365 bedtime stories
Mary Graham Bonner, Florence [Illustrator] Choate, and Elizabeth [Illustrator] Curtis
[Illustration: THE BEDTIME STORY]
365 Bedtime Stories
_By_ Mary Graham Bonner
_With twenty illustrations in color by_ Florence Choate and Elizabeth Curtis
[Illustration]
New York Frederick A. Stokes Company MCMXXIII
_Copyright, 1923, by_ FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
_Printed in the United States of America_
_This book is dedicated with all my love and all my admiration and all my affection to_
Eugene Edward Early
Contents
Page
January 1: A New Year’S Party 1
2: The Rhyming Years 2
3: Naughty Wind 3
4: The Selfish Oyster Crabs 4
5: Brownie’S Toothache 4
6: The Pink Cockatoo 4
7: The Pet Monkey 5
8: The Bravery Medal 6
9: The Jack-Knife 6
10: The Brave Little Sister 7
11: Baby Bears 7
12: The Snow House 8
13: Peter Goblin’S Trip 9
14: The Words 10
15: The Medicine Bottle 10
16: A Loaf Of Bread 11
17: The Tame Canary 12
18: Little Carry’S Birthday 13
19: Maggie’S Meals 14
20: Winter Trees 14
21: Poor Prunes 15
22: Molly’S Piano Recital 16
23: Goblins’ Secrets 17
24: In The Fish Bowl 17
25: Mac, The Dog 18
26: The Three Horses 19
27: In The Kitchen 20
28: The Little Needle 21
29: Real Dogs 21
30: The Little Old Man 22
31: The Fussy Cat 23
February 1: Mice Are Discovered 24
2: In The Sea 25
3: The Circus Dream 26
4: Little Mildred’S Muff 28
5: The Coal-Bin 28
6: In Dreamland 29
7: How The Inkfishes Protect Themselves 30
8: The Vegetables 31
9: The Life Saving St. Bernards 31
10: The Birthday Goblin 32
11: A Make-Believe And Real President 33
12: Abraham Lincoln 33
13: Isa’S Valentine Party 34
14: Why There Is A Saint Valentine’S Day 34
15: The Desk And The Ink-Well 35
16: Dr. Sun 36
17: Mr. Moon Hides 37
18: A Careless Master 37
19: The Cat Show 39
20: The Queer Pets 40
21: Harry’S Composition 40
22: Father Of His Country 41
23: The Stamp Traveler 42
24: How Rowdy Shared His Home 43
25: The Tired Eagles 44
26: The Squirrels’ Peanut Hunt 45
27: The Game Of Manners 45
28: Naughty Julius 46
29: The Whistling Boy 47
March 1: Lucy’S Tonsils 48
2: Lucy’S Visitors 49
3: The Homesick Puppy 51
4: Lady Ethel 52
5: The Soup 52
6: Elephant Ways 53
7: The Marbles 53
8: Tomatoes’ Advantages 54
9: The Old Woman And The Pot Of Daffodils 55
10: The Tick-Tock Twins 55
11: The Fig 57
12: Happy Compton 58
13: Ice Box And Furnace 58
14: The Pet Dogs 59
15: Biddle’S Trick 61
16: The Naughty Colds 61
17: Why The Shamrock Is Worn On St. Patrick’S Day 63
18: St. Patrick 63
19: The Clocks 64
20: A Party And Polly 65
21: Salt, Pepper And Sugar 65
22: A Sun Parlor For Birds 66
23: The Automobiles 67
24: The Trailing Arbutus 68
25: The Telephone Dog 69
26: The Kettle’S Trouble 69
27: Mr. Measles’ Puzzle 70
28: Winter’S Exit 72
29: Another Biddle Story 72
30: The Squirrels’ Spring Work 73
31: The Bunch Of Keys 74
April 1: Marketing 74
2: The Buds’ Secrets 75
3: The Clock And The Watch 76
4: Billie’S Springtime 76
5: Brenda’S Easter Visit 78
6: An Uninvited Guest 79
7: The Tired Honeysuckle 80
8: The Flower Parade 81
9: The Big Parade 82
10: The Alphabet Letters 82
11: The Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher 84
12: The Woodpecker Band 85
13: The Tease 86
14: The Onion’S Speech 87
15: A Bookworm 88
16: The Wild Black Cherry 89
17: Spring Blossoms 89
18: The Button Bag 90
19: The Patient Chimpanzee 92
20: The Toad 92
21: The Pine Needles 93
22: The Cat’S Mistake 93
23: The Butterfly Who Loved The Sun 94
24: The Horse-Chestnut 95
25: The Loving Mates 95
26: The Dandelion 96
27: Butterfly’S Growth 96
28: The Tack And The Nail 97
29: Moon’S Misunderstanding 98
30: Marion’S Fern Garden 99
May 1: The Tree Swallows 99
2: The Pig Who Took A Walk 100
3: The Fairy And The Kangaroo 101
4: The Maple Tree Talks 102
5: The Daisies’ Name 102
6: The Two Rabbits 102
7: Evelyn Decides Something 104
8: Bossy White’S Escape 105
9: The Spring Snow-Storm 106
10: A Reward For Mr. Walrus 108
11: Kay And The Trunk 109
12: The Sun Talks To Harry 109
13: Old Mr. Owl Writes A Book 110
14: The Little Turkeys 111
15: Billy’S Trip In The Coach 112
16: Mother Maple Tree 113
17: The Sport Fish 114
18: Mother Sheep 115
19: The Monkeys’ Victory 116
20: The Mosquitoes 117
21: The Potato Bugs 118
22: Meadow Mouse And Mole 120
23: Wishes 120
24: The Tree’S Complaint 122
25: Saving A Tail 122
26: Life In The Fireplace 123
27: The Jewelweed’S Visitor 124
28: Peter’S Birthday Party 125
29: The Spring Flowers’ Talk 127
30: Decoration Day 127
31: What The Flag Said To Fred 128
June 1: The Robin Parents 128
2: The Robins Come To The Rescue 129
3: The Persian Lilacs 130
4: How A Wish Saved The Raccoons 131
5: The New Mole Home 132
6: The Green Canoe 133
7: The Bunnie And The Fox 134
8: The Homebody Bee 136
9: Ladybug’S Lecture 136
10: The Waves’ Wishes 138
11: The Waves’ Adventures 138
12: The Waves’ Story 140
13: A Poor Weed 140
14: The Bicycle’S Joy 141
15: The Best Apple Tree Of All 142
16: An Elephant’S Wanderings 143
17: The Story The Oak Tree Told 144
18: The Weeds And The Flowers 145
19: The Insulted Flowers 146
20: The Colored Bags 147
21: A Spider’S Curiosity 148
22: The Sun-Dial 149
23: Shoes And Stockings 150
24: Mosquitoes And Snails 150
25: The Rose-Breasted Grosbeak 151
26: The Goldfishes 153
27: The Pigeons’ Bath 153
28: The Man In The Moon’S Party 154
29: Billy And The Dragon 155
30: Cozy Balsam Flowers 156
July 1: A Brother’S Plan 156
2: The Best Dream 157
3: The Hash And The Watermelon 158
4: Independence Day 159
5: The Sun And The Thunder 159
6: The True Story Of A Dog 159
7: The Rabbit Named Pigeon 160
8: The Big Tent 161
9: Mrs. Hippopotamus 162
10: The Papoose 163
11: A Feast For The Mice 165
12: Knowing How To Swim 165
13: Flower Dreams 165
14: The Naughty Breezes 166
15: The Coral Families 166
16: The Garden Tools 168
17: The Jolly Dust Brothers 169
18: The Bad Poison Ivy 170
19: The Sun Fairies 171
20: The Meadow Fritillary Family 171
21: George And The Goblin 173
22: Jack-In-The-Pulpit 174
23: The Tide 175
24: Little Edith’S Garden 177
25: The Earth Visits The Moon 177
26: The Elephant’S Toothache 179
27: The Potato Skins 179
28: The Traveling Flowers 180
29: The Visitors 181
30: The Little Bumblebee’S Mistake 182
31: Ripe Raspberries 183
August 1: The Brave Mocking Bird 183
2: The Milkweed Plants 184
3: Telephone Peas 184
4: The Harebell Umbrellas 185
5: A Children’S Circus 186
6: The Bank Swallow 187
7: The Cuckoo-Clock 188
8: Zuzeppa, The Monkey 190
9: Mr. Bullfrog 191
10: Allie Baa’S Letter 191
11: Chickadee 193
12: The Little Caterpillars 193
13: The Catbird 194
14: The Fairy Queen’S Story 195
15: A Hospital Circus 196
16: The Fire 197
17: Friends Of Animals 198
18: The Orangeade 199
19: The Climbing Perch 199
20: The Onion’S Insult 201
21: Harriet’S Monkey 201
22: Summer Corn 202
23: A Bee Story 203
24: Allie Baa’S Portrait 204
25: Saving The Elm 205
26: A Magic Lantern Show 205
27: The Baby Ear 206
28: How Arthur Saved A Little Girl 207
29: The Huckleberry Pickers 207
30: Mr. Sun’S Birthday 208
31: The Lost Dog 209
September 1: The Whippoorwills 210
2: The Monkey 211
3: Paper Dolls 213
4: Larry’S Labor Day 214
5: In The Barnyard 215
6: The Animals’ Talk 215
7: Doctor Birds 216
8: Nine Years Old 217
9: Evelyn’S Story 218
10: The Gallant Rooster 218
11: The Fairy Queen Story 218
12: The White Oak 219
13: Wasted Moments 220
14: Welcome, The Dog 220
15: The Children’S Museum 221
16: Prince, The Horse 222
17: The Deer 223
18: A Black Cat 225
19: The Oysters 225
20: The Elevator 225
21: The Fog 226
22: The Land Of Nod 226
23: The Homesick Chicken 227
24: Mrs. Duck’S Dinner 228
25: Doll Children 229
26: The Leaves 229
27: The Dawn Fairies 229
28: The Dream 229
29: The Monkey’S Collar 230
30: Mr. Fox’S Marketing 231
October 1: Gypsy, The Cat 232
2: The Make-Believe Elephant 233
3: Canary Cloudy Wings 234
4: The Abused Pencil 234
5: The Onions 236
6: Trixie’S Burglar 237
7: An Autumn Party 238
8: A Little Dog 238
9: Alta’S Guinea Pigs 239
10: A Devoted Dog 240
11: A Bird’S Secret 240
12: Columbus Day 241
13: The Camels 241
14: A Naughty Cat 242
15: The Chipmunks 243
16: The Fairies’ Trip 243
17: The Lion Babies 244
18: Max’S Escape 246
19: The Fire Bell 246
20: The Rain 247
21: Grandfather Pine Tree 247
22: Jack Frost’S Evening 248
23: Beans And Peas 249
24: Tiger West’S Food 249
25: Autumn Leaves 250
26: Blackie’S Escape 251
27: A Talk With The Sun 253
28: The Squash 254
29: Jack O’Lantern 254
30: Daddy’S Hallowe’En 255
31: Hallowe’En 256
November 1: The Brownies Help 257
2: The Butterfly And Bumble-Bee 258
3: The Furnace 259
4: The Elephant’S Bath 259
5: Waving And Dreaming 261
6: The Clever Fire Horses 261
7: The Two Roses 262
8: The Moth Balls 262
9: Good-Winter 263
10: The Horse’S Complaint 264
11: Armistice Day 264
12: Window Castles 266
13: The Autumn Paint Club 266
14: Mother Brown Bat 267
15: The Magic Slate 268
16: Peter’S Trip With The Man In The Moon 269
17: Dinah 270
18: Winter Sleepers 271
19: Toody Ruggles’ Luck 271
20: The Limpets 272
21: The Rescue 273
22: The Old Man In The Woods 274
23: The Queen’S Pin 274
24: Eagle’S Thanksgiving 275
25: Thanksgiving Day 276
26: Thanksgiving Day 277
27: Good News 278
28: The Newsboy’S Dog 278
29: The Gun-Metal Watch 279
30: Barnyard Thoughts 279
December 1: The Toy-Shop 280
2: A Story Of The Fireplace 281
3: The Pig Who Had No Table Manners 281
4: Jimmie’S Airplane 282
5: The Christmas Dog 282
6: The Pride Of Toys 284
7: Christmas With The Squirrels 285
8: How To Address Santa 285
9: A Letter To Santa Claus And The Answer 285
10: Betty’S Dream 286
11: The Snow Man 287
12: Sharpy And Chappy 287
13: Christmas Letters 288
14: Candy Toys 290
15: Santa’S Gifts 290
16: The Gray Rabbit 291
17: Santa Claus And Teddy 291
18: Blue Sky And Sun 292
19: Christmas Time Joy 294
20: Santa In Eskimo Land 294
21: Santa’S Toy-Shop 295
22: A White Christmas 295
23: The Tree And The Stockings 295
24: The Two Little Mice’S Christmas Eve Party 296
25: Christmas Morning 297
26: Santa’S Telescope 298
27: Christmas Letters 299
28: Homes Without Chimneys 299
29: The Barnyard Christmas 300
30: Ambitions 300
31: Little Pitchers 301
Illustrations
The Bedtime Story Hour _Frontispiece_
Facing Page
“In the afternoons Elizabeth lets him out of his cage” 12
“‘Hurry, Dream Fairies, tie up the dreams for me to take around’” 30
“‘We’ve been on this chair so long,’ said the fourth eagle” 44
“A lovely gray felt bunny and a brown felt monkey always were with Lucy” 50
“‘This is the season for us to tap the sirup from the maple trees, and you are spending your time swinging in a hammock’” 74
“The butterfly thought, ‘Well, this may be my first party, but it won’t be my last’” 94
“Mr. Owl awakened the fairies and told them to listen to his book” 112
“The mother humming-bird hurried back” 130
“‘The Fairy Queen brings all the little fairies to admire us’” 142
“The Fairy Queen was dressed in glittering gold” 154
“‘You are paying me a fine compliment’” 162
“As the bumble-bees got nearer, they, too, saw they had made a mistake” 182
“For a moment Mr. Sun was hidden by a purple cloud” 208
“After a long time the lovely dawn fairies came out from their sleeping places” 230
“So off they sailed, feeling just like birds with the delightful flying motion of the ships” 244
“There would be fortune-telling, too, and Janet’s mother had promised to be the fortune-telling witch who would sit by her caldron” 256
“Peter felt a little afraid at first that he’d fall” 270
“If he couldn’t reach a thing he’d climb on the table” 282
“They ate until they could eat no more” 296
365 Bedtime Stories
JANUARY 1: A New Year’s Party
“Just because it was the first day of the year,” commenced daddy, “and because parties were about the nicest things in the world to the mind of a little girl named Ella, her mother decided to give her one.
