Poems (Curwen)/Baby's Prayer

by Annie Isabel Curwen

Baby's Prayer.

Mamma had carried the baby upstairs
While she heard the children's evening prayers,
And baby looked with her big grey eyes
At the kneeling figures with much surprise.

The solemn looks of the merry young band
Were something she could not understand:
And gravely she listened, as wee Willie prayed,
"Bless papa, and mamma, and sisters," he said.

Then, as baby's bath was waiting below,
Down again mother and baby must go.
And soon the pet was undressed and fed,
And ready to lay in her cradle bed.

"Now, little darling, creep close to my breast,
And I'll sing you to sleep, e'er I lay you to rest.
The stars are beginning to peep in the sky.
Hush-a -bye, baby, hush-a-bye, bye.

But baby wriggled off mother's knee,
And down by her cradle side knelt she,
Then, closing her eyes, she bowed her head,
"Papa, mamma, sissies," she said.

Then back to her mother's arms she went,
On her winsome face a look of content.
Surely Heaven accepted the prayer
From the guileless lips of the baby fair.