There's a little chap at our house that is being mighty good -- Keeps the front lawn looking tidy in the way we've said he should; Doesn't leave his little wagon, when he's finished with his play, On the sidewalk as he used to; now he puts it right away. When we call him in to supper, we don't have to stand and shout; It is getting on to Christmas and it's plain he's found it out. He eats the food we give him without murmur or complaint; He sits up at the table like a cherub or a saint; He doesn't pinch his sister just to hear how loud she'll squeal; Doesn't ask us to excuse him in the middle of the meal, And at eight o'clock he's willing to be tucked away in bed. It is getting close to Christmas; nothing further need be said. I chuckle every evening as I see that little elf, With the crooked part proclaiming that he brushed his hair himself. And I chuckle as I notice that his hands and face are clean, For in him a perfect copy of another boy is seen -- A little boy at Christmas, who was also being good, Never guessing that his father and his mother understood. There's a little boy at our house that is being mighty good; Doing everything that's proper, doing everything he should. But besides him there's a grown-up who has learned life's bitter truth, Who is gladly living over all the joys of vanished youth. And although he little knows it (for it's what I never knew), There's a mighty happy father sitting at the table, too. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RESURRECTION, IMPERFECT by JOHN DONNE ARIEL'S SONG (1) [OR, DIRGE] [OR, A SEA DIRGE]. FR. THE TEMPEST by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE MERLIN AND THE GLEAM by ALFRED TENNYSON CASEY AT THE BAT (2) by ERNEST LAWRENCE THAYER AGAMEMNON: THE SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENIA. CHORUS by AESCHYLUS |