Page:The works of Anna Laetitia Barbauld volume 1.djvu/290

206 Anxiously fond, though oft her spectacles With elfin cunning hid, and oft the pins Drawn from her ravelled stocking, might have soured One less indulgent.— At intervals my mother's voice was heard, Urging dispatch : briskly the work went on, All hands employed to wash, to rinse, to wring, To fold, and starch, and clap, and iron, and plait. Then would I sit me down, and ponder much Why washings were. Sometimes through hollow bowl Of pipe amused we blew, and sent aloft The floating bubbles ; little dreaming then To see, Mongolfier, thy silken ball Ride buoyant through the clouds—so near approach The sports of children and the toils of men. Earth, air, and sky, and ocean, hath its bubbles, And verse is one of them—this most of all.