|WHEN Paul grew older and the little sister could go with him to school
he changed his mind about her value. Sometimes, I am sorry to say, he
led her into mischief, and once they were lost a whole day in the woods
because Paul wanted to show her how the flowers grew and the trees sang,
but after all the little girl made him a better boy as we shall see.=
``What's that you say? "She's only a girl?"
```Well, so much the better for that;
``Her eyes are the prettiest I ever saw,
```Just peep at them under her hat.=
``She talks in the funniest broken way,
```Just as I did once! Well, who cares?
``I never could smile the way she does,
```Or pit-a-pat on the stairs.=
``I wonder at girls, I do, Jim Pool,
```Let me try as hard as I will,
``To put my feet down easy and soft,
```They will pound and thump down still.=
``And I never yet tried to close the door
```As gentle as sister pan do,
``That it doesn't go bang and shake the house,
```"That's queer; it's just so with you."=
[Illustration: 0028]
``Well, Jim, we are boys, only boys you see,
```And apt to be noisy and rough;
``But my little sister, she just teaches me,
```One look of her eyes is enough.=
``I can't tell just why, but as true as you live,
```I am better since she came here;
``"She's only a girl!" Yes, I know, Jim Pool,
```And I'm only a boy, that's clear.=
``My mother was once a girl like her,
```And she's just as good as gold;
``What's that? oh, nonsense, I know, Jim Pool,
```My mother won't ever "grow old."=
``What's that? False hair and teeth for her?
```Go home, Jim Pool, I won't play
``With a boy who says my mother dear
```Will ever be "ugly and gray."=
``But never mind, Jim, you ain't to blame,
```You've no sister or mother, you see;
``If mine grows ugly, and wrinkled, and lame,
```She will still be mother to me.=