ANIMAL crackers, and cocoa to drink,  
That is the finest of suppers, I think; 
When I'm grown up and can have what I please 
I think I shall always insist upon these.

What do you choose when you're offered a treat? 
When Mother says, "What would you like best  to eat?"
Is it waffles and syrup, or cinnamon toast? 
It's cocoa and animals that I love the most!

The kitchen's the coziest place that I know: 
The kettle is singing, the stove is aglow, 
And there in the twilight, how jolly to see 
The cocoa and animals waiting for me.

Daddy and Mother dine later in state, 
With Mary to cook for them, Susan to wait;
But they don't have nearly as much fun as I 
Who eat in the kitchen with Nurse standing by; 
And Daddy once said he would like to be me 
Having cocoa and animals once more for tea ! 
 

Did you ever see a baby playing with his own toes and trying to put them into his mouth? It makes the author of this poem think of a bunch of roses.
 

THE rosy mouth and rosy toe  
Of little baby brother 
Until about a month ago
Had never met each other; 
But nowadays the neighbors sweet,
In every sort of weather, 
Half way with rosy fingers meet, 
To kiss and play together. 
 

THE night was creeping on the ground;
She crept and did not make a sound 
Until she reached the tree, and then 
She covered it, and stole again 
Along the grass beside the wall.

I heard the rustle of her shawl 
As she threw blackness everywhere 
Upon the sky and ground and air, 
And in the room where I was hid: 
But no matter what she did 
To everything that was without 
She could not put my candle out.

So I stared at the night, and she 
Stared back solemnly at me.

Here is a very little poem all about wishes. 
Where do your wishes build their nests?
A WISH is quite a tiny thing  
Just like a bird upon the wing, 
It flies away all fancy free 
And lights upon a house or tree; 
It flies across the farthest air, 
And builds a safe nest anywhere. 

Sometimes children are very cruel to people who are old and poor and a little queer. They make up rhymes to tease them and forget, I am afraid, that they should be kind and courteous to old people. What kind of person do you think the Vinegar Man was when he was young?  Do you think the children were sorry when they saw the Valentine?

THE crazy old Vinegar Man is dead! He never had missed a day before! 
Somebody went to his tumble-down shed by the Haunted House and forced the door. 
There in the litter of his pungent pans, the murky mess of his mixing place — 
Deep, sticky spiders and empty cans — with the same old frown on his sour old face.

"Vinegar - Vinegar - Vinegar Man! 
Face - us - and - chase - us - and - catch - if -you - can!
Pepper for a tongue! Pickle for a nose! 
Stick a pin in him and vinegar flows! 
Glare -at-us- swear -at-us- catch - if - you-can!
Ketchup - and - chow - chow - and -Vinegar -Man!"

Nothing but recipes and worthless junk; greasy old records of paid and due ; 
But down in the depths of a battered trunk, a queer, quaint valentine torn in two — 
Red hearts and arrows and silver lace, and a prim, dim, ladylike script that said — 
(Oh, Vinegar Man, with the sour old face!) — 
"With dearest love, from Ellen to Ned!"

"Steel - us - and - peel - us - and - drown - us -in - brine!
He pickles his heart in" — a valentine! ' 
' Vinegar for blood! Pepper for his tongue! 
Stick a pin in him and —" once he was young! " 
Glare -at-us- swear -at-us- catch - if -  you - can! " -
"With dearest love" — to the Vinegar Man!

Dingy little books of profit and loss 
(died about Saturday, so they say), 
And a queer, quaint valentine torn across . . .
torn, but it never was thrown away! 
"With dearest love from Ellen to Ned" — 
"Old Pepper Tongue! Pickles his heart in brine!" 
The Vinegar Man is a long time dead: 
he died when he tore his valentine.