goodnight sweetmaid

It's from a poem by Charles Kingsley, and goes

"Be good, sweet maid, and let who can be clever; do lovely things, not dream them, all day long; and so make Life, and Death, and that For Ever, One grand sweet song."

Never cared for the sentiment myself, but then the author was a Victorian.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

'Good night, sweet maid, And let who will be cleaver... ' My dad used to send me to bed with his version of a quote from Charles Kingsley:

A Farewell

I My fairest child, I have no song to give you; No lark could pipe to skies so dull and grey: Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave you For every day.

II Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long: And so make life, death, and that vast for-ever One grand, sweet song.

-- Charles Kingsley

The Victorians were nothing if not sentimental. But it's also the kind of thing one would say to a small female child. Heavens save us from a clever one! When I was in second grade, I organized all the kids in my class to stop up the drains in the school, then turn on all the water to see what would happen...... I was not a "good, sweet maid".....

Me neither! Helped most if the kids from the village school build a dam across the water meadow and make a pond... The cows made a fuss when their water vanished!

We were budding scientists!!