DAILY DUTIES
It isn't always easy
To do the things you must.
Some people if they stay at home
Say they will surely rust.
But you will find the longer
You live from day to day
That you must do the little things
That daily come your way.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Little Jack Rabbit one lovely spring morning, "I'm so tired of polishing this doorknob every day and every day. I wish it would drop off."
"Goodness me, little rabbit," said Grandmother Magpie, who just then happened along, "you are a disagreeable bunny boy this morning." And the old lady magpie looked at him out of her little black eyes as much as to say: "I wish I had that bunny boy to bring up, I'd make him toe the mark."
And perhaps she would, and perhaps she wouldn't, for some people can bring up other people's children ever so much better than their own, or even themselves. Isn't that strange? Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn't.
"What are you saying to my little bunny boy?" asked Mrs. John Rabbit, putting her head out of the kitchen window and scowling at Grandmother Magpie.
"Oh, nothing much," said that meddlesome old lady bird.
"Well, you'd better not," said Mrs. Rabbit. "It's all you can do to gossip about grown-up people's affairs." And then Mrs. Rabbit shook her dusting rag up and down, and maybe once sideways, and after that she shut the window. So Grandmother Magpie flew away without another word.
"I'm glad she's gone," said the little rabbit to himself, and just then Bobbie Redvest began to sing:
"Every day a little work,
Every day a song,
Every day a kindly word
Helps us all along."
And after that he picked up a crumb and said:
"Good morning, little rabbit. Don't forget to feed the canary."
"Gracious me!" exclaimed the little bunny, "I almost forgot!" And wouldn't it have been dreadful if he had, for little Miss Canary couldn't get out of her gold cage and look for worms like all the wild birds can, you know.
Well, when the little rabbit had finished his work, he hopped out to the Sunny Meadow where Mr. Merry Sun was making the buttercups grow more yellow every day, and the daisies whiter.
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