I Took Their Hands and Followed

I Took Their Hands and Followed
Mrs. Roy L. Peifer

My dishes went unwashed today,
I didn't make the bed,
I took their hands and followed
Where their eager footsteps led.

Oh yes, we went adventuring,
My little ones and I...
Exploring all the great outdoors
Beneath the summer sky

We waded in a crystal stream,
We wandered through a wood...
My kitchen wasn't swept today
But life was gay and good.

We found a cool, sun-dappled glade
And now my children know
How Mother Bunny hides her nest,
Where jack-in-the-pulpit grows.

We watched a robin feed her young,
We climbed a sunlit hill...
Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky,
We plucked a daffodil.

That my house was neglected,
That I didn't brush the stairs,
In twenty years, no one on earth
Will know, or even care.

But that I've helped my little ones
To noble stature grow,
In twenty years, the whole wide world
May look and see and know.