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."

Original

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.