The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sweets for Leisure Hours
Title: Sweets for Leisure Hours
Author: A. Phillips
E. Phillips
Release date: November 12, 2007 [eBook #23454]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Mark C. Orton, Anne Storer and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
SWEETS
FOR
LEISURE HOURS.
EMBELLISHED WITH
SIXTEEN NEATLY COLOURED ENGRAVINGS.
LONDON:
PRINTED AND SOLD BY
DEAN AND MUNDAY, THREADNEEDLE-STREET.
Price Six-pence.
THE FROZEN BIRD.
A Robin that lay half-benumbed on the ground:
Well hous’d and well fed, in your cage you will sing,
And make our dull winter as gay as the spring.
But stay,—sure ’tis cruel, with wings made to soar,
To be shut up in prison, and never fly more—
And I, who so often have long’d for a flight,
Shall I keep you prisoner?—mamma, is that right?
No, come, pretty Robin, I must set you free—
For your whistle, though sweet, would sound sadly to me.
MAMMA AND THE BABY.
Hardly higher than the table;
I can eat, and play, and cry,
But to work I am not able.
But mamma will try and show me;
Sweet mamma, I love her so,
She’s so very kind unto me.
Very often for some kisses:
O! how good I’ll try to be,
To such a dear mamma as this is!
THE DUTIFUL SON.
Her forehead was wrinkled, her hands they were thin;
And she must have starv’d, as so many have done,
If she had not been bless’d with a good little son.
And work’d all day long in the fields till ’twas dark,
Then came home again to his dear mother’s cot,
And joyfully gave her the wages he got.
Than naughty, and idle, and wicked boys are?
For, as long as he liv’d, ’twas his comfort and joy,
To think he’d not been an undutiful boy.
THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPER.
At the dawning of morning must go,
With brushes and bags, and cloth’d all in rags,
In the winter, thro’ frost and thro’ snow.
To save us from smoke and from fire;
And often I weep to think that the sweep
Must do such sad work for his hire.
For us such a service to do,
And never feel fright when he comes in our sight,
Because of his dark sooty hue.
TUMBLE UP.
No, no, never beat the poor ground;
’Twas your fault you could not stand straight on your feet,
Fall you will, if you twirl yourself round.
Will crying wash bruises away?
Suppose that it should bleed a little, and swell,
’Twill all be gone down in a day.
Come, smile, and I’ll give you a kiss;
If you live in the world but a very few years,
You must bear greater troubles than this.
A WALK TO THE MEADOWS.
And buttercups looking as yellow as gold;
And the daisies and violets beginning to blow,
For it is a most beautiful sight to behold.
The butterfly merrily skims it along;
The grasshopper chirps in the hedges so green,
And the linnet there sings us his liveliest song.
The beasts of the field all are glad, and rejoice;
We, too, will be thankful to God every day,
And praise His great name in a loftier voice.
THE OLD MAN’s COMFORTS.
“And life must be hast’ning away;
You are cheerful, and love to converse upon death:
Now tell me the reason, I pray.”
“Let the cause thy attention engage:
In the days of my youth I remember’d my God,
And he hath not forgotten my age.”
CONTENTMENT.
Ambition is nothing to me;
The one thing I beg of kind heaven to grant,
Is a mind independent and free.
By reason my life let me square;
The wants of my nature are cheaply supplied;
And the rest is but folly and care.
I’ll justly and gratefully prize;
While sweet meditation and cheerful content
Shall make me both healthful and wise.
MORNING HYMN.
For quiet and peaceable rest;
I thank thee for stooping to keep
An infant from being distrest.
My heart would repay thee with love;
O teach me to walk in thy ways,
And fit me to see thee above.
That here upon earth I should stay,
I pray thee to guard me by night,
And help me to serve thee by day.
EVENING HYMN.
With all his sparkling rays,
Now hides his glories from our eyes,
And night comes on apace.
The world by day to light,
Who gave the gentler Moon to cheer
The still and gloomy night.
Send up the grateful strain;
And let my heart join with the song,
Or all my praise is vain.
TO BLESS, IS TO BE BLEST.
This truth once known,—To bless, is to be blest!
I led the bending beggar on his way;
(Bare were his feet, his tresses silver-grey;)
Soothed the keen pangs his aged spirit felt,
And on his tale with mute attention dwelt.
As in his script I dropp’d my little store,
I griev’d to think that little was no more;
He breath’d his pray’r,—“Long may such goodness live!”
’Twas all he gave, ’twas all he had to give.
THE LITTLE MOUSE.
Liv’d a poor little mouse,
He had plenty to eat every day;
Till, enticed by another,
Without leave of his mother,
He ventured one day out to play.
As he walk’d the bank-side,
And soon of his folly repented.
She put out her paw,
Seized him with her claw,
And eat him before she relented.
LOVE TO GOD
PRODUCES LOVE TO MEN.
Our love to God, in love to man below.
Be this our joy—to calm the troubled breast,
Support the weak, and succour the distrest;
Direct the wand’rer, dry the widow’s tear;
The orphan guard, the sinking spirits cheer.
Tho’ small our pow’r to act, tho’ mean our skill,
God sees the heart;—he judges by the will.
TRUE KINDNESS.
Who many an effort successlessly tried,
Across some rough pavement to go;
“For I’m very lame, and besides, almost blind,
And so, without danger, my way I can’t find;
You’ll help a poor woman, I know.”
“Come, lean on my shoulder, and be not afraid,
I’m able to help you, indeed;
And I’m sure I am willing, for I have been taught,
That if, my good dame, I would do as I ought,
I must help all I can, who’re in need.”
POPULAR TALES,
PUBLISHED BY
DEAN & MUNDAY, THREADNEEDLE-STREET.
SIX-PENCE EACH.
Ali Baba, or the Forty Thieves; coloured frontispiece.
Aladdin, or the Wonderful Lamp, an Eastern Tale;
with coloured frontispiece.
Beauty and the Beast, or the Magic Rose; an entertaining
Fairy tale; with coloured frontispiece.
Children in the Wood; with four coloured plates.
Cinderella, and the Pretty Glass Slipper; with four
coloured engravings.
Entertaining History of Goody Two Shoes; with coloured
frontispiece, and ten engravings on wood.
Jack and the Bean Stalk; with coloured frontispiece.
Jack the Giant Killer; coloured frontispiece.
Little Thumb and the Ogre, or the Seven League Boots;
four coloured engravings.
Mother Bunch’s Fairy Tales; coloured frontispiece.
Peter Puzzle-all’s Riddle Book, an amusing collection
of Riddles, Charades, &c.; coloured frontispiece.
Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, and Little Red Riding
Hood; with coloured frontispiece; and ten engravings
on wood.
Adventures of the Seven Champions of Christendom;
with coloured frontispiece.
Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor; with coloured
frontispiece.
Tom Thumb, and Puss in Boots; coloured frontispiece.
Valentine and Orson, or the Wild Man of the Woods;
with coloured frontispiece.
Entertaining History of Whittington and his Cat; with
coloured frontispiece.