A Beautiful Moment

We were in the basement of our small town library for the once a week book sale.  My ten year old daughter and her dad were perusing a small wooden bookshelf with old books.

She brought one over to show me because of the beautiful cover.  As we read the title, Beauties of Tennyson, both our eyes widened.

Backtracking a bit: we recently finished the Little House series.  Those stories have become part of the fabric of our family and we were sad to be done living Laura’s life through her books.

It was a perfectly new book, beautifully bound in green cloth with a gilded pattern pressed into it.  The smooth, straight, gilt edges of the pages looked like solid gold.  On the cover two curving scrolls of lovely, fancy letters made the words: Tennyson’s Poems.

~From Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

We carefully opened the cover to check the date: 1885…Laura’s time period!  My daughter opened it and found “Song From Maud.”

Laura tried to read again her favorite of Tennyson’s poems:

Come into the garden, Maud,

For the black bat, night, has flown,

Come into the garden, Maud,

I am here at the gate alone;

And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad

And the musk of the rose is blown.

~From Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

My daughter’s face flushed as she gingerly held the book in her hands.  “You have to get that book,” I said.  She left the proud owner of Beauties of Tennyson.

Isn’t it beautiful?  Look at the dedication:

A reward for commiting portions of scripture during the year 1885.

From your teacher,

[teacher’s name]

Jan 1, 1886.

What else did we do this week?  A lot.  Outside engagements every day.  Too many errands.  Reading, writing and arithmetic.  There are times I feel I’m not managing it all very well.  We rarely get all the schoolwork I planned crossed off my list.  The house gets far too messy.  I’m often trying to figure out what’s for dinner at 4 pm.  I snap at the people I love most.

But this moment in the basement of the library was perfect.

My growing-up-way-too-fast little girl had tears in her eyes over a 128 year old book of poetry. I must be doing something right.  Sharing quality literature, poetry, and music is having an impact on their lives, now and hopefully forever.

I’m going to store this memory, dwell on it, and let it overshadow other less-than-perfect moments.

I’m linking up–click over and see what other homeschoolers are doing.