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Title: Grandfather Stork
Author: Katharine Pyle [
More Titles by Pyle]
A very naughty boy was John;
He quarreled with his food,
And would not eat his bread and milk,
As all good children should.
It grieved his kind mamma to see
How thin and thinner grew
Her little John, in spite of all
That she could say or do.
Above the chimney Father Stork
Heard all that Johnny said,
And how each day he pushed away
The bowl of milk and bread.
And so it was, when kind mamma
Had left the house one day,
In through the kitchen door he came
And carried John away.
Upon the roof the little storks
Live high up in the sky,
And far below them in the street
They hear the folks go by.
The old stork brings them, in his beak,
The eels and frogs for food;
But these he will not let them have
Unless they're very good.
Such things poor Johnny could not eat;
And as he sat and cried,
He thought of all the bread and milk
He used to push aside.
"If I were only home again,
I would be good," he said,
"And never, never turn away
From wholesome milk and bread."
If little John was thin before,
Now thinner every day
He grew, until you'd think the wind
Would carry him away.
So, when at last he was so lean
His bones seemed poking through,
There came a sudden gust of wind,
And, puff! away he blew.
And when it blew him to the street,
How fast he hurried home!
And, oh, how glad his mother was
To see her Johnny come!
But gladder still she was to find
That he had grown so good,
And never now would turn away
From wholesome simple food.
[The end]
Katharine Pyle's poem: Grandfather Stork
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