Classic Poem

" AH , little boy! I see
You have a wooden spade.
Into this sand you dig
So deep — for what? " I said.
" There's more rich gold, " said he,
" Down under where I stand,
Than twenty elephants
Could move across the land. "

" Ah, little girl with wool! —
What are you making now? "
" Some stockings for a bird,
To keep his legs from snow. "
And there those children are,
So happy, small, and proud:
The boy that digs his grave,
The girl that knits her shroud.