Sweep and sweep and sweep the floor,
Sweep the dust, pick up the pin;
Make it clean from fire to door,
Clean for father to come in!
Mother said that God goes sweeping,
Looking, sweeping with a broom,
All the time that we are sleeping,
For a shilling in the room:
Did he drop it out of glory,
Walking far above the birds?
Or did parson make the story
For the thinking afterwards?
If I were the swept-for shilling
I would hearken through the gloom;
Roll out fast, and fall down willing
Right before the sweeping broom!
by GEORGE MACDONALD (1824-1905)
Public Domain Poetry
unbolt me 
Tetiana I would love to read your short stories.
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Thank you so much for reading, genienakano! You can always begin with this one by Tetiana. It’s one of her best: https://unbolt.me/2019/05/30/white-starts-wins-based-on-a-true-story/ 😄
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What is “pin”?
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I assumed it meant a rolling pin, but I could be wrong.
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Perhaps it was a literal pin, used in making clothes, what we used to call a straight pin. I assumed those had been a more recent invention than Macdonald’s time, but the modern metal straight pin was invented in 1832. Other metal pins were used in the middle ages, replacing the earlier wood and bone pins in use for 10,000 years, according to DAR Museum.
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That hadn’t occurred to me but you’re right, it could be that!
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