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SOME P’S AND Q’S

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 14, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 20.

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SOME P’S AND Q’S

By Elizabeth Carpenter

PRAY, little lads and lassies gay, One lesson do not lose; As through the world you wend your way, Oh, mind your P’s and Q’s!
For while P stands for pears and plums, For pleasantness and plays, For patience and for promptitude, For peace, politeness, praise;
Yet, lackaday! it leads in pert, In pinches, pests, and pain, Perverse, and petulant, and pry, And also in profane!
Q stands for Quaker quietness, For quinces, quality, For quickness, and for queenliness, For quaint, and quittance free;
But then, it heralds quake and quail, And querulous — indeed, All quibbles, quarrels, quips, and quirks, And quacks, it serves at need.
Then watch them, little maids and men; For folks will soon excuse Full many a fault and foible when You mind your P’s and Q’s.
—Elizabeth Carpenter, in St. Nicholas.