“‘It certainly does seem like the first of the year, or the first of something,’ said Ella. ‘It’s a new day, a new year and we have new toys and new games. We are even going to have supper out of new dishes.’
“For among the presents Santa Claus had brought to Ella was a fine set of dishes. They were pink and white and there were six cups and saucers, six little plates, a teapot, sugar bowl and cream jug. It was really a very complete set.
“They had thin bread and butter, hot chocolate with whipped cream and a cake which Ella’s mother called a New Year’s cake. It was pink and white on the top with pink sugared trimmings on the white frosting.
“In the center of the cake was one pink candle, for Ella’s mother said it would be quite impossible to have a candle for the number of years there had been, and too, it would be nice to have a new way and just consider the year a day old.
“After the cake had been almost entirely eaten they played house. Each little girl took a corner of the room as her house and fixed it up with some of Ella’s things. They all had their own dolls and many of their other toys so they really felt quite at home.
“Then they began calling on each other, dressing up in shawls and old hats which Ella’s mother let them use. After a while they heard a flutter, flutter against the window pane, and then another little flapping sound.
“‘It’s a little bird,’ said Ella, as she looked out of the window. ‘It’s right on the sill, and I am dreadfully afraid it has hurt its wings. Poor little dear.’
“They opened the window and Ella took the little bird in her hands. Oh, how cold the little bird’s feathers were!
“‘We’ll take care of you,’ said Ella. They gave the little bird some bread-crumbs and some water. Then he had a delicious piece of lettuce from the seeds which Ella had started in a box in her room.
“Pretty soon the bird began to grow much better and hopped and chirped about the room, and then they let him out for he had simply been very hungry.
“‘We’ll put some suet in that tree over there,’ said Ella.
“‘Let’s put some bread-crumbs,’ said her friends, and then one of them added,
“‘And let’s give some of the New Year cake crumbs too.’
“So the little bird was given a regular New Year’s feast, and Ella and her friends were among other children who decided to look after the feathered people through the cold months of the winter and to give them bread-crumbs and suet which they love so well.”
JANUARY 2: The Rhyming Years
“Well,” said the Old Year, “I am going to make up a poem about myself. I feel quite poetical.”
“And,” said the New Year, “I will, too.” For the New Year didn’t want to have the Old Year think that he was unable to do anything like that, even though he was young. But he felt very much pleased when the Old Year said: “Though I have lived twelve whole months, I have not become a poet.”
“I think age should be given the right to speak first,” said the New Year.
The Old Year shook his white hair and smiled so that the wrinkles in his face all ran in together.
This is what he said:
“Yes, it is true I was feeling old, Yes, it is true I was also cold, Yes, it is true I heard them cheer, Welcoming in the glad New Year.”
Then New Year recited this verse:
“Of course, you see I was out for fun, My life has only just begun, They said ‘He is young and full of vim, No one can help but welcome him.’
“You mustn’t think I am conceited,” he added. “I say a lot to make my rhyme come out right.”
“Of course,” said the Old Year, “for I do too. Well. I will give my second verse. Don’t believe it all, though!” Then the Old Year took an old harp he had and he began to play and sing, and this was what he sang:
“And Poor Old Year—he almost wept As he packed up his things and left. But as he turned to say good-by, Something in him made him cry: ‘Though my work is mostly done, I, have, too, had lots of fun, And ’ere I go upon my way, This I certainly would say: ‘Happy New Year, big and small, Happy New Year, short and tall, Happy New Year, every one! May you all have lots of fun!’”
JANUARY 3: Naughty Wind
“The Clothes-Pins on the line,” said daddy, “were having a very jolly time.
“‘I’ll blow those clothes away,’ said the North Wind.
“‘Oh, no you won’t,’ said the Clothes-Pins in chorus.
“‘You are only little wooden things,’ said the Wind. ‘I am strong and powerful and can do just exactly as I like.’
“Now the Fairies saw that the Clothes-Pins were doing their work so well that they thought they would like to help them, so they all perched on the line and began to sing:
‘Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, Let the North Wind blow, The Clothes-Pins and we, Will certainly see, That the clothes will stay here. The day’s nice and clear, The sun’s good and strong, And the wind is quite wrong. To try such a trick, But the Clothes-Pins will stick.’
“The Clothes-Pins did stick to the line and the Fairies helped them, singing all the time. The Wind kept on blowing and tried his hardest to get the better of the Fairies, but he had no luck at all and the Clothes-Pins won!”
JANUARY 4: The Selfish Oyster Crabs
“You know, I think oyster-crabs are perhaps the most selfish of all the sea animals,” began daddy. “The oyster-crabs really belong to the crab family. They are called oyster-crabs, however, because above all things they love the juice of an oyster and absolutely live on it. And what I am going to tell you about now is the way they get it.
“First of all, the oyster-crab hovers around the oysters and then picks out a nice, fat, juicy looking oyster, saying to himself: ‘You look as if you could feed me well without any effort. I think I will crawl into your shell.’ So then he crawls right inside the oyster’s shell and proceeds to enjoy himself. He prefers just to ‘sponge’ on others, as the expression goes!”
JANUARY 5: Brownie’s Toothache
Going to the dentist’s always frightened Evelyn. “Dear me,” said daddy, “I think I will have to tell you about the brownie’s trip to the dentist, for I think his case was very similar to yours.
“This little brownie had had a toothache which had bothered him for some time, but he dreaded to go to the dentist’s, just the way you do.
“One day, though, it got awfully painful and he felt he could stand it no longer. He went right off to see the brownie dentist. He was a very clever dentist and very kind and gentle. He got a pair of pullers, and after a moment or two Dr. Brownie said:
“‘Well, here’s the old toothache.’
“‘What, my tooth already out?’ said the little brownie. ‘And to think of all I’ve suffered before I came to you.’”
JANUARY 6: The Pink Cockatoo
“On the morning of the birthday of a little girl named Natalie,” said daddy, “a pink cockatoo was ready to greet her when she awoke. Well, you can imagine how happy Natalie was. And she kept saying over and over again:
“‘Oh, how lovely you are.’ The cockatoo would raise up his pink crest on the top of his head at that—just as some people raise up their foreheads—only his crest went way, way higher. He did that whenever he felt like it, and he always felt like it when he was being talked to.
“And after a very short time the cockatoo was just as tame as could be and he seemed to grow more beautiful every day.
“Before long he began to talk just as a parrot will and follow Natalie around the house. He had his food out of special little pink dishes Natalie had given him to match his pink feathers, and every morning he took his bath in a pink soup bowl which he thought was very fine indeed.
“Maybe you will think he got spoiled by so much fussing and attention, but he just became tamer and tamer every day. He learned many tricks and would often perform them for Natalie’s friends.
“And when it came time for Natalie’s next birthday she gave a party. On the invitation it said the party was being given by Natalie and the pink cockatoo. And in one corner was a little colored drawing Natalie had made of her cockatoo. When the cockatoo saw it he put his crest way up in the air, and said in a funny voice:
“‘Goodie, Natalie,’ which was his pet name for his Mistress.
“And this is a truly true story, you know.”
JANUARY 7: The Pet Monkey
“Once there was an old lady,” said daddy, “who lived all alone. One day, though, she went to town and bought a pet monkey. She named him Niles. He was only seven inches long and had a curly tail. He was a very dark gray color. He proved to be a most expensive pet, for he liked all the most delicious fruits and would only eat his bread and rice when plenty of rich cream was poured over it. What fascinated him above all was the old lady’s rings.
“When the old lady saw how fond Niles was of jewels she took out her jewel box. Niles had the most glorious time playing with its contents. He decorated himself with all the beads and chains and bangles and looked at himself in the mirror. He shook all over, for he liked the noise as well as the glitter of the jewels.
“So the old lady was very, very happy with her pet monkey. Niles was delighted with his new home and his new mistress, for he had never had jewels to play with in the animal shop.”
JANUARY 8: The Bravery Medal
“Two children,” said daddy, “were skating on a pond. It was a blustery, snowy afternoon, and they were the only ones on the ice.
“A big dog was taking a good run on this cold winter’s day when he spied the children on the pond.
“He went down to the pond and ran across it a little way, but the ice had a bad way of creaking, and he was sure it was not so very firm. He decided that he had better stay around to see that nothing happened to the children.
“He had been there but a moment or two when a terrific crack in the ice sounded. It gave way, and the two children fell through. The sheet of ice broke rapidly, and the water was soon clear for some distance around them.
“Quickly the dog went to the rescue of the children and swam to the shore with them. He saw some people drive by in a sleigh on the road above, and he barked so frantically that they stopped to see what the trouble was. Then, of course, they drove the two children to their home. The big dog went along too. The hero simply said ‘Bow-wow!’ when later they fastened a medal on his collar. He wanted to tell them that he thought they were being very good to him, and he thanked them, but at the same time he was so modest that he didn’t think he had been so brave. He felt any other dog would have done just the same, as he adored children.”
JANUARY 9: The Jack-knife
“This evening,” said daddy, “I am going to tell you about the little boy who was given a jack-knife as a birthday present. He did so many things with his knife that I think it might give you some ideas and suggestions of things you might make with the help of the knife. He set up a little carpentry shop in his room with a workstand.
“He made little bird-houses, little squirrel houses, chairs, stands, boats, an express cart, and, oh, countless other things! In fact, he just made all the things that boys like.
“Before he had his jack-knife he was not at all interested in carpentry. But his knife helped so much. It was far more useful to him than his other tools.”
