The Busy Bee

How doth the little busy Bee
     Improve each shining Hour,
And gather Honey all the day
     From every opening Flower!
How skilfully she builds her Cell!
     How neat she spreads the Wax!
And labours hard to store it well
     With the sweet Food she makes.
In Works of Labour or of Skill
     I would be busy too:
For Satan finds some Mischief still
     For idle Hands to do. 
In Books, or Work, or healthful Play
     Let my first Years be past,
That I may give for every Day
     Some good Account at last. [1715] 
"How doth the Little Bee" is one of  Isaac Watts's rather tiresome, preachy poems that well bred Victorian children were expected to memorize. Lewis Carroll parodies it in Alice in Wonderland: 
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws! [image error] The crocodile is not my picture. It's from a site about Australia.