Be Kind to Thy Father

Be kind to thy fa­ther

for when thou wast young

Who loved thee so fond­ly as he?

He caught the first ac­cents that fell from thy tongue

And joined in thy in­no­cent glee.

Be kind to thy fa­ther

for now he is old

His locks in­ter­min­gled with gray

His foot­steps are fee­ble

once fear­less and bold:

Thy father is pass­ing away.

Be kind to thy mo­ther

for lo! on her brow

May trac­es of sor­row be seen;

Oh! well may’st thou cher­ish and com­fort her now

For lov­ing and kind she has been.

Remember thy mo­ther

for thee will she pray

As long as God giv­eth her breath;

With ac­cents of kind­ness

then cheer her lone way

E’en to the dark val­ley of death.

Be kind to thy bro­ther; his heart will have dearth

If the smiles of thy joy be with­drawn;

The flow­ers of feel­ing will fade at the birth

If love and af­fect­ion be gone;

Be kind to thy bro­ther

wher­ev­er you are;

The love of a bro­ther shall be

An or­na­ment pur­er and rich­er by far

Than pearls from the depths of the sea.

Be kind to thy sis­ter; not ma­ny may know

The depth of true sis­ter­ly love;

The wealth of the ocean lies fa­thoms be­low

The sur­face that spar­kles above.

Thy kind­ness shall bring to thee ma­ny sweet hours

And bless­ings thy path­way shall crown;

Affection shall leave thee a gar­land of flow­ers

More pre­cious than wealth or re­nown.