`` Oh , do not frown Upon this crown Of green pinks and blue geranium But think of me When this you see , And put it on your cranium . '' `` O Molly , you will never hear the last of that if Grif gets it , '' said Jill , as the applause subsided , for the boys pronounced it `` tip-top . '' `` Do n't care , he gets the worst of it any way , for there is a pin in that rose , and if he goes to smell the mayflowers underneath he will find a thorn to pay for the tack he put in my rubber boot . I know he will play me some joke to-night , and I mean to be first if I can , '' answered Molly , settling the artificial wreath round the orange-colored canoe which held her effusion . `` Now , Merry , read yours : you always have sweet poems ; '' and Jill folded her hands to listen with pleasure to something sentimental . `` I ca n't read the poems in some of mine , because they are for you ; but this little verse you can hear , if you like : I 'm going to give that basket to Ralph . He said he should hang one for his grandmother , and I thought that was so nice of him , I 'd love to surprise him with one all to himself . He 's always so good to us ; '' and Merry looked so innocently earnest that no one smiled at her kind thought or the unconscious paraphrase she had made of a famous stanza in her own `` little verse . '' `` To one who teaches me The sweetness and the beauty Of doing faithfully And cheerfully my duty . '' `` He will like that , and know who sent it , for none of us have pretty pink paper but you , or write such an elegant hand , '' said Molly , admiring the delicate white basket shaped like a lily , with the flowers inside and the note hidden among them , all daintily tied up with the palest blush-colored ribbon . `` Well , that 's no harm . He likes pretty things as much as I do , and I made my basket like a flower because I gave him one of my callas , he admired the shape so much ; '' and Merry smiled as she remembered how pleased Ralph looked as he went away carrying the lovely thing . `` I think it would be a good plan to hang some baskets on the doors of other people who do n't expect or often have any . I 'll do it if you can spare some of these , we have so many . Give me only one , and let the others go to old Mrs. Tucker , and the little Irish girl who has been sick so long , and lame Neddy , and Daddy Munson . It would please and surprise them so . Will we ? '' asked Ed , in that persuasive voice of his . All agreed at once , and several people were made very happy by a bit of spring left at their doors by the May elves who haunted the town that night playing all sorts of pranks . Such a twanging of bells and rapping of knockers ; such a scampering of feet in the dark ; such droll collisions as boys came racing round corners , or girls ran into one another 's arms as they crept up and down steps on the sly ; such laughing , whistling , flying about of flowers and friendly feeling -- it was almost a pity that May-day did not come oftener .
Molly got home late , and found that XXXXX had been before her , after all ; for she stumbled over a market-basket at her door , and on taking it in found a mammoth nosegay of purple and white cabbages , her favorite vegetable .
Grif Molly Munson cranium effusion geranium knockers mayflowers night stanza