Poem by Edith Matilda Thomas

The Old Doll

         (Just after Christmas)

    Little one, little one, open your arms,
      Now are your wishes come true, come true!
    Here is a love with a thousand charms,
      And see! she is reaching her hands out to you!
    Put the old doll by, asleep let her lie,
      And open your arms to welcome the new.

    Little one, little one, play your sweet part,
      Mother-love lavishes treasure untold.
    Whisper fond words, and close to your heart,
      Your warm little heart, the new idol enfold.
    ('Tis so with us all,--to worship we fall
      Before the new shrine, forgetting the old!)

   *       *       *       *       *

    Little one, little one, wherefore that sigh?
      Weary of playing the long day through?
    But there's something that looks like a tear in your eye,
      And your lips--why, your lips are quivering, too!
    Do I guess aright?--it is coming night,
      And you cry for the old--you are tired of the new?

    Little one, little one, old loves are best;
      And the heart still clings though the hands loose their hold!
    Take the old doll back, in your arms she shall rest,
      When you wander away to the dreamland fold.
    (With all, even so,--ere to sleep we go,
      The wavering heart wavers back to the old!)

1. Her Christmas Present
2. Refreshments for Santa Claus
3. The Firebrand (Northern Ohio, Christmas Eve, 1804)
4. The Christmas Sheaf
5. “I Ought to Mustn't”

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