To our first critics send we these
In memory of two years ago
When, in the 'Children's Room' below,
We laboured at our poesies.
And often after supper time,
Miss Georgie laid her work aside
(Kindest of critics) to decide
The merits of some halting rhyme.
Then by the Syndicate of Three
The red-hot verse was duly tried—
This thing or that was set aside,
Or shapéd to perfecte degree.
And far into the night we sate,—
(With ink and thoughts that gaily flowed)
Dashed from the lyric to the ode
Nor e'en an epic seemed too great.
The morn brought council—ever wise,
And ever kind and freely given,
As though the writers twain had striven
In verse that should outlive the skies.
And you shall find, if you will look,
How much your words have stayed with us,
When verse was written thus and thus
Among the pages of 'Our Book'.
For even now, as then, we feel
The rhyming brochure we submit
Will reach, when you have studied it,
Our Court of Ultimate Appeal.