Poems (Lambert)/Apple Dumplings

by Mary Eliza Perine Tucker Lambert

APPLE DUMPLINGS.

BY REQUEST.

GAZE not upon my outside, friend,
 With scorn or with disgust—
Judge not, until you condescend
 To look beneath the crust.

Rough and unsightly is my shell,
 But you just dues will render;
And to the world the truth will tell,
 And say my heart is tender.

The young may scorn my olden ways,
 With their new-fashioned notions;
The old the insult soon repays
 By claiming double portions.

'Tis true, like modern Misses, gay,
 The truth is sad, distressing!
But I must now say out my say—
 I need a little dressing!

My sauce, my rich apparel, hides
 My ugly form from sight;
The goodness of my heart, besides,
 Will always come to light.

Then judge not by the surface, dear;
 Look deeper at the heart:
Above the faults of earth appear
 Beneath the better part.