JANUARY 10: The Brave Little Sister
“There was once a little boy who had a sister just about Evelyn’s age,” said daddy. “He was much disappointed that his sister didn’t care more for long walks and boys’ games and that animals seemed to frighten her.
“He used to scold her about it instead of helping her to get over her fear. One day these two children were taking a walk. They went into the country along a quiet road. They passed a little house in which lived an old woman who had a great many cats. She was very queer and her cats seemed to be queer too. Anyway, it was said that they hated strangers.
“The little boy didn’t believe this, and when his sister tried to hurry by he laughed at her.
“‘Oh, come and see this nice cat!’ he said. And he tried to pick the cat up.
“The cat objected to strangers, as all the people had said, and he started to scratch the little boy. With a cry his sister rushed to him. She grabbed the back of the cat and got him off. Then she cried ‘Shoo!’ to the cat, which made him go right home, for he didn’t care about hurting the little boy. He only would not be played with.
“‘I shall never make fun of you again, sister,’ he said. ‘You saved me by taking off that cat, of which you were afraid. I have not been at all a nice brother to you, and I don’t deserve such a good sister, for it was love for me that made you forget about your fear. But you may be quite sure I will never make fun of you in the future, for really you are the brave one.’”
JANUARY 11: Baby Bears
“In the winter, at the start of the new year,” said daddy, “when Mother Bear was sleeping and dozing and dreaming in her home back in the hole of a big rock, the little bears arrived. She taught them about the berries they must eat and about the things which would make them feel well and strong. She also told them of the bad things they must not touch—the things which would make their little tummies feel very miserable indeed and which would make them quite, quite sick.
“And when, at last, they went out of the cave, and saw the real world, the trees and the forest paths, they wanted to start off at once for adventures, for the world looked so mysterious and wondrous.
“‘Do you want to leave your old mother?’ the black bear asked.
“‘We love you, mother, but we want to see the world,’ they said.
“‘Bang,’ suddenly went a gun, and Mother Bear received a slight wound.
“The baby bears were around her in a flash, but mother bear was safe, for the man with the gun had hurriedly gone when he had seen how near the old bear was. And he had seen her teeth and had almost been able to feel them!
“And the babies knew their teeth would never have done. They, too, had had a glimpse of their mother’s anger and their mother’s strength.
“And as they licked the wound they said,
“‘We won’t leave you, Mother Bear. We don’t know the world as yet.’
“And Mother Black Bear groaned with the hurt from the slight wound in her shoulder, but still more she grunted with pleasure, for her babies had seen that they still needed their mother.”
JANUARY 12: The Snow House
“At night after the children had gone to bed and it had grown colder and colder Old Man Snow came around to see what the children had been doing,” said daddy.
“‘Well, well, well,’ he said as he saw a snow house and a snow fort and a snow man, ‘this is fine. They appreciate me. They know what handsome things I can make. This is really gorgeous.’
“‘Look, Prince Icicle, isn’t this fine?’
“Prince Icicle appeared with a number of the other princes and princesses who hung down from the roof of the snow house and the top of the snow fort and from the shoulders of the snow man. Prince Icicle himself took a very fine place over the doorway of the snow house.
“‘Isn’t this handsome?’ asked Old Man Snow. ‘Our fine king will be delighted and his royal majesty will be honored.’
“As Old Man Snow said these words along came King Snow. He wore a most beautiful crown of snow and he showed the Icicle family the compliment of wearing icicles from his beard and his crown and his locks of snow and from his hanging snowy sleeves.
“‘They stopped me as I went by the brook,’ said King Snow, ‘and begged me to have some of their jeweled icicles. Don’t they sparkle beautifully? Yes, they asked me to have them, and the brook, which was beginning to freeze around the edges, begged me to listen to its story.’
“‘It had so much to tell of its travels, how it ran down a long and winding hill and how it couldn’t help trickling and laughing all the time with the jokes and merry tales it kept hearing.’
“So Old Man Snow, King Snow, Prince Icicle and the other princes and princesses talked all through the night and told wonderful stories as they sat in the children’s snow house.”
JANUARY 13: Peter Goblin’s Trip
“To think,” and Peter Goblin looked as if he were going to cry, “to think,” he repeated, “that children shouldn’t like us. Why, children are the nicest creatures in all the world, and I love them, I do. That’s why I am so unhappy when they talk about me.”
The Fairy Queen had been listening to this talk and she felt sorry that so many untrue stories had gone around the children’s world about Peter Goblin and the goblin brothers.
“I’ll tell you what I’d do, Peter,” she said.
“Keep on trying to tell as many children as you can how much you like them. Tell them that in years gone by people were far more nervous than they are now. They were afraid of the dark and things like that.
“Tell them that you never jump out at them in the dark, and that you only come to them when they are asleep. Explain as much and as often as you can that you never carry them far away from home, but that you simply sit on their bedposts and talk to them. I’ll help you too, Peter.”
“Thank you,” said Peter Goblin, as he hopped and jumped away, for he felt far more cheerful now.
He went to call on his friends, the children. He had a very hard time with one little girl. “Good evening,” said Peter, as he perched himself on the edge of the right bedpost of her bed.
She drew the clothes over her head. “Oh, don’t do that,” screamed Peter. “It will make you have bad dreams and maybe you’ll smother.”
“Oh, dear,” thought Peter, “she will dream I’m horrid indeed if she does that.” But after a moment she poked her head out again and looked at Peter.
She couldn’t help laughing at him, for he looked so funny and yet so sad. But still she was frightened, until after she had looked again (for between looks she hid her face), when she saw two big tears rolling down Peter Goblin’s funny little face.
“What’s the matter, little sir?” she asked. She wanted to be polite when he felt so badly and yet he seemed so small and tiny to be called just Sir.
“I’m blue and sad,” said Peter, “‘cause children think I’m bad. They think I hide in the dark to catch them. And I love them, and want to tell them stories. Not a single goblin has ever hurt a child—no, no, no! Why, we would disown a bad goblin, we would.” And the little girl promised Peter she’d let all her friends know this.
JANUARY 14: The Words
The words Beautiful, Gorgeous, Glorious and Wonderful were talking. “You see,” said Beautiful, “we’ve all been feeling rather sad that no one used us. We’re always trying to live up to our names. We’re always trying to be beautiful and gorgeous and glorious.
“We don’t try to be mean or horrid or ugly. We haven’t been jealous of you, Wonderful.”
“Ah,” said Wonderful, “I understand. You’ve never gone back on your names. You’ve always meant the same things. You’ve been fine to keep your names and to be beautiful and gorgeous and glorious.
“But you needn’t feel sad because you haven’t been given much attention and because you haven’t been used much lately. People have got into the habit of saying everything is wonderful.
“Really and truly I’ve been worked to death. I don’t like to be worked so hard. I really and truly don’t. I get tired, and yet I have to be ready when they want me. I’m just jumping from one to another and sometimes I’m half with one and half with another at the same time.
“But you keep on being Beautiful and Gorgeous and Glorious, for you are three lovely words and Wonderful couldn’t get along without you.”
“Ah, Wonderful,” said Beautiful, “you do cheer us up. Yes, you are Wonderful.”
And they all laughed as they saw what a useful, fitting, wonderful word it really was!
JANUARY 15: The Medicine Bottle
“If you think my life is a pleasant one,” said the Medicine Bottle, “I’ll tell you from the start that it isn’t.
“In the first place I was in the doctor’s office. I saw the people quake and shake when they were told they had to take some bitter medicine. I don’t suppose they really shook as much as I thought they did, but I was standing quite still at the time and they seemed to make a great deal of fuss.
“Then I heard some one say,
“‘Doctors give us horrible stuff, When we think we’re sick enough, But after all they make us well, And this fact, too, I think we should tell.’
“Then some one else said,
“‘I wonder if the doctor has taken From the medicine bottle which must be shaken. It’s hard to swallow it and be held by the nose While we get down the horrible dose.’
“Such are the things I’ve heard,” said the Medicine Bottle.
“Did all the people speak like that?” asked the little White Pills.
“They didn’t speak in rhyme like that,” said the Medicine Bottle, “but those were the things they said which I’ve changed into rhymes.
“A medicine bottle must have something to cheer it up at times.
“Yes, I’ll tell you my life is not a pleasant one. I’m never greeted with a smile. Fancy that, White Pills! I’m never greeted with a smile.
“Here I sit on the mantelpiece and three times a day I am taken down and shaken as though they’d like to kill me, I do believe, and then with groans or tears or complaints I’m swallowed. Or rather, some of the medicine from me is swallowed. It’s a terrible life that I lead!”
JANUARY 16: A Loaf of Bread
“One day in a baker’s shop,” said daddy, “appeared a very small-sized loaf of bread.
“A little girl named Lucy was shopping with her grandmother.
“‘Oh, look,’ said Lucy, ‘look at the tiny loaf of bread.’
“Now the loaf of bread would have smiled, only loaves of bread can’t smile and if they should laugh they would crumble, so the loaf of bread kept a perfectly straight face.
“‘I thought I’d be noticed by a child,’ said the small loaf of bread.
“‘You won’t last as long as we will,’ said a larger loaf of bread.
“‘Oh, who cares about the size,’ said the small loaf.
“‘Of course you don’t,’ said another larger loaf.
“‘Now, now,’ said the small loaf, ‘don’t be mean and unkind to your little friend and relative, the small loaf of bread. I’m the only small one here, though I heard the baker say if folks liked me the size I am and if mothers bought me for their children he’d make a lot like me.’
“‘We didn’t mean to be unkind or mean,’ said the larger loaves, ‘only we are a little envious. We’ve been the same size always. We have to follow our relatives who are baked ahead of us and are sold ahead of us. We always have to follow their example.
“‘But you have been made differently. You have been made a small size. You’re cunning and different. You are just like us in taste and shape and kind, but smaller in size and that makes you very interesting.’
“‘Hush,’ said the small loaf of bread, ‘I am being bought. Hush!’
“And off went the little tiny loaf, in a paper bag, carried by Lucy. Just as soon as it got home, having been carried all the way, for Lucy knew it couldn’t walk or run home, a nice fat crust was cut off and Lucy ate it with joy.
“‘My nice little baby loaf of bread,’ she said, ‘you are so cunning and so good to eat!’ And the loaf of bread was glad it had been made so tiny and cunning and yet so good.”
JANUARY 17: The Tame Canary Bird
Daddy had heard that afternoon the story of a very tame canary bird. The little girl who owned the bird, and who was a friend of Jack and Evelyn, had told daddy about her little pet. So when daddy got home in the evening he was ready at once to tell the story of the little bird.
“I am going to tell you about the little bird Elizabeth has. Her daddy gave him to her several weeks ago, and he is just as tame as tame can be,” said daddy. “She has named him Bubsie, and he knows his name too, for whenever she calls ‘Bubsie!’ he replies with a little ‘Peep, peep!’
“Every morning, bright and early, he wakes up and begins to sing the most beautiful songs. He sings so steadily that Elizabeth says it is a surprise to her that he doesn’t burst his little throat.
“After Elizabeth gets up she always gives him a little piece of apple before she begins her breakfast. She puts it on her finger between two wires of the cage, and he hops right over on his little bar and takes it from her finger.
[Illustration: “IN THE AFTERNOONS ELIZABETH LETS HIM OUT OF HIS CAGE.”—_Page 13_]
“The next thing is his bath, which he takes soon after breakfast. He loves that. He spatters the water about and has just the best time in the world. He acts as if it were the most wonderful game. After his bath he has a treat of delicious lettuce to eat, and then he sits in the sun and smoothes down his feathers.
“In his cage there is a swing, and he swings on it and hops from one perch to the other. In fact, he has a fine romp. He usually does this right after his bath, for then he feels so energetic.
“In the afternoon Elizabeth lets him out of his cage. Of course she sees first that there are no windows up or doors ajar before she opens the door of the cage. When the cage door is open Bubsie flies out and makes a tour of the room. How he does enjoy flying around and perching back of the different pictures and on the window-sill. The thing he likes more than anything else is to play with Elizabeth. He perches on her shoulder and walks around on her hand. And he loves to tease her too, for if there are any flowers in the room he will fly over to them, peck at them and begin munching at them. Then he won’t let Elizabeth catch him. He thinks this a huge joke, and he always flies to some high spot in the room and begins to sing which is his favorite trick of all.”
