Page:Poems Cook.djvu/318

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE HAPPY MIND.
And Mrs. Eve was foolish, very,
Not to be well content and merry
With peach, plum, melon, grape, and cherry,
When apples were forbidden.

We love fair flowers, but suppose
We're far from Italy's rich rose,—
Must we then turn up our nose
At lilies of the valley!
Can't we snuff at something sweet,
In the "bough-pots" that we meet
Cried and sold in city street,
By "Sally in our Alley!"

Give me the heart that spreads its wings
Like the free bird that soars and sings
And sees the bright side of all things,
From Behring's Straits to Dover.
It is a bank that never breaks,
It is a store thief never takes,
It is a rock that never shakes,
All the wide world over.

We like to give old care the slip,
And listen to the "crank and quip"
At social board from fluent lip,—
No fellowship is better:
But he must lack the gentle grace
That marks the best of human race,
Who cannot see a friendly face
In mastiff, hound, or setter.

Our hungry eyes may fondly wish
To revel amid flesh and fish,
And gloat upon the silver dish
That holds a golden plover;

302