Reviews of Play Days
Play Days, 1878
by Sarah Orne Jewett
The Water Dolly / St. Nicholas
Text
Prissy's Visit
My Friend the Housekeeper
Marigold House / St. Nicholas
Text
Nancy's Doll
The Best China Saucer
The Desert Islanders
Half-done Polly
Woodchucks
The Kitten's Ghost
The Pepper-Owl / St. Nicholas
Text
The Shipwrecked Buttons
The Yellow Kitten
Patty's Dull Christmas
Beyond the Toll-Gate / Sunday
Afternoon Text
DISCONTENT
Down in a field one day in June,
The flowers all bloomed together
Save one, who tried to hide herself
And drooped, that pleasant weather.
A robin who had flown too high,
And felt a little lazy,
Was resting near this buttercup
Who wished she were a daisy.
The daisies grow so trig and tall;
She always had a passion
For wearing frills around her neck
In just the daisies' fashion.
And buttercups must always be
The same old tiresome color,
While daisies dress in gold and white,
Although their gold is duller.
"Dear robin," said this sad young flower,
"Perhaps you'd not mind trying
To find a nice white frill for me
Some day, when you are flying."
"You silly thing!" the robin said,
"I think you must be crazy,
I'd rather be my honest self
Than any made-up daisy.
"You're nicer in your own bright gown
The little children love you;
Be the best buttercup you can,
And think no flower above you.
"Though swallows leave me out of sight,
We'd better keep our places.
Perhaps the world would all go wrong
With one too many daisies.
And be content with knowing
That God wished for a buttercup
Just here, where you are growing."
Cover and title page from an 1878 printing.
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Playdays
Copyright (c) 2001-2017 by Terry Heller
Revised June 2017