JANUARY 18: Little Carry’s Birthday
“Carry was nine years old,” daddy said. “A few minutes before eleven Carry’s little brother came to her, ringing a large bell. ‘Come to the celebration for the queen of the day!’ he shouted and all the family joined the procession.
“In the center of the room was a table. And such a marvelously covered table! But, first of all, they seated Carry in a big rocking-chair at the head of the table. They were all dressed up in funny costumes which they always wore for birthday celebrations. The table was full of presents, and in the center was a cake with nine lighted candles on it. ‘Many happy returns of the day!’ they all cried together.
“She opened her presents one by one. She had lovely pink knitted bed-room slippers from her mother, a beautiful doll from her daddy, a workbag from her granny, a paint box from her auntie and a big box of candy from her brother, which he’d bought with his very own saved-up money, and which to Carry was the best present of all!”
JANUARY 19: Maggie’s Meals
“There was once a little girl whose name was Maggie,” said daddy, “and how she did love meals! Now, one evening when Maggie had gone to bed along came a fine looking creature very handsomely dressed.
“‘Who are you?’ asked Maggie.
“‘I’m the Dream King and I’m going to take you to a party.’
“So Maggie went with the Dream King and they visited such interesting and hospitable people.
“They went to a huge city which seemed to be made of delicious things to eat and which, as soon as people ate from the city, the food grew or was cooked back again!
“It was all very marvelous. And to Maggie’s surprise she saw Duke Ice Cream take up a spoon and scoop a huge mouthful right off his very arm. And in another few minutes his arm was as before.
“The Duke told her he liked the cold weather and that he always lived in the coldest part of the city.
“Lady Lettuce was followed everywhere by her pages, the Vinegar and Oil boys. And sometimes she had friends to call on her like the Tomato Twins and the Cucumber Cousins and the Potato Pals. Maggie also met Apple, the queen of all the Pies.
“Maggie had the very best time in the world and when the Dream King told her he must be taking her back Maggie said:
“‘And you’ve not told me I was wrong to enjoy my meals so much.’
“‘I gave you a surprise, in not scolding you, eh?’ asked the Dream King. ‘Well, you’re never greedy or selfish and if you like your food I think it is fine. Good-night!’”
JANUARY 20: Winter Trees
“All the winter things,” said daddy, “such as the cold Winds, the Snow and the Ice told the Pine Trees and the Fir Trees and the Spruce Trees how much they liked them.
“‘I will tell you a secret,’ said the Pine Tree.
“‘Yes,’ said the Snow, as it nestled closer to the branches of the big tree.
“‘Years and years and years ago, I talked to my family about dropping off in the Winter-time. We never got any further than talking about it, for just as I had said, “Well, and what do you think of the scheme?” some of the Snow Flakes came and rested on our branches. “Oh,” they said, “you’re so much nicer than the branches without any leaves. There we have to fill up the corners, but with you we can nestle down.”
“‘The North Wind told us,’ continued the Pine Tree, ‘that it was such a joy to have a good strong tree around that wouldn’t feel hurt if he played about and had a good time. And so we discovered how much the North Wind liked us.
“‘Then,’ said the Pine Tree, ‘we heard the Grown-Ups. They said what a comfort it was to have some green trees in the Winter and they said how horrible it would be if every tree were quite bare and ugly. And then came the Children. They walked through the woods one snowy day and they stopped to look up at us. “Ah, how tall those trees are. And how warm it is in these woods. Our favorite trees are the Winter Trees—the Spruce Trees, the Fir Trees, the Pine Trees.”
“‘Now do you understand how we have to be as fine looking in the Winter as in the Spring?’ And the Snow understood.”
JANUARY 21: Poor Prunes
“My life is a sad one,” said the stewed prune.
“How is that?” asked the orange, near by.
“Oh, dear, no one loves me. People usually eat me when they can’t get anything else.”
“But I saw them eat you, and buy you, of course I mean members of your illustrious prune family, when a member of my family was around.”
“Once in a while that happens,” said the prune, “but it is very, very seldom. One morning,” continued the prune, “some one at the breakfast table apologized and said, ‘I’m sorry, but we only have prunes this morning.’
“Wasn’t that sad? Enough to break the poor heart of a prune.”
“You haven’t a heart, prune, dear; you only have a stone as your heart—heart of stone—that means hard-hearted, and so forth,” said the orange.
“Ah, but that’s wrong,” said the prune. “I felt dreadfully to think that such a thing should be said of us. ‘Sorry, but we only have prunes.’ You’d have thought she had said, ‘Sorry, but we only have bricks for breakfast,’ from the tone in which she said it.
“And then what was our joy and a thing the family has never forgotten nor ever will forget when in reply the person at the table said she actually and really liked prunes.
“That event will be put down as the greatest event that has happened in a long time.
“And following that great event are a number of others, and we plan to erect a monument made of prune stones and made only of those stones left by people who’ve enjoyed the prunes!
“Isn’t that a good idea?”
“Yes, indeed,” said the orange.
Just then the orange was called for and the prune with its brothers and sisters stayed behind.
“Poor prunes,” cried the prune who had been talking, “our great monument may not go up so fast as for a moment I had hopes that it would.
“Ah, well, we have the ever-ready prune juice to receive the sad tears of the prunes.” And then they sang this ditty:
“Poor prunes, poor prunes, how sad is your lot; Some people like you, but, alas, most do not. But you’re really, poor prunes, you’re really good food, And those who say not, are, I fear, very rude.”
JANUARY 22: Molly’s Piano Recital
“Molly,” began daddy, “was very musical and ever since she had been a little girl, so little that she had to be lifted to the piano stool, she had been able to play anything she heard.
“Her family were far from being well off, but they strove to give Molly a musical education.
“One day it was decided that Molly was so talented she could give a concert. So the evening for the concert was decided upon. Molly practiced and practiced the pieces she was to play.
“She was not at all nervous. She was very proud of her pretty new dress, for she had always before had the dresses of her older sisters cut down and made smaller for her. Unknown to her, Molly’s teacher had invited an old friend of his to the concert. This gentleman was very rich and fond of music. He liked to help along any one he felt deserved it. He was so delighted with Molly’s playing that he rushed up to the little girl, saying: ‘I shall send you and your mother abroad. There you’ll have the finest music teachers in the world. You will come back making us all very proud of you.’”
JANUARY 23: Goblins’ Secrets
“One night, not long ago, Peter Goblin went a-calling,” said daddy. “From house to house he went, and in every house he went to the bedsides of the little boys and girls and invited them to go on the greatest coasting party of the year.
“‘We’re going to coast,’ said Peter, ‘down the hill of Dreams.’
“They all put their sleds together and down the hill of Dreams they went until they reached the valley below.
“‘Down this valley all the dreams come,’ said Peter Goblin. ‘Then our Goblin Dream Workers must tie them up into little packages, for every nice dream must be saved. It must be made to come true some day or some time—that is, if it’s all for the very best that it should come true. For the Goblins are wise little Creatures!’ And as the Children watched the Goblin Dream Workers they certainly decided they looked very bright indeed.
“‘They tie the dreams into the little packages and then the Goblin Visitors take them back to the land of Children and drop them in their bedrooms at night as they sleep.’
“‘But,’ said the Boys and Girls, ‘we’ve never seen packages like these.’
“‘No,’ said Peter Goblin. ‘In one of these packages a good many dreams will come true, and so the contents of the package are dropped,—some parts in the corners, some around the ceiling. And one by one they come out into the room later on when they’re COMING TRUE!
“‘So on our way back tonight,’ said Peter, ‘a lot of us will lead you to your little rooms and we’ll drop the contents of the packages of dreams which will sometime come true. But now we must be off for more coasting, hurrah, hurrah!’”
JANUARY 24: In the Fish Bowl
“There was once a little girl named Susan,” said daddy, “who had in her room a great big glass bowl which held some helleries.”
“What are helleries?” of course asked Evelyn.
“They are fresh-water fish that live in climates where the water is sure always to be very warm. Susan also kept some snails in the water with the helleries.
“The helleries are about the size of minnows, but of a different shape, being more round than the minnows are.”
“One day Susan saw the big hellery daddy trying to chase the mother hellery around so that she could not get hold of any of the little ones. Susan grabbed the mother hellery and put her quickly into a glass of water that was standing near by. The next thing Susan did was to count the little helleries and, to her delight, she found that all the twenty were quite alive. But they had evidently been very much frightened, for they were all in a corner of the bowl, as near to the daddy hellery as possible, and the big daddy hellery was quiet and seemed to be much relieved that the danger was over. The snails, as you can imagine, were only too glad to rest once more. Susan gave them all some delicious fish food to comfort them.
“And she kept the mother hellery in a separate bowl until the little ones were grown up, and then she was welcomed back.”
“Why was she kept in a separate bowl?” asked Jack.
“Because the mother hellery doesn’t care for her children until they are big, and she might harm them. But the daddy loves them, even when they are little bits of things!”
JANUARY 25: Mac, the Dog
“There was a dog named Mac,” said daddy, “a beautiful Airedale dog and he belonged to two young girls named Janet and Mildred. They were much excited for their daddy was to have a birthday.
“At last came the birthday.
“Mac thought to himself that he wouldn’t be much pleased with the presents their daddy received, a pipe, tobacco, a necktie. Mac had been dressed up in a beautiful ribbon on a number of special occasions but he didn’t think much of neckties. There were some candies, though, and they were all right. Candies were really a sensible present.
“Mac knew that there were going to be more festivities. He sat about and waited.
“‘It’s time for the birthday cake,’ they called at last.
“Up got Mac. ‘It’s rude to be late,’ he said to himself, ‘and I’ll show them that an Airedale dog doesn’t forget his manners.’
“After it was all over and Mac was about to go to bed, he smiled to himself:
“‘Well, it was foolish to have all those candles but the cake was good, mighty good!’”
JANUARY 26: The Three Horses
In a barn there were three horses and their names were Danny and Fanny and Prince. Somehow Bobbie, who was the farmer’s youngest son, always liked it when the horses had their ears up though he couldn’t have quite told you why. They seemed to be so very, very friendly then.
Bobbie had been having a very fine day, and as he tumbled into bed he hardly had time to whisper to his old friend the Dream King. He used to say, just before he went off to sleep, “Please, Mr. Dream King, send me nice dreams.”
If he did not feel so dreadfully, dreadfully sleepy he would make his little speech longer and would say, “Your gracious majesty, Mr. Dream King, will your royal highness do a poor, humble subject like myself the great and noble and wondrous honor of sending me most royal and noble dreams?”
This evening all he said was, “Nice dreams, please.”
Soon, oh, so soon, it seemed as though he saw Danny and Fanny and Prince walking into his room. And then they stood at the end of the bed, all in a row.
“Hello, Bobbie,” they said.
“Hello, Danny and Fanny and Prince,” said Bobbie.
“We’ve come to tell you something,” said Fanny.
“It’s something you’ve always wanted to know,” said Danny.
“And because I’m the oldest horse, they’ve given me the honor of telling it to you,” added Prince.
Then the three horses neighed, looked at each other, smiled their horse smiles and then looked at Bobbie.
“You’ve always wanted to know why we put our ears straight up when you’ve come around,” said Prince.
“Oh yes,” said Bobbie, “I’ve always wanted to know if there was any special reason for it.”
“There is,” said Prince, “and I will tell it to you. When we put our ears up it’s to tell you we’re feeling pleasant and friendly. When horses put their ears way back it means they’re cross and that perhaps they’ll bite. But we have never put our ears back on our heads when you’ve been around, Bobbie, so it means we always, always like to have you with us.”
And the next morning when Bobbie got up he went out to his three friends and kissed them and said, “I know a secret of yours.”
JANUARY 27: In the Kitchen
“One evening,” commenced daddy, “when the house was quiet and still, and every one was sleeping soundly, the tins and pans began to talk in the kitchen.
“‘I think I am to be congratulated more than any of you,’ said the egg beater. ‘You see my name means that I beat eggs. But not only do I beat eggs. I beat cream and all other things they wish to whip into a fine fluffy state.’
