Nellie and Dottie
Both here mamma say,
"Pray from the drawing-room
Keep away.
Don't take your toys there,
Lest someone should call:
Run out in the garden
With rope, bat and ball."
The garden is lovely,
This bright summer day;
But Nellie and Dottie
Too soon came away.
Into the drawing-room
Dottie comes skipping,
With her new rope
All the furniture flipping:
Down goes the tall vase,
So golden and gay,
Smashed all to pieces,
"What will mamma say?"
Cries Nell with her hands raised,
"Oh Dottie, let's run;
They'll think it was pussy,
Who did it in fun."
Dot answers, through big tears,
"But, Nell, don't you see,
Though nobody watched us,
God knows it was me.
Mamma always says,
That, whatever we do,
The harm's not so great,
If we dare to be true.
So I'll go up and tell her
It caught in my rope;
Perhaps she won't scold much,
At least, so I'll hope."
"That's right!" cries her mother,
Who stands by the door,
"I would rather have ten vases
Were smashed on the floor
Than my children should once break
The bright words of truth,
The dearest possession
Of age or of youth.
The vase can be mended,
And scarce show a crack,
But a falsehood once spoken
Will never come back."
However much grieved for
By young folks or old,
An untruth once uttered,
Forever is told.