MY MOTHER. Who dressed my doll in clothes so gay, My mother. Who ran to help me when I fell, My mother. Who taught my infant lips to pray, And can I ever cease to be Affectionate and kind to thee, Who was so very kind to me? ? My mother. My mother. Ah! no, the thought I cannot bear, I hope I shall reward thy care, My mother. When thou art feeble, old, and gray, 63 64 THE DOCTOR. And when I see thee hang thy head, My mother. For God, who lives above the skies, THE DOCTOR. My mother. ANN TAYLOR. FROM WILLIE WINKIE. O, Do not fear the doctor; To nurse you like a tender flower, And pleasant tales to tell; He brings the bloom back to your cheek, The blithe blink to your eye, An 't were not for the doctor, O, who would fear the doctor, His powder or his pill You just a wee bit swallow take, And there's an end of ill. He'll make you sleep sound as a top, A kind man is the doctor, He spares no toil by day or night 65 ALEXANDER Smart. THE HAND-POST. THE night was dark, the sun was hid Across the path the owlet flew, And screamed along the blast, And onward with a quickened step, Benighted Henry passed. At intervals, amid the gloom A flash of lightning played, And showed the ruts with water filled, And the black hedge's shade. E 66 THE HAND-POST. Again in thickest darkness plunged, And now he thought he spied beyond In deadly white it upward rose, Poor Henry felt his blood run cold At what before him stood; But well, thought he, no harm, I'm sure, So calling all his courage up, He to the goblin went; And eager through the dismal gloom His piercing eyes he bent. And when he came well nigh the ghost For 't was a friendly hand-post stood |