Good and Bad Children

Children, you are very little,

And your bones are very brittle;

If you would grow great and stately,

You must try to walk sedately.

You must still be bright and quiet,

And content with simple diet;

And remain, through all bewild'ring,

Innocent and honest children.

Happy hearts and happy faces,

Happy play in grassy places--

That was how in ancient ages,

Children grew to kings and sages.

But the unkind and the unruly,

And the sort who eat unduly,

They must never hope for glory--

Theirs is quite a different story!

Cruel children, crying babies,

All grow up as geese and gabies,

Hated, as their age increases,

By their nephews and their nieces.