With fluffy swansdown round the face,
Wearing her pretty Christmas gown
And little frill of dainty lace,
Came with her mother into church, on Christmas
Eve, with timid grace.
Dear Nanny sat there in her pew,
The Christmas-greens with music stirred,
The choir sang like a nest of larks,
But never once she caught a word.
For she was singing to herself and hers was all the
song she heard.
"My muff, my hood!" dear Nanny sang,
"My coat, my dress, my golden ring,
My waxen doll, my picture-book,
My stocking full of everything"--
So sang the sober little maid, so softly no one
heard her sing.
O sweetly carolled forth the choir
Their Christmas songs, and never knew
How, in her little simple tune
Which after all was just as true,
A-sitting meekly down below dear little Nanny
carolled too.
by Mary E. Wilkins, 1889