“‘True enough,’ agreed the other pans and tins.
“‘But you see,’ said the egg beater, ‘the wonderful part is that I am not cross. Imagine being used only as a beater. Imagine forever whipping everything that comes near you. Isn’t that enough to make an egg beater cross? But am I cross?’
“And all the pots and pans creaked and said, ‘No.’
“‘Then,’ said the egg beater, ‘it only goes to show that my disposition is quite perfect. Even whipping and beating everything that comes my way doesn’t make me cross.’
“‘Listen to me,’ said the cheese grater. ‘Think of what my name means!’
“What?’ asked the others.
“‘It means I am greater than anything else. No other pot or tin or pan is named by my name.’
“‘Oh,’ chuckled the gravy spoon, a big, good-natured, easy-going spoon, ‘you don’t understand at all.’
“‘What don’t I understand?’ asked the cheese grater.
“‘You see I help the gravy at the table and I hear the grownups and children talk. They say that greater means something finer, bigger, stronger, more noble than something that is merely great. Now greatest means the best of all. You see the way they spell your name is quite different from the way they spell the word that means great.’
“‘And what difference does that make?’ asked the cheese grater, who was feeling sad.
“‘All the difference in the world,’ said the gravy spoon. ‘It means something quite different.’
“‘The very idea of making such a mistake,’ said the cheese grater sadly.
“‘Never mind,’ said the egg beater. ‘I have a really bad name and I rise above it. I do the best I can and don’t complain. You must do the same.’
“‘I will,’ said the cheese grater. ‘But I am so disappointed.’
“So the rest of the talk between the tins, pots and pans was not upon their names and the meanings of them.”
JANUARY 28: The Little Needle
A little girl named Jinny in crossing the street one day saw a needle shining very brightly in the center of the crossing. She picked it up because, as she said to herself, some horse might get it in his foot and have it hurt dreadfully. She stuck the needle in her fur and walked on.
Soon after she was home she went to bed and soon she was sound asleep. The bright needle in the fur seemed to grow brighter and brighter. It looked like something alive, it was so bright, and, sure enough, it was talking!
“I came over from Italy with a very poor girl who was a sewer. She did most wonderful fancy work. Her beautiful work brought ever so much more money than it formerly did, and after a time she was never worried any more.
“Well, after a while she succeeded so well that she bought a little house and no longer had to work.
“To-day she was carrying her workbag to a friend’s house to sew a little for amusement. But there was a hole in the bag, and I fell out. Then you came along and picked me up. I’ll help you sew if you like, Jinny, for my kind mistress doesn’t need me now.”
When Jinny awoke there was the needle on her fur, and she put it in her workbag with such pleasure.
JANUARY 29: Real Dogs
Lucifer and his mistress went for quite a long drive one day. On their way home his mistress stopped to make a call. Lucifer stayed alone in the wonderful carriage.
Some common dogs passed by. They were barking and playing and seemed to be having a very good time. Lucifer looked at them as if he sometimes longed to be a real dog and to play as other dogs did. But of course there was his family to be thought of and his background! He could not disgrace it. He must not try anything different. He must just stay at home, doing nothing but wear a big bow of ribbon and hear his mistress tell of what a fine breed he was.
But the other dogs did fill him with envy. He had a strange longing to be out playing, too. What a stupid life he led! No fun at all. And he would like to see more of the world. No matter where he went with his mistress, the world always seemed the same.
He wondered to himself if the dogs would play with him. He barked and they looked at the victoria and at the poodle dog with the blue bow. They seemed to be laughing at him, and for the first time his family tree didn’t seem of any use. It was simply that the dogs were judging him for what he was—they didn’t care a bit about his father or his grandfather.
“Could I join you?” he asked.
“Well, you don’t look as though you amounted to much,” they said, “but come along. We’ll try to be kind to you.”
“Oh,” said Lucifer, as he ran along, “I do amount to a great deal. You don’t know. I have more of a background than any of you.”
“What?” they all asked, with their ears and eyes showing that they could not believe what they had heard. “Tell us what a background is,” they asked. “Is it another name for life-saving?”
“No,” said Lucifer, “it means that I needn’t do anything but live up to my family name. For years and years our family have been of noble, aristocratic line. I am a dog of wonderful breeding.”
“You’re only snobbish,” they said, and Lucifer felt very badly. “Why, you poor little dog, we feel sorry for you,” said one bright looking fox terrier. “Our friends have saved children from drowning this summer, some have saved lives in fire, and we all try to amount to something. Pooh, you can’t be your grandfather. Try to be yourself and amount to something!” And Lucifer joined the dogs to be taken on a regular dog’s trip.
JANUARY 30: The Little Old Man
“There was once a very strange old man,” said daddy, “who decided he would live at the top of the mountain. He liked to hear all the rumbling sounds and thought he’d like to help make them. He loved pine trees, too, of which there were plenty on top of the mountain. He told his family about his desire, and the next day they started off.
“At last they reached the top, and there were so many of them it did make a merry party.
“But it was almost dark, and they were all eager for supper.
“The grandmothers and mothers arranged the supper, and they had a most delicious meal too.
“They had moss soup, a salad of pine needles chopped up very fine, big berry pies and nuts, for they all wanted to eat mountain food at once. They sat on low stumps of trees while they ate.
“After they’d finished eating they all felt quite energetic, and so the old grandfather, who was the leader in everything, said:
“‘Let’s help with this storm which is coming on.’ And I should say they did!
“All the older ones bellowed at the tops of their lungs so that it sounded almost like roaring. The younger ones whistled and sang. The people who lived at the foot of the mountain shivered and said: ‘Oh, what a terrific storm! Listen to the sound of the wind!’
“But the old man and his family thought it fine fun.”
JANUARY 31: The Fussy Cat
“A white cat named Snow,” said daddy, “and a black dog named Coal were the greatest of friends.
“‘I am so glad to-day is wash-day,’ said Snow. ‘I saw the soiled clothes being scrubbed so hard and hung out on the line to dry. To-morrow they will iron the clothes and then put them back in the basket all nicely folded. Later they will go in the linen room! Ah, such joy.’ And Snow purred happily.
“‘Now what in the world do you talk about wash-day and ironing-day for?’ asked Coal. ‘I can understand it when you talk about mice because I have never known any creature so fond of them. But what do you care for clean clothes? You don’t wear them. You can wash yourself and comb your hair by yourself.’
“‘But I like to lie in clean clothes. Nothing gives me the joy that the basket of clean clothes does! At least it is one of the joys of my life. As for the linen closet—well, when they leave the door open I am happy. I love to lie among the white napkins and pillow covers and sheets.’
“‘That’s the queerest thing I’ve ever heard,’ said the dog.
“‘It’s quite true, though,’ said the cat. ‘The mistress knows that. I’ve often heard her say that she couldn’t leave the clean clothes in the basket a moment as I’d lie among them right away. And she never dared leave the linen closet door open. Of course they don’t know how fond I am of such a bed,’ added Snow, ‘or they would enjoy having a bed made for me of clean clothes all the time.’
“‘Bow-wow-wow,’ laughed the dog. ‘You are a creature to love everything that is fine. How about soiled clothes? Wouldn’t they feel the same?’
“‘You insult me,’ said the cat. ‘I only lie in clean clothes. Soft cushions, good food, especially cream and still more especially nice food from the table—all these things I like.’
“‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said the dog. ‘I knew you loved all comforts but this one of clean clothes I never heard of before.’
“‘That’s why I am never talking to you when I see the clothes basket of clean clothes going upstairs,’ said Snow. ‘I am busy then!’
“And this,” said daddy, “is a true story.”
FEBRUARY 1: Mice are Discovered
“The Mice,” said daddy, “had been enjoying a new pantry they had found. They always found some pantry where they could get good things to eat, and this pantry was full of delicious cheese and all sorts of nice things.
“‘Really,’ said Mr. Mouse, ‘I don’t think we could have found a better pantry. It’s one of the nicest homes we’ve had in a long time.’
“‘Yes,’ said Mrs. Mouse. ‘And there are no traps, and there is not a single Cat in the House. That is what I call right. It’s very wrong to keep a Cat. They’re such horrid creatures.’
“They would frisk about the pantry, behind the shelves and through the drawers which were often left half-open.
“‘It is so stupid and inconsiderate,’ said Mr. Mouse, ‘for people to close all the drawers and lock up their things in tin boxes. For my part I hate tin boxes. They can’t be bitten and they’re so apt to cut me when I try to get them opened.’
“‘Yes, they’re horrid,’ said Mrs. Mouse. ‘We can’t open them, no matter how much we try. I like little cardboard boxes best that we can nibble through.’
“Now one day the children who lived in the house had been out coasting all the afternoon. It had been a glorious afternoon, and they had coasted so hard they were very hungry.
“When they came in they asked their mother for something to eat.
“‘Go and look in the pantry,’ said their mother. ‘You will find biscuits and jam, and quite a lot to eat in there. As it’s a Saturday afternoon you may have a little feast.’
“Off went the children to the pantry. Now, the Mice had not been bothered all afternoon. They had seen the cook leave the kitchen and the pantry was just off the kitchen.
“‘We’ll have a feast this afternoon,’ said Mother Mouse. And all the little Mice had thought it was a wonderful scheme to have a regular feast.
“They had been enjoying themselves and having a splendid time when the children arrived.
“When they heard the door open and the children coming in, the Mice scampered to their holes and to their hiding places back on the shelves. They made a great deal of noise, and some of them squealed in their hurry to get past each other.
“‘The pantry is full of Mice,’ said the children.
“Meanwhile the Mice were saying, ‘They heard us, and now they know that we are living here. Well, we’ll just have to move—that’s all. For somehow people don’t like to have Mice for visitors. It’s very foolish of them, but they don’t like us!’
“‘Well,’ said Mr. Mouse, ‘we might as well make the best of it. Besides this has been a very nice home and perhaps we’ll be lucky and find another.’
“‘I hope it will be just as nice,’ said Mrs. Mouse, as they all followed Mr. Mouse in his search for a new pantry!”
FEBRUARY 2: In the Sea
“In the sea,” said daddy, “and far away in the tropics where the plants and birds and animals are very different from here, there are floating plant creatures known as Portuguese Men-of-War.
“The reason they’ve been given this name is because some one who was about to name them decided they looked like old battleships. The Portuguese Man-of-War is made up of many little creatures all joined together, just as though many of us were all fastened together in our villages or in our country places.
“Some of these creatures are very different from each other. The Portuguese Man-of-War is quite large, and when it is like this it is filled by a kind of gas which enters into it and which makes it look even larger than it is.
“It is beautifully colored and it floats on top of the water.
“These parts are the large members of the colony. The rest of them, or rather a second kind of members of the family, hang from under the side of these—many little creatures which form the largest part of the colony.
“Many of them are small and trumpet-shaped, and they are the ones who do the marketing and get the food for the rest.
“Then there are members of the colony who also hang from under the many members on top, and they are the fingers or the feelers for the community.
“There are still others who look like bunches of grapes, and they look after the baby creatures who come to form a part of this strange animal-plant.
“Still more of them are like great long ribbons and they are armed with cells which sting and slay young fishes down in the water. Then they bring up the food to the other members of the family.
“So, you see, this whole big community of many-colored little creatures, which are a kind of animal-plant life, all help each other. And they are all of many beautiful colors, and add as much to the beauty of the sea as anything else.
“But I want to make it quite clear that they are all together as a plant would be, and yet each has its purpose in life, whether it be to market or get the fish or look after the eggs.
“Lately I have seen in a great museum in one of the large cities a copy of one of these colonies made out of blown glass.
“There you can see the colors, for without the colors you can’t half imagine how lovely it is. The little creatures are lovely lavenders, and green, and purples, and browns, and pinks—all like a lovely mass of soft and delicate colors.
“So that the Portuguese Man-of-War and its little inhabitants are becoming better known.”
FEBRUARY 3: The Circus Dream
“I want to tell you the story this evening,” said daddy, “of a little boy named Jay Rial.
