Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 1, Number 16, DeMotte, Jasper County, 10 November 1932 — PENNY THINGS [ARTICLE]

PENNY THINGS

By DOUGLAS MALLOCH

THE little steps of little feet go romping here and there; I hear them in the crowded street, I hear them ev’rywhere; And little feet find life a song and youth a time of play. The journey short, however long, with joys along the way, The street an alley, little more, the children are content; They find the windows of a store a land of wonderment. Though stories tell of queens and kings, and silk and lace and ruff, The windows full of penny things are wonderful enough. I wish that we could go our way as little children, too, And find our pleasure in today, as little children do. They have their dreams as well as ours, their castles gilt and glass, And yet they pause to pick the flow’rs that blossom where they pass, However bright the rainbow gleams, how great the pot of gold, The children know that dreams are dreams--but here’s a hand to hold, And here’s a window and a toy, and here’s a top that sings; They never overlook the joy God puts in penny things. We build our castles in the air, our battlements in Spain, But, if we never journey there, the other joys remain. So let us do as children do, who dream of fairyland, And yet who know the pleasure, too, of pleasure close at hand. I hope we never dream so much, as through the world we go. Whatever heights we ever touch, whatever depths we know, We never feel the thrill of yore, the thrill that childhood brings, Before the windows of a store just full of penny things! © 1932, Douglas Malloch.--WNU Service