The Boots of a Household - Poem by Laura E. Richards

They came in beauty, side by side,
They filled one house with noise;
And now they're trotting far and wide,
On feet of girls and boys.

The self-same shoemaker did bend
O'er every heel and toe;
Shaped all their upper leathers fair, -
Where are those leathers now?

One pair is kicking 'gainst the bench,
The patient bench, at school;
And two are wading through the mud,
And splashing in the pool.

"The sea, the blue, lone sea," hath one.
He left it on the beach;
A merry wave came dancing up,
And bore it out of reach.

One sleeps where depths of slimy bog
Are glossed with grasses o'er;
One hasty plunge - it loosed its hold,
And sank to rise no more.

One pair - aha! I see them now,
And know them past all doubt;
For through each leather, gaping wide,
A rosy toe peeps out.

And parted thus, old, dusty, torn,
They travel far and wide,
Who in the shop, in shining rows,
Sat lately side by side.

And thus they frolic, frolic there,
And thus they caper here;
But great and small, and torn and all,
To mother's heart are dear.