Fireside recitations; Being a choice collection of instructive, emotional, and humorous pieces, in prose and poetry, etc - Softcover
Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1881 Excerpt: ...as so swiftly they fell. I remember with trembling one grim little madam Who taught me the rudiments, pot hooks and all, And who thought to expel all the sin left by Adam, By thrashing it out with the switch on the wall; I've been horsed o'er the knees of that maiden so human, With my back to the foe and my face to the floor, And I thought how fools prate of the soft touch of woman, For each touch drew a blister, each stroke woke a roar, In that day of tough switches and very thin breeches, When correction was pressed both behind and before. I survived all the blows and I married the daughter Of that muscular schoolmarm whose blows fell like rain; Now her roguish grandchildren defy her with laughter; Their tricks she approves--mine she punished with pain. And though I remember of not interceding When she put in the licks with a switch or a rule, If a grandchild I spank there's a grandmother pleading--'Tis the granny who whaled me of old in the school, With her toughest of switches, her sharpest of switches, That startled a rogue like the kick of a mule. How we boast of advance in the secrets of learning. How to cram the young heads we take infinite pains, And forget inward pangs yield to blisters and burning, That the switch hath oft quickened both conscience and brains. To four minor senses we're often appealing, Each one to our aid in connection we call, But that old bottom sense, the keen sense of feeling, No longer the rogue doth persuade or appall 1 Yet to quiet confusion, or to force a conclusion, There's a mission to-day for that switch on the wall. CHRISTMAS-TIDE. ANONYMOUS. EVE. They say to-night is Christmas Ere, and high as I could reach I've hung my stocking on the wall, and left a kiss on each. I left a kiss on each for Him who'll fill my stock...
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