What Children Know

Many things the children know –
Where the ripest berries grow,
Where the first pale violets peep
Shyly from their winter’s sleep,
And how many blue eggs rest
In the robin’s woven nest.

Children know where echoes hide
Over on the brown hillside,
How to tell a fortune bright
By the daisy petals white,
How the honey you may sup
From the meadow clover’s cup.

Something else the children know –
Oh, they learned it long ago!
Mother’s shoulder is the best
Place in all the world to rest.
And the sweetest dreams belong
To a mother’s twilight song!

Source: The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery