“
The Sailor-boy’s Gossip You say, dear mamma, it is good to be talking
With those who will kindly endeavour to teach.
And I think I have learnt something while I was walking
Along with the sailor-boy down on the beach.
He told me of lands where he soon will be going,
Where humming-birds scarcely are bigger than bees,
Where the mace and the nutmeg together are growing,
And cinnamon formeth the bark of some trees.
He told me that islands far out in the ocean
Are mountains of coral that insects have made,
And I freely confess I had hardly a notion
That insects could world in the way that he said.
He spoke of wide deserts where the sand-clouds are flying.
No shade for the brow, and no grass for the feet;
Where camels and travelers often lie dying,
Gasping for water and scorching with heat.
He told me of places away in the East,
Where topaz, and ruby, and sapphires are found:
Where you never are safe from the snake and the beast,
For the serpent and tiger and jackal abound.
I thought our own Thames was a very great stream,
With its waters so fresh and its currents so strong;
But how tiny our largest of rivers must seem
To those he had sailed on, three thousand miles long.
He speaks, dear mamma, of so many strange places,
With people who neither have cities nor kings.
Who wear skins on their shoulders, paint on their faces,
And live on the spoils which their hunting-field brings.
Oh! I long, dear mamma, to learn more of these stories,
From books that are written to please and to teach,
And I wish I could see half the curious glories
The sailor-boy told me of down on the beach.
Eliza Cook.
”
”
Charlotte M. Mason (Elementary Geography: Full Illustrations & Study Guides!)