Classic Poem

" Do angels wear white dresses, say?
Always, or only in the summer? Do
Their birthdays have to come like mine, in May?
Do they have scarlet sashes then, or blue?

" When little Jessie died last night,
How could she walk to Heaven — it is so far?
How did she find the way without a light?
There was n't even any moon or star.

" Will she have red or golden wings?
Then will she have to be a bird, and fly?
Do they take men like presidents and kings
In hearses with black plumes clear to the sky?

" How old is God? Has he gray hair?
Can He see yet? Where did He have to stay
Before — you know — he had made — Anywhere?
Who does He pray to — when He has to pray?

" How many drops are in the sea?
How many stars? — — well, then, you ought to know
How many flowers are on an apple-tree?
How does the wind look when it does n't blow?

" Where does the rainbow end? And why
Did — Captain Kidd — bury the gold there? When
Will this world burn? And will the firemen try
To put the fire out with the engines then?

" If you should ever die, may we
Have pumpkins growing in the garden, so
My fairy godmother can come for me,
When there's a prince's ball, and let me go?

" Read Cinderella just once more — —
What makes — men's other wives — so mean? " I know
That I was tired, it may be cross, before
I shut the painted book for her to go.

Hours later, from a child's white bed
I heard the timid, last queer question start:
" Mamma, are you — my stepmother? " it said.
The innocent reproof crept to my heart.