Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1877-08-14


the book. sellers as often as sChristmas-tide
returns. Her nest will not be empty as
long as there are children and nurseries
10 the world. 1t is almos, a pity, if one
may say so without strainipg the meta
phor. that her eu!cgy cannot be written
with quill taken from her own dear
wing. What child iu all Christeudom
has not often nestled under that wing,
been brooded by it, and forgotten every
trouble by listening to her immortal
hys. .
The maiden name of this venerable
lady, mother of us all, was Elizabeth
Foster. She lived in Charlestown, where
she was born, until her marriage Then
she came 10 Boston, where her thrifty
husband, Isaac Goose, had green pas
ture ready for her, on what is now Wash
ington street. and including the land in
and about Temple place. She was his
second mate, and began her maternal
life as step-mother TO ten children. These
all seem to have been lively little gos-
lngs, and to their number she rapidly
added six more. Think of it Sixteen
goslings to single goose-assuming
that none OF them had been eaten up by
the hawks. and that none of them had
died oil crook in the neck. Poor, happy
Mother Goose! No wonder that her feel
iugs were too many for her. and that she
poured them out in the celebrated lines:
"There was an old woman lived in shoe,
She had 40 many children she didn't know what
10 do.'
Yet her family cares seem, on the
whole, TO have set lightly upon her; Tor
she was no wild goose. flying South or
North. with every turn of the sun. but
she stayed by her nest through cold and
heat, happy as the day is long, and liv-
ing TO be ninety-two years old. She
even survived the father Goose many
years, and she led and fed her numerous
flock and tenderly brooded them in the
little enclosure on Temple place till they
were able to swim and forage for them-
selves.
One Of these, her daughter Elizabeth,
became the wife of Thomas Fleet. And
here is the fact to which We owe it that
her name aud fame are spread through
the world. Thomas Fleet was printer,
living in Puding Lane. place whose
very name had so savory taste in the
dear old lady's mouth that when ThOmss
Fleet became a happy father she insisted
on going to live with him rs nurse OF
honor To his son and heir. To coddle
her own grandchild, in Puding Lane.
was the beau ideal Of blessedness for
Mother Goose. Her activity and concern
In the house we're such IS 10 throw what
We read about busy mothsrs-in-law
wholly iu the shade. No donbt she
would have been glad to save Rome, as
certain other geese once did with their
cackliug, but lacking the opportunity TO
do this, she sang her dillies from morn
ing till night, up stairs and down stairs
and in my lady's chamber" til her son
IN law Locame sensibly alarmed at the
fertility OF her genius. Sing she must
however, for was she not poet, full OF
the divine fire which refuses to be quench-
ed? l. is well for the world that she was
law unto herself. No up-start SON.
in law could control her. or keep her
from bumming and cooling at her own
sweet will.
Ard now it was not Roman Senate,
but q Boston printer, that her persistant
music awakened. a happy thought &C
cured TO Thomas Fleet. He printed and
sold songs and ballads at bis printing
house in Puding Lane. Was it not sign
oil something good about to come to him,
that this precious mother-in-law, with
her endless rockings and lullabys. had
put herself in his way? Ho stopped ask
ing the irrepressibie songster to rock less,
and urged her to sing more. And while
she sat in her armchair. or shuifl ed about
the room lost in sweet dreams, he care
fully wrote down what he could Of the
rhymes which fell from her lips. His
notes rapidly accumulated. and in little
while he had enough of them to make q
volume. These he now printed. and
bound them into book. which he offered
for sale under the following title ::
Songs for the Nursery; or Mother
Goose's Melodies for Children. Printed
by T. Fleet, at his Printing House, Pud-
ding Lane, 17l9. Price two coppers. "
This title-page also bore large cut OF
veritable goose. with wide-open mouth
showing that the proverbial irreverence
of sons-in-law is not thing oil recent
origin. They were just as saucy in the
DAYS OF Mother Goose as now, and Just
as ready to turn penny at the expense
OF their mothers-in-law. How the i'm
mortal author bore this proiane use of
her name, or what she thought of the
ungracious but shrewd Thomas Fleet.
history does not say. We have every
reason to believe, however, that she took
it Just as sweetly as she had taken all
the other trials and annoyances OF her
life. She possessed her soul in patience,
and continued her gentle ministry to th g