The Family

[65 words]

The family is like a book—
The children are the leaves,
The parents are the covers
That protecting beauty gives.

At first the pages of the book
Are blank and purely fair,
But time soon writes memories
And paints pictures there.

Love is the little golden clasp
That bindeth up the trust;
O, break it not, lest all the leaves
Should scatter and be lost.

Samuel G. Dye