BOBBY BOY AND ROBIN BIRD.
Reading edition
BY KITTY CLOVER.
"Oh, Robin, Robin bird, Wise as wise can be, Why do you sit on the chestnut bough, Nodding your head at me? Haven't you any work to do, Hopping about all day? Is it the whole of a Robin's life To whistle, and eat, and play?" "Oh, Bobby, Bobby boy, Why shouldn't I look at you? If I am only a little bird, I have plenty of work to do. Don't you whistle, and eat, and play, And play, and whistle, and eat? Don't I see you at breakfast-time, And out in the sunny street?" "Yes, but Robin, Robin bird, I study as well as play; I'm half-way through my spelling-book, And many a lesson I say; But you don't have any books to read, A life that you must enjoy; I wish I was only a Robin bird, Instead of a Bobby boy." "Ah, Bobby, Bobby boy, You don't know what you say; There's nobody longing to eat you up, Whenever you go to play; There's nobody ready to hunt your nest, And steal your innocent brood, Or shoot you at sight with a horrid gun If you venture into the wood. "But yonder the cat sits blinking Her great green eyes, you see; She'd break every bone in my body If she got her claws on me. I never can be any other Than only a Robin, you know, While you, perhaps, from a little boy, A tall, strong man, will grow, "And maybe win fame and honor, Wherever your name is heard, While my greatest-grandson Robin Will be nothing but a bird. So don't be idly wishing, For God knew best, you see, When He made you a pretty Bobby boy, Instead of a Robin like me."
QUEEN ELIZABETH AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEN.—From a Painting by Millais.
