Observe, my child, this pretty scene,
And note the air of pleasure keen
With which the widow's orphan boy
Toots his tin horn, his only toy.
What need of costly gifts has he?
The widow has nowhere to flee,
And ample noise his horn emits
To drive the widow into fits.
Moral:
The philosophic mind can see
The uses of adversity.
~~
Ellis Parker Butler (1869-1937)
from Leslie's Monthly, December 1902
[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]
Ellis Parker Butler biography
(Illustration by B. Cory Kilvert, Leslie's Monthly)
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