With time our notions allus change, <br />An' years make old idees seem strange- <br />Take Mary there- time was when she <br />Thought one child made a family, <br />An' when our eldest, Jim, was born <br />She used to say, both night an' morn': <br />'One little one to love an' keep, <br />To guard awake, an' watch asleep; <br />To bring up right an' lead him through <br />Life's path is all we ought to do.' <br /> <br />Two years from then our Jennie came, <br />But Mary didn't talk the same; <br />'Now that's just right,' she said to me, <br />'We've got the proper family- <br />A boy an' girl, God sure is good; <br />It seems as though He understood <br />That I've been hopin' every way <br />To have a little girl some day; <br />Sometimes I've prayed the whole night through- <br />One ain't enough; we needed two.' <br /> <br />Then as the months went rollin' on, <br />One day the stork brought little John, <br />An' Mary smiled an' said to me; <br />'The proper family is three; <br />Two boys, a girl to romp an' play- <br />Jus' work enough to fill the day. <br />I never had enough to do, <br />The months that we had only two; <br />Three's jus' right, pa, we don't want more.' <br />Still time went on an' we had four. <br /> <br />An' that was years ago, I vow, <br />An' we have six fine children now; <br />An' Mary's plumb forgot the day <br />She used to sit an' sweetly say <br />That one child was enough for her <br />To love an' give the proper care; <br />One, two or three or four or five- <br />Why, goodness gracious, sakes alive, <br />If God should send her ten to-night, <br />She'd vow her fam'ly was jus' right!<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-right-family/
