I dreamed I found a sunlit room
  Filled with a delicate perfume,
  Where, moaning their sweet lives away,
  A thousand lovely flowers lay. 
  They drooped, so pale, and wan, and weak,
  With hardly strength enough to speak,
  With stems so crushed and leaves so torn
  It was too dreadful to be borne! 
  And one white lily raised her head
  From off her snowy flower bed. 
  And sighed, “Please tell the children, oh! 
  They should not treat the flowers so! 
  They plucked us when we were so gay,
  And then they threw us all away
  To wither in the sun all day! 
  We all must fade, but we’ll forgive
  If they’ll let other flowers live!”

[Illustration]

[Illustration:  Puppy Goops]

PUPPY GOOPS

  Candy in the cushions
    Of the easy-chair;
  Raisins in the sofa—­
    How did they get there? 
  The little Goop who’s greedy
    Does it every day,
  Like a little puppy,
    Hiding bones away!

[Illustration]

[Illustration:  Exaggeration]

EXAGGERATION

  Don’t try to tell a story
    To beat the one you’ve heard;
  For if you try, you’re apt to lie,
    And that would be absurd!

  Don’t try to be more funny
    Than any one in school;
  For if you’re not, they’ll laugh a lot,
    And think you are a fool!

[Illustration]

[Illustration:  Noise!  Noise!  Noise!]

NOISE!  NOISE!  NOISE!

  Do you slam the door? 
    Do you drag your feet? 
  Making noise enough for four
  Hundred thousand Goops, or more,
    Tearing up the street?

  Clattering down the stairs,
    Storming through the hall,
  Pounding floors, upsetting chairs,
  Do you think your father cares
    For your noise, at all?

[Illustration]

[Illustration:  Stealing Rides]

STEALING RIDES

  I thought I saw a little Goop
    Who hung behind a cart;
  I looked again.  He’d fallen off! 
    It gave me such a start! 
  “If he were killed, some day,” I said,
    “’Twould break his mother’s heart!”

[Illustration]

[Illustration:  Untidy Goops]

UNTIDY GOOPS

  I think you are a Goop, because
  You never shut your bureau drawers,
    You do not close the door! 
  You leave your water in the bowl,
  You put your peelings in the coal! 
    I’ve told you that before!

[Illustration]

[Illustration:  A Goop Party]

A GOOP PARTY

  “Please come to my party!” said Jenny to Prue;
  “I’m going to have Willy, and Nelly, and you;
  I’m going to have candy and cake and ice-cream,
  We’ll play Hunt-the-Slipper, we’ll laugh and we’ll scream.