Improve each shining hour—Be a Bee—and your hours will be too few for the Flowers of Science and the Wheels of Use. Grandma will help you with her one dim eye and Grandpa will explain a great deal to you with his Shining Light—Mama with your help will make you a true, good man.—
1873.
On his twelfth birthday Aunt Louisa again lapsed into poetry:
F. A. P.
Who likes to read a fairy tale,
Or stories told of sword and sail,
Until his little optics fail?
Our boy.
Who loves his father's watch to wear
And often draw it out with care
Upon its round white face to stare?
Our boy.
Who rather proud of his small feet
When wearing slippers new and neat,
And stockings red as any beet?
Our boy.
Who in his pocket keeps his hands
As round the house he "mooning" stands
Or reads the paper like the mans?
Our boy.
Who likes to "boss" it over Jack,
And sometimes gives a naughty whack,
But gets it heartily paid back?
Our boy.
Who likes to have a birthday frolic
And eats until he has a colic,
That for the time is diabolic?
Our boy.