A Nurse tells a Mother wanting to see her new baby boy a Fairy must have changed it as it looked not as it should. The Mother disagreed; all Mothers would.
Mothers love their babies regardless of what others think.
JBR Collection
“Give me a son!” The blessing sent,
Were ever parents more content?
How partial are their closing eyes;
No child is half so fair and wise.
Waked to the mornings pleasing care,
The Mother rose, and sought her heir.
She saw the Nurse, like one possessed,
With wringing hands and sobbing breast.
“Sure some disaster has befel:
Speak, Nurse, I hope the boy is well.”
“Dear Madam, think me not to blame,
Invisible the Fairy came:
Your precious babe is hence conveyed,
And in its place a changeling laid.
Where are the father’s mouth and nose,
The mother’s eyes, as black as sloes?
Sec here, a shocking, awkward creature,
That speaks a fool in every feature.”
“The woman’s blind,” the Mother cries;
“I see wit sparkle in his eyes.”
“Lord, Madam, what a squinting leer!
No doubt the Fairy has been here.”
Just as she spoke, a pigmy Sprite
Pops through the keyhole, swift as light;
Perched on the cradle’s top he stands,
And thus her folly reprimands:–
“Whence sprung the vain, conceited lie,
That we the world with fools supply?
What! give our sprightly race away,
For the dull helpless sons of clay!
Besides, by partial fondness shown,
Like you, we dote upon our own.
Where yet was ever found a mother,
Who’d give her baby for another?
And s hould we change for human breed,
Well might we pass for fools indeed.”