Children, you are very little, <br />And your bones are very brittle; <br />If you would grow great and stately, <br />You must try to walk sedately. <br /> <br />You must still be bright and quiet, <br />And content with simple diet; <br />And remain, through all bewild'ring, <br />Innocent and honest children. <br /> <br />Happy hearts and happy faces, <br />Happy play in grassy places-- <br />That was how in ancient ages, <br />Children grew to kings and sages. <br /> <br />But the unkind and the unruly, <br />And the sort who eat unduly, <br />They must never hope for glory-- <br />Theirs is quite a different story! <br /> <br />Cruel children, crying babies, <br />All grow up as geese and gabies, <br />Hated, as their age increases, <br />By their nephews and their nieces.<br /><br />Robert Louis Stevenson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/good-and-bad-children/
