Page 177

By Jack Joseph Smith

The Middle Of The Child Don't let them take this from you The story you have just begun Don't let them throw it away or sneek it and tell you it was a dream The wonder; learn how to spell by seeing Cross the creek backwards that is knowing the parts in bAck your life you will take again Tell them only sweetness so they will think you are kind When all you want is everything Parents included To pass them by For the world, amd gifts beyond money; to see the Earth ThE EArth, AftEr All, is Not siLENt DoNT bE quiEt About it, For evermore

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker urges a child to preserve a beginning story, learn by seeing, seek gifts beyond money, and speak about an Earth that is not silent.

The counsel mixes sweetness and wanting everything with passing parents by. It does not identify a particular child or childhood.

Claude

'The Middle Of The Child' urges 'Don't let them take this from you / The story you have just begun', warns against those who would 'sneek it / and tell you it was a dream', and counsels 'Tell them only sweetness / so they will think you are kind / When all you want is everything'.

The reach widens to 'For the world, amd gifts beyond / money; to see the Earth', and the handwritten close insists 'ThE EArth, / AftEr All, is Not / siLENt / DoNT bE quiEt'. The page names no particular child, and the order of the handwritten close before For evermore is provisional.