“Jay Rial was as nice a little boy as any one could ever hope to see. Every one liked him and he liked people, too. But the thing he loved above everything else in the world was the circus.
“He loved the sound of the train whistle which brought the circus to town, and he loved the old circus which used to travel by the road and not come by the train at all. He loved the circus band, the clowns, the animals. He loved the very tent itself, the smell of peanuts, the roars of the lions, the beautiful ladies who rode the beautiful horses.
“He loved the performers, and every time he went to a circus he wished his eyes were bigger so he could see more, and he wished that circus people didn’t have to go to sleep at all.
“He used to follow the circus parade as it came through the town and he didn’t mind if it was always late, for he could go to the circus grounds with some of the other boys and see them unpack, and maybe he could sometimes help a little, too!
“Once he had been allowed to stand in the middle of the sawdust-covered ring when they were fixing up the tent. That had been a great moment.
“There was only one thing about circus day which ever made him sad. That was that sometimes people couldn’t afford to go to the circus. He had been very lucky. He was always able to do chores for his mother and daddy around circus time and he could make enough money for a ticket.
“But there were some little boys and girls who couldn’t do that, or whose mothers and daddies couldn’t afford to do that for them.
“‘If I ever get to be a big man,’ said little Jay Rial, ‘I’m going to take just as many children to the circus with me as I can.’
“Little Jay Rial called it his circus-dream. And sometimes he would really dream that he was taking hundreds and hundreds of little boys and girls whose faces had been sad and teary because they hadn’t thought they were going to the circus. He had dreamed of how they would follow after him and would say:
“‘Me, too?’
“And he would smile at them and say, ‘Yes, all of you!’
“It was a beautiful dream.
“Now there are many people who dream of doing something fine when they have more money or when they’re grown up and who forget it when that time comes.
“They will excuse themselves by saying, ‘Yes, I have more money than I used to have, but I find I need it all,’ instead of doing more than they had been able to do before. There are little boys who say, ‘When I grow up I’m going to see that poor children get ice-cream once in a while.’ But when they grow up they forget and they don’t realize that there are lots of children in hospitals and in homes who very seldom receive visits from the ice-cream man.
“Now Jay Rial was different. He remembered. When he grew up he went into the circus business. He was the one who would tell the newspapers in the different towns in advance when the circus was coming to town so every one could look forward to it.
“And he remembered his circus dream.
“So every year when the circus came to the very biggest city they visited, grown up Jay Rial arranged that every child in every hospital or home or any child who was crippled and not as fortunate as other children should come to the circus free.
“They arranged one afternoon when no one need buy a ticket but when every seat was free. And yet, that wasn’t enough for Jay Rial. When the hospitals and homes sent in their lists of the numbers of children who would be able to go to the circus the lists grew so long that the place wouldn’t hold them all.
“Do you suppose Jay Rial said, ‘Sorry, but we’ve room for no more?’ Not a bit of it. He had another circus party for those who couldn’t come to the first.
“And Jay Rial’s face was full of smiles as he looked at the thousands of children who were shrieking with joy over the circus, and he said, ‘My dream has come true.’
“But,” ended daddy, “Jay Rial is one of those people who help to make dreams come true.”
FEBRUARY 4: Little Mildred’s Muff
“Mildred had lost her muff,” said daddy. “She lived in a small town near a big city. She went to school in the city. Every morning she took the train into the city and came back by train in the afternoon. When she got home that afternoon she told her mother and daddy what had happened. Mildred’s daddy said that he would telephone to the railway station to see if anything had been seen of it. Mildred stood by listening.
“‘Mildred,’ said her daddy, ‘they’re asking me if your muff had a head on it. Did it?’
“‘Oh, let me talk, daddy!’ And Mildred grabbed the receiver.
“‘Yes, yes,’ she cried excitedly into the telephone; ‘it had a black fox’s head on it!’ Then she heard the joyful words:
“‘I think it has been found and brought here.’
“Mildred could hardly wait until the morning came. Then she went with her daddy to the lost and found department of the railway station.
“As soon as she got inside she cried, ‘There is my muff over there with all those umbrellas and books!’ And she jumped up and down with happiness.”
FEBRUARY 5: The Coal-Bin
“I’m proud, that is what I am,” said a large piece of coal in the coal-bin. “There was a song written once about a king named Coal.”
“But,” said another piece of coal, “you have the idea, I believe, that his name was spelt as our name is spelt. I think that is wrong. The king spelt his name Cole. The song you mean goes like this, ‘Old King Cole was a merry old soul.’ Isn’t that the one you mean?”
“Yes,” said the large piece of coal which had spoken first. “That is the old song I mean. A fine one it is, to be sure. But what care I how the king spelt his name, or how the person who wrote the song spelt it? My grandfather once lived in a king’s coal-bin in a great palace. That is, he must have. Of course he never told me about it myself for he was burnt before I came around. But one of my grandfathers must have been in a king’s coal-bin and maybe he is still there. Kings must have coal-bins and be kept warm, mustn’t they?
“Perhaps I’ve a little cousin this very moment crackling and sizzling and burning for a king, who knows?
“But, now I come to think of it I don’t believe Old King Cole was good enough to belong to our family. He had to call for things all the time, whereas we are called for!
“Yes, people want us. They never knew before how much they appreciated us. They didn’t know it until we became a little scarce.”
“Yes,” said the other pieces of coal, “we can now hold up our coal heads and say to all the world, ‘Well, now what do you think of the coal-bin? You think a lot of it if we’re within it, and if the coal-bin is empty—ah, you’re sad!’
“Yes, that shows our importance. People talk about coal nowadays. They go around asking each other if they have enough coal. And people usually answer by saying that they are getting along all right but they would like to have more.
“They would like to have more of us, we, the fine pieces of coal, the coal which is at last appreciated, the coal which at last gets thanks for the warmth it gives, and the coal which is missed so sadly when it isn’t around!”
FEBRUARY 6: In Dreamland
“We’ve got lots of work to do to-night,” said the Dream King, and the Dream Fairies said, “What have we to do?”
“Well,” said the Dream King, “in talking to the Fairy Queen this afternoon, she said that she had quite a lot to tell me and she looked very sad.
“It seems that there have been many children lately she has heard telling each other unkind things they have heard about each other.
“For instance, she heard one little girl say to another little girl, ‘Oh, Sally, I heard Mamie say she thought you were awfully mean and selfish. I told her I didn’t think so. I stood up for you. I was your friend.’
“Well, the Fairy Queen said that made her mad. She said it was far worse of the little girl who came and told such a horrid thing than it even was in the little girl who had said it.
“I am going to give dreams to lots and lots of children who have said mean things. I am going to show them a huge room full of children and all the children will be crying and sobbing, and there won’t be enough handkerchiefs to go around.
“And I will tell them that these children are crying because of the mean speeches they have heard repeated.
“Hurry, Dream Fairies, tie up the dreams for me to take around. You know what I want now.
“And, Dream Fairies,” continued the Dream King, “I’m going to tell each girl and boy how every mean speech she or he thinks of and doesn’t make, or doesn’t repeat, will come straight to Dreamland and every week we will have a great big bonfire of them. Then all the Dream Fairies will laugh and sing as the mean speeches are burnt up.”
FEBRUARY 7: How the Inkfishes Protect Themselves
“Inkfishes,” said daddy; “aren’t black at all. In fact, they look very much like the ordinary jellyfish. But they are called inkfishes because when an enemy comes near them they drop ink out of an ink pocket they have near their mouths. You see, they can see perfectly through the ink, but the other fishes can’t and so when they dive down again and again and try to catch the inkfishes, they can’t do it. The water is so black they can’t see anything and they flounder off into the clear water, while the inkfishes keep out of their way.
“The jellyfishes and inkfishes are great friends and often visit each other. Little Kitty Inkfish and Nelly Jellyfish were especially good friends, and one day Kitty Inkfish asked her mother if she could invite Nelly Jellyfish to visit her for a whole week. Old Mrs. Inkfish consented, so Nelly Jellyfish was invited. Such excitement as there was, and all sorts of entertainments and parties were planned. Nelly Jellyfish arrived at exactly the hour she was invited to commence her visit. That afternoon the first party in her honor was to be given, and, of course, a number of other jellyfishes were invited for the party.
“But a great big, dangerous fish was hovering near. He saw all the nice fat looking jellyfishes, and he said to himself, ‘Here’s where I have a supper party too.’ So he dove through the water toward little Nelly Jellyfish. Oh, how frightened all the jellyfishes were, but as quickly as possible the inkfishes had dropped ink into the water and made it so black that the big fish couldn’t see. They all got out of the way, pulling the jellyfishes with them, and watched, with great amusement, the great big fish trying to find his way out.
“He coughed and sneezed with the ink in his face and made very wry faces at the taste of the ink, which made the inkfishes chuckle.
“At last the big fish had left, and all the jellyfishes congratulated the inkfishes on their wonderful means of protection, and they said they felt pretty sure that Nelly Jellyfish would be well looked after on her visit as well as have a wonderful time.”
[Illustration: “HURRY, DREAM FAIRIES, TIE UP THE DREAMS FOR ME TO TAKE AROUND.”—_Page 29_]
FEBRUARY 8: The Vegetables
“The vegetables on the stove were talking,” said daddy. ‘I insist upon being well-cooked,’ said Mr. Leader Potato.
“‘To my mind, that is nonsense. The cook arranges the heat and puts us on the stove when she wants to,’ said one of the String-Beans. ‘She takes us off when she sees fit. And she gives us just what she wants in the way of salt and pepper and butter.’
“‘Yes, can you imagine her saying, “Mr. Bean, have you enough salt?”’
“‘Neither would she say,’ went on the Stewed Corn, “Are you quite warm enough, Mr. Corn, or are you too warm? I will open a window if you wish.” No! We do exactly as we’re told. Mr. Potato, you are wrong. Yes, I grieve to admit it, but you are quite, quite wrong.’
“‘I insist upon being well-cooked because if I am not well-cooked, I am extremely horrid to eat,’ repeated Mr. Leader Potato; ‘I am hard and not “done” at all. No one likes me then. So they find it is well to cook me properly.’
“‘We all should be cooked properly,’ said the others.
“‘You all should, it is true,’ said Mr. Leader Potato. ‘But it is absolutely important that I should be well-cooked. A half-cooked potato is so extremely disagreeable.’
“But as he was talking, along came the cook to mash Potato and his family, for dinner was almost ready.
“‘How much fussing over I require!’ said Mr. Potato proudly.”
FEBRUARY 9: The Life Saving St. Bernards
“Once there was an old man who owned a number of St. Bernard dogs,” said daddy. “One night they camped near a small settlement. The old man had found sticks and wood, and the dogs had carried it along on the sleds. So they had a huge fire. They got nice and warm and had a supper of the provisions they’d brought and which, too, the dogs had carried.
“But a storm could be seen coming, and the snow was flying so fast it was almost blinding. The old man rolled the dogs up in warm rugs, and then, rolling up in a sleeping bag, he went fast asleep.
“He had not been asleep long before he was awakened by one of the biggest St. Bernard dogs, who was tugging at his sleeping bag.
“‘What is it, my beauty?’ asked the old man. Still the dog tugged at the bag. The old man was so sleepy at first he was half dazed, but he opened his eyes. Slowly he realized that some one must be suffering near-by, for he heard a strange wailing sound as of some one in distress. He got up, put on some warm things, and, hitching some of the dogs to a sled, they started out into the blizzard.
“They went toward the place where the sound of the wailing came from, and there, half buried in the snow, they found a man almost frozen to death. The old man, with the help of the dogs, put him on the big sled and dragged him back to their camp. There the old man rubbed him, and by the fire he began to recover. He said he had started out for another settlement to find food and had become blinded by the snow until he could go no farther. He was so grateful to the old man for saving his life. But the old man told him that the dog had been the rescuer.”
FEBRUARY 10: The Birthday Goblin
“A little girl named Polly,” said daddy, “could hardly wait for her birthday to come. She had been thinking about it for a long time, and at last there was only one more night and the birthday would actually be here.
“It was bedtime and Polly was ready for bed.
