a great improvement
Young Albert Quinn, an orderly boy,
Once had, to his very great pleasure and joy,
An autograph album presented to him.
Its pages were neat and its covers were trim.
Within its gay bindings of superfine leather
He promptly endeavored to gather together
The names of his every relation and friend,
Till the book should be filled from beginning to end.

But soon he perceived, with surprise and dismay
And disapprobation, the very strange way
In which people wrote in his elegant book--
He found it distressing to give it a look.
Some autographs proved such a tangle and scrawl
You scarce could determine their letters at all:
While others were crooked, and some seemed to stray
To the edge of the page, as if running away.
Some looked as if caught in a terrible gale;
His grandfather's trembled; his grandmother's was pale;
His father's was blotty and straggled awry;
His mother wrote nicely -- he begged her to try.

He pondered the matter, then purchased another
Fine album, as bright and complete as the other,
And carefully copied the names, every one,
As neatly and fairly as it could be done.
With every angle and every line
Drawn out like a copy, correctly and fine.
With every i and with every t
Neatly dotted and crossed as they needed to be.
His letters were regular, even, and nice,
His capitals stately, exact, and precise.

Then Albert Quinn, in viewing the whole,
Breathed a sigh of relief from his orderly soul,
And exclaimed to himself: "It is better by half,
Than letting each one write his own autographI"

-Sydney Dayre, in St. Nicholas , Feb. 1886

Labels: laura ingalls wilder

- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM