SECOND
What is the dream in the Baby's eyes
As he lies and blinks in a mute surprise?
. . . . . . . .
Bathed in the dawnlight, what does he see
That slow years have hidden from you and from me?
Tom Cordry