Hug the Prince

Bennett has spent the better part of this day reading, "The Prince and the Pauper". We were reading together in my room when he decided to inform me of an interesting point in his book.

"Mom, did you know that the King in this book has a brother who's name is Hug?"

"Really?! That's an odd name."

"Ya. That's what I thought. Hug the Prince. Ha! Look, they spell it H-U-G-H."

Smiling and shaking my head...then moving on to a case of the giggles, "Honey, you pronounce that 'hew'."

"Oh. I thought that would be a strange name for a parent to give a kid. So then I started calling him 'hug-huh' through-out the rest of the book."

O, the perils of combining the English language and a 9 year old boy.

You Mustn't Quit

Another wonderful poem the kids and I read in school today. It is inspiring to remember such words of encouragement when the going gets rough:

Don't Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, you must - but don't you quit

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow -
You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt -
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you mustn't quit.

(anonymous)