By Keith Thomas

Quiet sleeps the village, the women at their chores, the old men all at labor, the young men off to wars.

Quiet, quiet as the heart in steady rhythm sure, beneath the sleeping village runs life that will endure.

Nor dream of slavery is there, no pride of blood but this calm pulse which takes all time in quiet synthesis

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By William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest,-- 
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: 
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes 
The thron-ed monarch better than his crown: 
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 
The attribute to awe and majesty, 
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; 
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,-- 
It is enthron-ed in the hearts of kings,
 It is an attribute to God himself;
 And earthly power doth then show likest God's, 
When mercy seasons justice.

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By Carey Holbrook

Little houses on quiet streets,
Lawns and porches and garden swings,
Walls that listen as times repeats,
A muffled sob, or the rustle of wings;
A cradle rocks while a mother sings,
And the heart of a nation throbs and beats,
Simple and solid and homey things,
Little houses on quiet streets.

Builders of bridges and men who dare
Out of the side streets find their way,
Out in the wide world's glitter and glare,
And the wide world listens to what they say.
Kingdoms totter, and nations sway,
To the creak of an old time rocking chair
Where a mother watches a lad at play,
A builder of bridges romping there.

Little houses wher5e men grow great
Measured by worth in a nation's need,
Lawn, and garden and picket gate,
Have cradled men of a sturdy breed.
Flashing action and glowing deed,
The hope of a nation to conquer fate,
Rests where the paths of a nation lead,
In little houses where men grow great.

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NOBILITY

True worth is in being, not seeming-
     In doing, each day that goes by,
Some little good-not in dreaming
     Of great things to do by and by.
For whatever men say in their blindness
     And spite of the fancies of youth,
There's nothing so kingly as kindness,
     And nothing so royal as truth.

We get back our mete as we measure-
     We cannot do wrong and feel right,
Nor can we give pain and gain pleasure,
     For justice avenges each slight.
The air for the wing of the sparrow,
     The bush for the robin and wren
But always the path that is narrow
     And straight, for the children of men.

'Tis not in the pages of story
     The heart of its ills to beguile,
Though he who makes courtship to glory
     Gives all that he hath for her smile.
For when from her heights he has won her,
     Alas! It is only to prove
That nothing's so sacred as honor,
     And nothing so loyal as love!

We cannot make bargains for blisses,
     Nor catch them like fishes in nets;
And sometimes the thing our life misses
     Helps more than the thing which it gets.
For good lieth not in pursuing,
     Nor gaining of great nor of small,
But just in the doing and doing
     As we would be done by, is all.

Through envy, through malice, through hating,
     Against the world, early and late,
No jot of our courage abating-
     Our part is to work and to wait.
And slight is the sting of his trouble
     Whose winnings are less than his worth;
For he who is honest is noble,
     Whatever his fortunes or birth.

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Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933)

So it’s home again, and home again, America for me!
My heart is turning home again, and there I long to be,
In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

Oh, it’s home again, and home again, America for me!
I want a ship that’s westward bound to plough the rolling sea,
To the blessed Land of Room Enough beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.

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JOKES

TEACHER: "George Washington not only chopped down his
father's cherry tree, but also admitted doing it. Now do you know why his father didn't punish him?"

JOHNNY: "Because George still had the ax in his hand."

TEACHER: George, go to the map and find North America.

GEORGE: Here it is!

TEACHER: Correct. Now class, who discovered America?

CLASS: George!

TEACHER: What is the chemical formula for water?

SARAH: "H I J K L M N O!!"

TEACHER: What are you talking about?

SARAH: Yesterday you said it's H to O!