.
.
      The chimney sweeper

When my mother died I was very young,
And my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry  «'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!»
So your chimneys I sweep, & in soot I sleep.

There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head,
That curl'd like a lamb's back, was shav'd: so I said
«Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair».

And so he was quiet, & that very night,
As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
Were all of them lock'd up in coffins of black.

And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he open'd the coffins & set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run,

And wash in a river, and shine in the Sun.

Then naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind;
And the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd have God for his father, & never want joy.

Ana so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags & our brushes to work,
Tho' the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.

<......................>