Little Boy Blue

Little boy blue, come blow your horn,
The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn;
But where is the boy who looks after the sheep?
He's under the haystack fast asleep.
Will you wake him? No, not I,
For if I do, he'll be sure to cry.

     --Anonymous nursery rhyme

An Anonymous Thought on Reciprocation

The universe pays every man in his own coin; if you smile, it smiles upon you in return; if you frown, you will be frowned at; if you sing, you will be invited into merry company; if you think, you will be entertained by thinkers; and if you love the world and earnestly seek for the good that is therein, you will be surrounded by loving friends, and nature will pour into your lap the treasures of the earth. Censure, criticize and hate, and you will be censured, criticized and hated by your fellow men.
     --Author Unknown

Source: Thoughts from the Mountains (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1992)

" . . . if you think, you will be

entertained by thinkers; . . . "

The Closet Professor: On Clothes

The Closet Professor: On Clothes: "On Clothes"   by Kahlil Gibran And the weaver said, Speak to us of Clothes.      And he answered:      Your clothes conceal much of your ...

"On Clothes" is one of the prose poems in The Prophet (1923) by Kahlil Gibran. To read the entire prose poem, click on the link above. To read an article about The Prophet, click here.

Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

Picture for Today

Nude Study of Thomas E. McKeller

by John Singer Sargent

To view the painting above in a larger size and to read the information about the painting at the website of the John Singer Sargent Virtual Gallery, click here.

To read an article about American painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), click here.

What Walt Whitman Thought of Justice

THOUGHT
by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Of Justice -- as if Justice could be any thing but the same ample law,
     expounded by natural judges and saviors,
As if it might be this thing or that thing, according to decisions.


Source: Leaves of Grass (1892 edition) by Walt Whitman

Photo by George Collins Cox, 1887

Quotation from Dana

By the middle of July our dry meadows are merry with black-eyed Susans, which are laughing from every corner and keeping up a gay midsummer carnival . . . They seem to revel in the long days of blazing sunlight . . .  --Dana (1813-1895)

To read an article about James Dwight Dana, the author of the quotation above, click here.

Dana in 1865

Source of the quotation above: Thoughts from the Mountains (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1992)

Quotation from Donald Culross Peattie on "the voice of the whip-poor-will"

As soon as the green and violet hour of summer dusk is at hand and the bats begin to sweep the sky for midges, the voice of the whip-poor-will rises out of the hollow below my house. For it is a nostalgic and intensely American sound, and one that goes back, as we find nearly everything precious does, to childhood.  --Donald Culross Peattie (1898-1964)

(To read an article about Donald Culross Peattie, click here.

Eastern whip-poor-will

Source of the quotation above: Thoughts from the Mountains (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1992)

Praying Hands

Kneeling and looking very closely, one sees the two lower leaves on each stalk gently approach one another like little hands that were going to clap but thought better of it, and at last lie folded quietly as though for prayer. --Anonymous

Source: Thoughts from the Mountains (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1992)

Praying Hands by Albrecht Durer

Can You Solve This Brainteaser?

"Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin." So begins the children's book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926).

Which letter in the word BEAR can be added to the word ANIMAL to form, when the letters are rearranged, the seven-letter first name of the wife of a president of the United States? What are that first lady's first and last names?

English author of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1922.

(The seven letters of that author's name can be rearranged

to form the first name of a first lady of the United States.)

The Final Say

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars.
       HENRY VAN DYKE (1852-1933)

Come, everyone! Clap your hands!
    Shout to God with joyful praise!
For the Lord Most High is awesome.
    He is the great King of all the earth.
       THE BIBLE
       Psalm 47:1-2 (New Living Translation)