Songs for a Little House   By: Christopher Morley (1890-1957)

SONGS FOR A LITTLE HOUSE

by

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY

"He that high growth on cedars did bestow, Gave also lowly mushrumps leave to grow." R. Southwell, 1562 95

New York George H. Doran Company

Copyright, 1917, by George H. Doran Company

Printed in the United States of America

TO THE LITTLE HOUSE

Dear little house, dear shabby street, Dear books and beds and food to eat! How feeble words are to express The facets of your tenderness.

How white the sun comes through the pane! In tinkling music drips the rain! How burning bright the furnace glows! What paths to shovel when it snows!

O dearly loved Long Island trains! O well remembered joys and pains.... How near the housetops Beauty leans Along that little street in Queens!

Let these poor rhymes abide for proof Joy dwells beneath a humble roof; Heaven is not built of country seats But little queer suburban streets!

Albany Avenue, Queens, Long Island, March, 1917

ONE MOMENT, PLEASE

At fifty cents per agate line Kind editors will buy your verse; They'll make you swear that you resign All claims, for better or for worse. The book, dramatic, photoplay, And interplanetary rights They seize; but do not feel dismay Their barks are fiercer than their bites!

I thank, for leave to print these rhymes, And for unfailing courtesy, Everybody's , New York Times , The Outlook and the Century ; The Boston Transcript , L. H. J. , The Tribune , Mail , and Evening Post , The Book News Monthly , chastely gay But Life and Collier's I thank most.

The Independent and McClure's And Argosy have borne my flights: Dear scribblers, how this reassures Their barks are fiercer than their bites!

CONTENTS

SONGS FOR A LITTLE HOUSE PAGE BAYBERRY CANDLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 SECRET LAUGHTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 A CHARM FOR OUR NEW FIREPLACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 SIX WEEKS OLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 THE YOUNG MOTHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 PETER PAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 THE 5:42 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 READING ALOUD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 THE MOON SHEEP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 MAR QUONG, CHINESE LAUNDRYMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 THE MILKMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 IN HONOUR OF TAFFY TOPAZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 THE CEDAR CHEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 O PRAISE ME NOT THE COUNTRY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 ANIMAL CRACKERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 THE WAKEFUL HUSBAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 LIGHT VERSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 FULL MOON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 MY WIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 WASHING THE DISHES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 THE FURNACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 THE CHURCH OF UNBENT KNEES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 THE NEW ALTMAN BUILDING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 THE MADONNA OF THE CURB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 MY PIPE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 TO A GRANDMOTHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

A HANDFUL OF SONNETS