In honor of Mother’s Day this Sunday, here’s a poem that appeared in The Pansy magazine in 1866:

…Mother’s Face

Three little boys talked together
….One sunny summer day,
And I leaned out of the window
….To hear what they had to say.

“The prettiest thing I ever saw,”
….One of the little boys said,
“Was a bird in grandpa’s garden,
….All black and white and red.”

“The prettiest thing I ever saw,”
….Said the second little lad,
“Was a pony at the circus;
….I wanted him awful bad.”

“I think,” said the third little fellow,
….With a grave and gentle grace,
“That the prettiest thing in all the world
….Is just my mother’s face.”

—Eben E. Rexford, in Good Cheer magazine, 1886

.

.