Is It?

(Permission Cassino's Little Folks.)

Tell me, sailor, tell me do,
Is the ocean really blue,
Like my father's writing-ink
Or the bluing by the sink?

For I almost think, you know,
That it is n't truly so!

When I dip it gently up
In my pail or in a cup,
All the water there I find
Is like any other kind!

- Emily Rose Burt, 1909.