StoryTitle("caps", "Ready for Duty ") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PagePoem(73, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Daffy-down-dilly came up in the cold, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Through the brown mold.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Although the March breezes blew keen on her face, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Although the white snow lay on many a place. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Daffy-down-dilly had heard under ground", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The sweet rushing sound", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of the streams, as they burst off their white winter chains—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of the whistling spring winds and the pattering rains. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Now then,\" thought Daffy, deep down in her heart, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"It's time I should start!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So she pushed her soft leaves through the hard frozen ground,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Quite up to the surface, and then she looked round. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There was snow all about her—gray clouds overhead, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The trees all looked dead.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then how do you think Daffy-down-dilly felt,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When the sun would not shine and the ice would not melt?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Cold weather!\" thought Daffy, still working away ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "\"The earth's hard to-day!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There's but a half inch of my leaves to be seen, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And two-thirds of that is more yellow than green.\" ", "") ?>
PagePoem(74, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"I can't do much yet—but I 'll do what I can. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "It 's well I began!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For unless I can manage to lift up my head,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The people will think that the Spring herself's dead.\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So, little by little, she brought her leaves out,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "All clustered about;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And then her bright flowers began to unfold,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Till Daffy stood robed in her spring green and gold. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "O Daffy-down-dilly! so brave and so true!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "I wish all were like you!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So ready for duty in all sorts of weather,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And holding forth courage and beauty together.", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("85", SmallCapsText("—Anna B. Warner.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
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