C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

How Doth the Little Busy Bee

From ‘Divine and Moral Songs for Children’

HOW doth the little busy bee

Improve each shinging hour,

And gather honey all the day

From every opening flower.

How skillfully she builds her cell;

How neat she spreads her wax,

And labors hard to store it well

With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labor or of skill,

I would be busy too;

For Satan finds some mischief still

For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,

Let my first years be passed;

That I may give for every day

Some good account at last.