Much enjoyment. ( )

The pictures are nicely reproduced on Project Gutenberg, although I read directly online so the text did cover up portions of some. If you download the ePub or otherwise manipulate, you may be able to print & frame your favorite pictures.

I wanted to like the verses, but I couldn't. They seemed clumsy and superficial to me, with very little of the liveliness of Beatrix Potter or the beauty of Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Probably the best, with my favorite pictures, is:

ON THE BRIDGE.

If I could see a little fish—
That is what I just now wish!
I want to see his great round eyes
Always open in surprise.

I wish a water rat would glide
Slowly to the other side;
Or a dancing spider sit
On the yellow flags a bit.

I think I'll get some stones to throw,
And watch the pretty circles show.
Or shall we sail a flower-boat,
And watch it slowly—slowly float?

That's nice—because you never know
How far away it means to go;
And when to-morrow comes, you see,
It may be in the great wide sea.
( )