Which Loved Best?

DESCRIPTION: "I love you, mother, said little John," but runs off to play, leaving mother to carry wood and water. "I love you, mother, said little Nell," but proceeds to pout. Little Fan also professes her love -- and helps out. So which one loved mother best?
AUTHOR: Joy Allison (source: Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood)
EARLIEST DATE: 1885 (The Prairie Farmer)
KEYWORDS: mother children work
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, pp. 117-118, "'I love you, Mother,' said little John" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: _The Prairie Farmer_, August 22, 1885, p. 11, in the column "Your Young Folks" (available on the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections), "Which Loved Best" (1 text)
Roud #25477
NOTES [201 words]: This sort of comparison of children, only one of whom does what the parent really wants, goes back at least to the "Parable of the Two Sons," Matthew 21:28-32. In this particular instance, I think the Bible does it better.
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood says this was found in some school texts. Probably true; it's the sort of thing moralizing nineteenth century editors would include to try to make children behave. The fact that no child produced the parody it deserves, I suspect it wasn't printed too often. I did find it in Mrs. Margaret J. Cushman Haven's "Bible Lessons for Little Beginners" of 1901 (available on Google Books), which seems typical. And there was at least one school text: William Henry Elson, "The Elson Readers," book three (1920), p. 101; that's also on Google Books. That was about all the stomach I had for searching.
Searching around, I found one or two other poems attributed to Joy Allison, but this was by far the most popular. (Given how awful it is, I hate to think what the others are like.) No one has been able to find a collection of her works.
Thanks to Jean Marshall for pointing out the Prairie Farmer version, which led me to the other information. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: KSUC117B

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