A PEARL OF PRICE

SHE isn’t worth a fortune and she hasn’t any stocks, Her wealth is all in little shoes and pinafores and frocks. In little rings of curling hair and big blue, laughing eyes, In leaves and grass and buds and flowers and bees and butterflies. But when she comes in tired from play and crawls upon my knee She’s worth a hundred millions to her mother and to me. She sits among her dolls and toys and doesn’t seem to care If wealth is all in rosy cheeks and locks of curly hair. She toddles up to me and like an artful fairy clips A coupon bearing love from off the sweetness of her lips. And when she puts her arms around my neck and goos in glee, She’s worth uncounted millions to her mother and to me. And when she’s in her crib at night and daintily tucked in, The wealth of Croesus couldn’t buy the dimple in her chin, And as she blinks her roguish eyes to play at peek-a-boo, She chuckles me a fortune with each archly spoken goo. And though she has no fortune, I am sure you will agree, She’s a fortune, more than money, to her mother and to me.