Shock-headed Peter

"When the children have been good,     That is, be it understood,     Good at meal-times, good at play,     Good all night and good all day--"

"I never saw a girl or boy     So prone as Sophie to destroy     Whate'er she laid her hands upon,     Though tough as wood, or hard as stone;"

"Here is cruel Frederick, see!     A horrid wicked boy was he;     He caught the flies, poor little things,     And then tore off their tiny win"

"This is the man that shoots the hares;     This is the coat he always wears:     With game-bag, powder-horn, and gun     He's going out to have"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"