Page 349 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

A BOY’S POBM ON WASHINGTON.
[Written earpftSsly for this volume, ]
T H E Y ’R E making a fuss about George’s birthday—
Who cares for his birthday ?
Not T;
’Tisn’t much of a day for us boys after all—
I'd rather have Fourth of July-

Of course, ev’rybody ha1? got to be born,
And a birthday will come now and then,
I know folks who have it about every year,
But that doesn't make them great men.

George hacked at a cherry tree, so it is said,
And then wouldn't make an excuse;
Why should he? His father had seen what he did,
To lie would have been of no use.

Our counlrv once wanted a father, you know;
✓ ' S '
If George hadn't then been around
Some other would soon have applied for the place,
And a good situation have found.

Besides, it's a shame to make George the father
Of a country so groat and so grand,
When nothing whatever is said of a mother—
Why, that’s a mean slight to our land.

Uncle Ben's got a picture of George in a boat,
A-crossing the Delaware River.
Well, how would lie eross it except in a boat ?
Wade through it, get wet and then shiver?

My history says that a winter he spent
A t a place that is called Valley Forge;