Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-06-25

to-be-too-much- enjoyed plot OF the poem is
simple-the children capture the government,
send their parents to school, put them sup
PEERLESS to bed, and in general have high
old time. Possibly the poem would today be
considered highly immoral by our educators
can't discover any children Of my acquaint-
ance who know 1t now. Neither can recall
that it caused any attempts on my part 30
years ago to put my father supperless to
bed! DO you recall It? Do you recall the
levee, when
"One fat fellow, too fat by far,
Tried twinkle, twinkle, little star
His voice was gruff his pinafore tight,
His wife said, Mind, dear, sing it rightv
But he forgot and said Fa-la--'
The Queen OF Llputs own papaW
1 still recall the chortles of delight
with which my sister and hailed this em-
barrassing episode OF course, the mortified
queen had to send her too-fat papa right up
to bed, in spite of the fact that he cried all
over his shirt bosom.
Children may not know much about art,
but they know what they like!
Gingerbread and Tears
In the upper reader were the second voyage
of "Sinbad the Sailor" an episode from
tom Brown at Rugby" and above all, THE
wolf pack pursued a sleigh, and the mas
ter and mistress were saved only by the serf's
self-sacrifce in jumping out and giving him
self to the pack on the pages of this story
what look susplciously like tear stains are
mingled with gingerbread smears. To this
day. when 1 think Of Russia, think of that
grim story. remember definitely that It
was the other two stories which first caused
me to beg for copies of THE Arabian Nights
and Tom Brown at Rugby"
The book contains ballads, too which I
fancy today would hardly find place In a
third reader-though may be wrong There
was John Gilpin's Ride" for instance. and
Gilbert's "Bab Ballad" "The Yarn Of the
Nancy Bell" The latter I have always
known by heart, and often wondered where
learned 1t. Now know. I learned II by
absorption.
But this old third reader is not all frivolIty
far from IT! The last prose article is
Lambs tale of '"rhe Tempest" and the book
closes on the final page. with
"our rsvels now are ended
We are such stun
AS dreams are made OF; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep"
This strikes me today as going some" for
third reader. Yet curiously enough. I fnd
the page besmsared with gingerbread. (You
have no doubt guessed by now that was
somewhat fond OF this eonfectionD recall
also, that at the age OF my favorite poem
was Tom MOore's Go Where Glory Waits
Thee" 1t was printed in a leather bound
Complete Works." and was the only poem
In the volume ever read, The rest left me
cold. That one always made me weep deli
eiously. haven't the faintest idea why. for
I couldn't possibly have understood IT. some
thing in its cadence. or in its refrain. how
ever. touched me. Recollection Of that has
made me ever since shy OF sitting IN tudg-
/ ment on the mysterious spiritual adventures
OF children, I am more than ever shv this
evening. after bridging backward over the
years, on realizing how much of nv mental
background was acquired long. long ago.
from the pages of these two battered old
swinton's Readers