“‘I’m going to stay awake for ages,’ she said to herself, ‘and try to guess what mother and daddy are going to give me, and what we’ll have to eat at the party. I do hope it will be ice-cream. I am a little afraid it won’t be, though, because when I asked mother about it, she said that perhaps it would be nice to have a change. Nothing is so nice as ice-cream for a birthday party.’
“‘That’s true,’ said a jolly little creature, who suddenly appeared before her.
“‘Who are you?’ asked Polly.
“‘I’m the birthday Goblin. That is, I am one of the birthday Goblins, for there are a good many of us needed for our work. There are such lots of birthdays,’ and the Goblin tossed his head and laughed.
“‘And,’ continued the Goblin, ‘I tell mothers and daddies not to forget the good, old-fashioned way of putting a ring, a thimble and a button in the cake. I have to see about the presents, too. For how well I know what the girls and boys like as presents! That’s our business, you know.’
“‘Are we going to have ice-cream tomorrow?’ asked Polly.
“‘Yes,’ said the Goblin. ‘Your mother took my suggestions so quickly. I didn’t have to coax her at all. But your birthday is here and the sun has been up some time. Good-by, happy birthday!’ And as Polly opened her eyes, her mother was by her bed, whispering that always wonderful birthday wish of:
“‘Many happy returns of the day!’”
FEBRUARY 11: A Make-Believe and Real President
“You have heard,” said daddy, “how Abraham Lincoln pretended the cabbages which he grew in his garden were real people and how he named them. The straightest and very best-looking one he named General Strong, and another he named Captain Brave. One more he admired especially and thought it an exceptionally fine looking cabbage. He called it Mr. President, and little did he then think that he, the little boy, would be President when he grew up.”
FEBRUARY 12: Abraham Lincoln
“I have one little story to tell you to-night which I don’t think you’ve heard before,” said daddy. “When the present King of Siam was a little boy and his governess was teaching him American history he became so impressed with Abraham Lincoln and his freeing of the slaves and the tragedy of his death, that he said,
“‘When I become King I will free the slaves of the palace.’
“‘Will you promise me that?’ his governess asked, and the little boy promised. And when he became king all of the wives and slaves of the royal palace—four or five hundred—were freed and were given money and assistance to get fresh starts as free people.
“That story came to me,” daddy continued, “from my own mother who knew the governess, and I have never told it to you two children before.
“And while it is splendid to think of a little boy in far-off Siam loving and following the great example of our splendid Lincoln, still I’ve been thinking to-day that the greatest thing of all is that we all know Lincoln so well that we can hardly find a new story to tell of him.
“He was so simple, so human, so real a person that we have all grown to know him—not only as a President and a magnificent figure in history—but as Abraham Lincoln, the man of the people.”
FEBRUARY 13: Isa’s Valentine Party
“A little girl named Isa had been very ill in a large city hospital,” said daddy. “But at last a joyful time came when Isa really seemed to be on the road to getting well, and very happy her mother and daddy were.
“‘Oh, little Isa,’ said her daddy, ‘we’re going to have a surprise for you. You know to-night is St. Valentine’s eve, and I have an idea my little daughter may be going to have all kinds of bright, heart-shaped presents!’
“‘Oh, daddy!’ said Isa, ‘instead of giving just me a valentine party couldn’t we have one for all the children in the hospital? I’m well enough to be moved into the big ward, and all the children who are able to be there can have a party with me, and we can have a huge valentine party. Oh, couldn’t we do that, daddy?’
“‘Yes, indeed,’ said her daddy.
“So in the evening the big ward was bright with red hearts strung from the ceiling and hanging over the beds. The lights were covered with red paper shades, and in the very center of the room was an enormous big heart, and what do you suppose was in the heart?”
“What?” asked Evelyn eagerly.
“Why, for every child there was a red ribbon. Each child pulled one ribbon attached to the heart and at the end was a beautiful present.”
FEBRUARY 14: Why There is a Saint Valentine’s Day
“St. Valentine,” said daddy, “was a bishop in the third century—that was many, many years ago. He was a very good, kind man and always went about doing kind things for people. But some of the Romans didn’t like him, and in those days the people were cruel. If they didn’t like any one or imagined he might do them harm, they had him beheaded, and Bishop Valentine, as he was then called, was beheaded.
“His friends felt dreadfully that such a good man should be so cruelly murdered, and for days they could talk of nothing else but of the good Bishop Valentine, and they’d tell one another of all his good deeds and of his love for all people and of his kindnesses. The older people would tell their children about him until before long they began to speak of him as St. Valentine, and that name clung to him.
“So that ever since then, through all the years that have passed, he has always been known as St. Valentine, and although he was so cruelly beheaded, still his deeds of charity and kindness will always be known.
“You see, that is why we send valentines around to tell people we’re thinking of them and are fond of them, and we call them valentines because they’re nice, thoughtful messages and are like the dear old St. Valentine.”
FEBRUARY 15: The Desk and the Ink-Well
“I misbehave most frightfully if children don’t pay me attention,” said the Ink-Well.
“Yes,” said the Desk. “And then you make me suffer.”
“Do you really know what I mean?” asked the Ink-Well.
“Of course,” said the Desk. “If, for instance, a little girl or a boy is pouring from the great big grandfather Ink-Bottle and is giving you something more in the way of a nice Inky fluid or drink, and if the little girl looks the other way, you spill.”
“I don’t spill. I turn a somersault, or I trickle down the desk.”
“Yes, down me,” said the Desk. “And do you think it is very nice to make me suffer?”
“Ha, ha,” laughed the Ink-Well, “as if you cared whether I trickled down over you or not. You are made of wood and you don’t care.”
“That’s so,” agreed the Desk, “but even if I am made of wood I like to be varnished and made over nice and fresh every little while. It’s just like having one’s face washed.”
“But people who have their faces washed,” said the Ink-Well, “(though I do believe they always wash their faces themselves) do so far more than once a year. That is as often as you get your face washed or varnished.”
“Well, I’m made of wood, you see,” said the Desk, “and so I don’t care. Once a year does quite nicely for me. Besides it would be quite utterly useless any oftener for you’d only spill over me and I’d get quite horrid looking.”
“That’s polite of you, I’m sure,” said the Ink-Well, “to say you’d look horrid with some of my nice ink on you. It adds a lot I think.”
“It may add ink,” said the Desk, “but it doesn’t add beauty.”
But the school bell was ringing and so the Desk and Ink-Well were silent.
FEBRUARY 16: Dr. Sun
“For over two weeks a little boy has followed me around,” said the Sun.
“Whatever do you mean?” asked the Sun Rays.
“He has been ill. He has had a very, very bad cold. Oh, he has been so wretched and he has not felt like doing anything. A little boy is pretty ill when he doesn’t feel like doing anything and wants to stay quiet.”
“That’s true,” said the Sun Rays. For how often they had seen small boys scampering and playing, and sometimes they had danced, too, for joy.
“The doctor comes every day,” continued the Sun. “Sometimes he comes twice a day, and once he came three times. But every time he comes he tells the little boy always to sit in the sun! And he has been following me around. When I am shining into one window in the morning, there I see the little boy sitting by the window. In the afternoon when I choose an entirely different part of the house to shine in the windows, there is the little boy again. And for two weeks he has been doing this. Just following me around. I do feel so honored. And you, my good Sun Ray children, you should feel honored too.”
“We do,” said the Sun Rays.
“Listen now!” said the Sun. And they all stopped talking to listen.
There was the little boy sitting by the window, and by him stood his mother and a big man with a low voice. The man was carrying a little black satchel and he was talking.
“Well, how are you to-day, my boy?” he asked.
“Oh, much stronger and better,” said the boy. “I almost feel like getting out again.”
“You’ll be able to in a very few days now.”
“Oh, doctor,” said the mother, “you have saved my little boy’s life. He was so sick.” But the doctor shook his head.
“I did not save his life,” he said. “The Sun did that. The Sun fights germs better than medicines or doctors. We are needed to tell the people to take advantage of the Sun and use it, and we have to tell them what the trouble is. For the Sun can’t talk. If he could he would be one of the greatest doctors in the world. For he always carries his cure with him. Ah, now he helps me drive away the colds, the many horrid sicknesses that come when little boys have to stay in the house.”
“Dear father,” said the Sun Rays, “you are really Doctor Sun.”
“And you my little assistant nurses,” said the Sun.
FEBRUARY 17: Mr. Moon Hides
“What’s the matter?” asked the Earth.
“I’m tired,” said the Moon.
“All right,” said the Earth. “My shadow is always ready for you to hide behind when you want it.”
“You don’t mind, do you?” asked the Moon.
“I’m highly flattered,” said the Earth. “It is a great honor. Lots of people come out and look at us both at such times. For people call it an Eclipse.”
“What do they mean by that?” asked the Moon.
“They call it a total eclipse,” said the Earth, “when there is no Moon to be seen at all.”
“My! And they use words like that—total Eclipse—just to say that the Moon can’t be seen. Well, well, well, they do pay me a great compliment.”
The Moon talked to the Earth for a long time and the Earth’s shawl or shadow kept the moon from sight for several hours.
Before long the Moon grew a little restless. “I think I must be leaving,” he said.
“Sorry to see you go,” said the Earth. “You call on me so seldom. Your visits are so rare.”
“Oh,” laughed the Moon, “you are so nice to me, but where did you pick up that last word? Was it running around down on the earth where you heard it as it walked over you?”
“Words don’t run around,” said the Earth, “but the people who use them do. That word means that your visits are so few. I’d like to see you oftener.”
“Thank you,” said the Moon. “Perhaps because I come only now and again it is better, for you see it is more of a treat.”
“Maybe that is so,” said the Earth. “I always enjoy looking at you from afar, but I do thoroughly enjoy your calls.”
“Then I’ll come some time again,” said the Moon.
FEBRUARY 18: A Careless Master
“A horse,” said daddy, “was very thirsty.
“‘I don’t know how I can go on working so hard without a drink,’ he was trying to tell his master. But his master paid no attention.
“On and on they went. The horse’s tongue became so dry. He hung it out of his mouth, but the master didn’t notice—not even when he gave him a pat as he came out from a house where he had left a package.
“Now, a little fairy was hovering near-by. The fairy was the Princess Joy and she was in her long dress of mist-fog material. For the day was misty and there was a light fog. But not enough rain had fallen for the horse to wet his tongue. He had tried to hold his mouth open and get a drink that way but the rain-drops were not coming down. They were feeling shy and not like a trip to the earth.
“‘I’m so thirsty,’ said the horse again to himself.
“‘Thirsty,’ said the Princess Joy. ‘Why doesn’t your master give you something to drink? You’re a good horse. You go wherever he wants you to go—and so willingly, too. You’re so loyal and you are nice with his children and let them play with you whenever they want to. Can’t he give you a drink?’
“‘He has forgotten,’ said the horse. ‘He doesn’t mean to be cruel. He has just forgotten—that’s all.’
“‘Well, we’ll attend to that,’ said the Fairy Princess Joy.
“Now she knew that the horse’s master and the ice man did not like each other. ‘I’ll attend to this,’ she said to herself.
“The ice man was delivering ice from house to house along the same street where the master was delivering his parcels. The ice man had his ice in a little hand wagon he was pushing along himself.
“‘You shall have some fine ice water,’ whispered the fairy to the horse. ‘The best of ice water.’
“The Fairy whispered to the ice man, and though he didn’t know that the fairy had told him to leave his wagon in just such a place, he did so.
“‘Now walk up a little bit,’ she said to the horse.
“The horse began to lick a fine piece of ice. Ah, such a drink as he had. The ice melted so fast against his dry tongue, and there was a great deal in the side of the wagon. He licked the ice until half of a piece had gone.
“Just then the ice man and his master came out at the same time. There the horse was having his drink.
“‘You owe me for a piece of ice,’ said the ice man. ‘I can’t sell that piece now. Why don’t you give your horse some water? What are you—cruel to animals, eh?’
“This made the master feel very badly. ‘I forgot,’ he murmured. ‘I shall pay you for the ice and I’ll never forget again.’
“‘The first good speech I’ve heard you make. You’ve always been too careless and thoughtless before, but now we’ll be friends, and I do believe you’ll never forget your fine animal again.’ And the master agreed.”
