Excerpt from Verses I have not presumed to commit these verses to print on account of any literary merit they possess, for I am only too conscious that they are but commonplace. But I have been constrained to do so, in order that in after years these dear children may have them as a remembrance of me and as a slight token of the great love I bear them. As the warm sunshine and balmy air of spring dispel the sombreness and chill of winter and re-awaken the world to a renewal of life, calling back the birds to re-people the fields and glades and to fill the air with the sweet music of their varied and beautiful love notes; kissing the dormant buds until they, blushing, open into vari-colored garlands of sweetness and beauty, and causing the trees and shrubs and fields to don a fresh new mantle of green and to put forth their blossoms with promise of a full and rich fruition which is the purpose and end of life; so these young lives, with all the warmth of their innocent, unselfish love, buoyant, eager spirits, have come into the afternoon of my life and opened anew the well-springs of love in my heart, causing my lagging pulse to quicken and filling the future with renewed interest and greater h0pes, and causing the world to appear brighter and happier. In them I am living again. That man is poor indeed and to be pitied who cannot appreciate and enter into the joys and spirit of childhood. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.