Children, you are very little,
And your bones are very brittle;
If you would grow great and stately,
You must try to walk sedately.
You must still be bright and quiet,
And content with simple diet;
And remain, through all bewild'ring,
Innocent and honest children.
Happy hearts and happy faces,
Happy play in grassy places -
That was how, in ancient ages,
Children grew to kings and sages.
But the unkind and the unruly,
And the sort who eat unduly,
They must never hope for glory -
Theirs is quite a different story !
Cruel children, crying babies,
All grow up as geese and gabies,
Hates, as their age increases,
By their nephews and their nieces.
Robert Louis Stevenson