FEBRUARY 19: The Cat Show
“There were cats at the Cat Show,” said daddy, “such as are never seen in any kitchen. Cats on velvet cushions who looked far too haughty ever, ever to crawl under a good old stove on a torn cushion. For at this Cat Show there were cats whose families were old and noble in the history of Catland. And cats of all colors! They were even lavender and so many other queer colors for cats to be!
“And such wonderful fur they had! It was soft and silky and combed so well. They wore bright ribbons, and their cushions matched! And they were fed the most delicious bits of meat and fish—and drank cream, real, real cream!
“But two cats were talking. One was named Royalty and the other Nobility.
“‘What do you think of the Show?’ asked Royalty.
“‘It’s about the same as most,’ said Nobility, with a yawn.
“‘How dull they are!’ snarled Royalty. And some passer-by said,
“‘That cat is so highly bred, you see. Did you notice how he snarled?’
“‘Isn’t that too absurd!’ said Royalty. ‘As if it were something very fine to be cross. I’m cross because of these people. They make such a fuss over me. They spoil me, and then some of my poor little sisters and brothers are left by these very same people to starve in the city all summer, while they go off and shut up their houses!’
“‘What do you mean?’ asked Nobility. ‘You haven’t any sisters or brothers who live in kitchens, have you?’ And Nobility’s back rose in surprise.
“‘Indeed, I have,’ said Royalty, ‘and I’m proud of it! Do you for one moment think that my family were born in Egypt or India—or Malta—or wherever they say the family came from? Do you know where my family came from? From the alleys and side streets where they used to hunt for scraps of food—almost any kind of food.
“‘Then, you see, the family were ambitious, and somehow we became kitchen cats, and we lived on milk and good food.’
“‘But how did you ever come here?’ asked Nobility.
“‘Because my little master wanted to make some money to buy a bicycle. He thought perhaps I’d win a prize at a small Show which was given at that time. He fed me up, put a ribbon around my neck, and had me sit on a purple cushion. I won a prize and I’ve been winning them ever since. I was bought for a great deal of money, and I make a lot! But what does that mean to me? Nothing! All I want to say is that if only I knew Grown-Up talk I’d say to all these people that they could admire me if they wished but to please remember my sisters and brothers when the summer comes again.’”
FEBRUARY 20: The Queer Pets
“A funny old woman,” commenced daddy, “lived all alone. Her chief delight in life was to have all the chickens, geese and ducks she could, and let them walk anywhere they pleased. They could go right into the parlor or into the kitchen, whichever suited their fancy. Luckily, for the good of the parlor, they really preferred the kitchen. All the food was there, and they liked to eat better than anything else.
“Now, this old woman was very peculiar, too, and she looked it. But the funniest thing about her was that all the animals she had were queer looking too. The geese seemed to be a little different from any other geese. The ducks had even more hideous feet than most ducks have, and they were all of rather strange colors.
“One day not very long ago there flew around the neighborhood a strange looking bird. He seemed to be quite alone.
“But soon, to every one’s surprise, they saw him playing with the strange looking geese, ducks and chickens that belonged to the old woman. He never wanted to fly in the house, but they saw that she brought out water and crumbs to him. And the old woman welcomed with joy one more strange creature.”
FEBRUARY 21: Harry’s Composition
“Harry was a very clever little boy,” daddy said. “The teacher of the class to which Harry belonged had had all the pupils write original compositions to recite at the Washington’s Birthday entertainment.
“The day before the entertainment (at which, of course, all the mothers and daddies of the children were to be present) a rehearsal of everything was to take place. It was Harry’s turn to recite his composition. As he got up on the platform his legs were shaking, and every one saw how nervous he was.
“He began, then he faltered, and then he broke down and sobbed. Harry, the hero of the school, was crying. Could it be true? The pupils looked at him with pity. What could be the trouble, they asked themselves.
“‘Teacher,’ he finally said between his choking sobs, ‘I didn’t write that composition. I cheated. I copied it out of an old book I found. I’m not worthy to recite on Washington’s Birthday.’
“And then he rushed from the platform down to his seat, and, putting his head in his hands, he cried and cried.
“‘You’ve done a thing worthy of George Washington’s Birthday, Harry,’ said the teacher. ‘You’re not able to act a lie, and because you are truthful you will still recite the composition, giving the name of its real writer.’”
FEBRUARY 22: Father of His Country
We all know the old answer to the question of “Who was George Washington?”
Many a time have we gaily answered the question as we’ve pounded fists on the table:
“First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen.” And at the end of that we’ve had a nice little winding up of pounding.
There is hardly a place, it seems, that in some way is not connected with Washington. Perhaps at one time or another he had made his headquarters there, or a chair is preserved carefully because Washington sat in it!
At Mount Vernon, where Washington lived, one can see the very rooms through which Washington walked, his bed-room, and the very four-poster bed in which he slept. And around the house are the grounds which Washington loved and through which he wandered, down to the banks of the Potomac River.
Time and time again George Washington faced difficulties of a bitterly hard nature. But he never flinched.
Time and time again Washington saw his men suffering or deserting. But Washington suffered with them and he never lost courage.
Time and time again Washington was doubted; jealous groups tried to work against him. But Washington went straight on, doing as he should and not stooping to “play favorites” or to be a “favorite.”
There was the time, too, when the country he loved doubted him, and showed him cruel ingratitude. But Washington did not turn from his course. It was the hardest of all to bear but he was the Father of his Country and—his children did come back to him.
And then—when everywhere people were singing his praises, shouting them, exclaiming them, Washington never lost his head.
He never let his own little inner feelings of likes and dislikes keep him from being fair.
Always fair, always just, always true to the country whose government he really made, he is the Father of his Country in truth.
After the Revolutionary War, as after all wars, the country was in a frightfully upset state and the people were the same. Then it was that Washington held together the country, made its government, and slowly but steadily brought order out of the most frightful disorder.
In those days people traveled by stage-coach; cities were small and far apart, the country was spread out and rumors and prejudices were hard to overcome.
But all of these tangled threads and oh, so tangled were they, Washington unraveled!
His Christmas Days, too—often how unlike Christmas they were! One was spent at Valley Forge when everything was frozen and the men went forth seeking food. Another was spent at New Windsor where the suffering from the cold had been intense, but there was brightness that day because of the arrival of a great wagon filled with shirts and warm clothing for Washington and his men. And yet another Christmas was that when the famous crossing of the Delaware River took place.
Washington—whom historians all call very great.
Washington—the Father of his Country!
FEBRUARY 23: The Stamp Traveler
“I am very superior,” said the Postage Stamp. “I travel all over the world. My family have always traveled. We don’t stay in one place—of course sometimes we do—but more often we go away. Now and again our little one-cent brothers go about the town, but we, the noble two-cent stamps, how we travel.”
“You don’t travel any more than we do,” said the Envelope upon which the stamp was stuck fast.
“I disagree with you,” said the Stamp.
“That makes no difference to me,” said the Envelope. “But if you disagree with me, why don’t you leave me?”
“I can’t,” said the Stamp.
“Of course you can’t, you poor dear,” said the Ink which had made the address on the envelope. “You’re stuck to the Envelope, and no matter how hard you quarrel you still have to stick.”
“Well, I’d like to know if you don’t have to stay on too,” said the Stamp.
“Ah, but I have fun when I’m being put on. Sometimes I make a nice smudgy spot, and then the Creature who has been writing with me does not know what to do.
“The Creature will argue like this, ‘Now shall I let the Envelope go as it is, or shall I address a fresh one? There is something queer about this Ink.’ Then it is that I chuckle. ‘No,’ the Creature continues, ‘I think I will not notice the smudgy spot. Maybe the persons getting it will think that the rain has made it look so badly—rain often gets at a letter.’
“And so the Creature blames it on the rain, and I go off quite free.”
“That’s not to your credit when you’re guilty,” said the Envelope.
“We mustn’t quarrel,” said the Postage Stamp, “as now we’re off for a trip. The man is putting us in a bag. Then we go on a train—then to a new Post Office, and at last we reach the place for which we started.”
“Yes,” said the Ink, “the place I have marked with my ink!”
FEBRUARY 24: How Rowdy Shared His Home
“Rowdy was a beautiful and very handsome bulldog. He had a lovely white throat, too, and when he went out into the street he wore a fine big collar, which made him look very distinguished,” said daddy, “and he belonged to a little boy named Alfred. Alfred’s mother was a very rich lady, and Rowdy had all the comforts that any dog could possibly ask for. He slept in Alfred’s room in a beautiful basket.
“Alfred and Rowdy were really inseparable companions. Alfred was not a very strong little boy. He couldn’t join in all the sports that other little boys enjoy. Because of Alfred’s ill health he and Rowdy were all the better companions.
“Alfred had a phonograph, which he used to play a great deal. Rowdy would sit before it, so delighted at the music. He’d put his head first on one side and then on the other. Of course Alfred would talk to him and ask him how he was enjoying the music. Rowdy would wag his tail to show he thought it was fine.
“In the afternoons Alfred and his mother used to take drives in a lovely big open Victoria. One afternoon it was beautifully bright and sunny. Alfred’s mother said:
“‘We’ll go for a nice long drive to-day.’
“‘Rowdy!’ called Alfred, for Rowdy was fast asleep on the sofa.
“Rowdy jumped up eagerly as if he knew something pretty nice was going to happen.
“‘Rowdy, how would you like to take a drive? Speak and say if you would like it.’
“So Rowdy wagged his tail and gave a bark as if to say, ‘Charmed!’ Rowdy’s best collar was put on, and off they started. They had not gone far before they passed a poor, pathetic little waif dog. Rowdy was not snobbish and proud as some dogs might have been, brought up in all the comforts he had always had. Instead he seemed to feel very sorry for the little waif dog and whined sadly. Then he tried to jump out of the carriage.
“‘Do you want to take the little waif dog driving?’ said Alfred to Rowdy. And Rowdy showed as well as he could that he would like that tremendously.
“They took the poor little homeless dog back with them and gave him good food and a nice home. Rowdy seemed to be glad to give such happiness to a little friendless dog, and he seemed to feel that it was giving the dog rare pleasure to have a master like Alfred.”
FEBRUARY 25: The Tired Eagles
“In the house where Kenneth lived there was a chair which had always fascinated him. It was a very, very old chair, and Kenneth’s mother and daddy were very proud of it,” said daddy to Jack and Evelyn. “Kenneth’s daddy had bought it at a sale of old and curious things. It was a Roman chair, and on either side were two heads of eagles. These four heads in all always made Kenneth wonder, for they looked so very life-like. He used to imagine that even little wooden eagles must get very tired of always being just the same. And late one afternoon, sitting in the chair he fell asleep.
“‘You’re terribly tired, aren’t you?’ said the first eagle, who suddenly seemed to be looking at him.
“‘Yes, I’m a little tired,’ Kenneth admitted.
“‘Well, you’re not as tired as we are,’ said the second eagle.
“‘No, indeed!’ said the third eagle. ‘You’re only tired because you’ve played so many games. We’re tired because we’re always still.’
“Kenneth listened eagerly, because he’d so often thought just what he was hearing. ‘Yes,’ said Kenneth very sympathetically, ‘I should think you would be very dull. I’ve often thought that. Have you been there a long time?’
“‘Oh, ages and ages!’ replied the fourth eagle, who up to this time had not spoken. ‘We were very old before your daddy got us. We’ve been on this chair so long. We can’t remember how long. And what makes us feel so sad is that we are called eagles and should fly and yet are forever glued to this chair.’
“‘Kenneth, Kenneth,’ cried Kenneth’s mother, ‘it’s long past bed-time!’
“‘Oh, I am not so tired as the eagles are!’ said Kenneth. And Kenneth’s mother wondered if he was talking in his sleep.”
[Illustration: “‘WE’VE BEEN ON THIS CHAIR SO LONG,’ SAID THE FOURTH EAGLE.”—_Page 44_]
FEBRUARY 26: The Squirrels’ Peanut Hunt
“A little girl named Polly,” began daddy, “lived near a park. In this park were a great many squirrels. They were principally gray, with great, long bushy tails, and they were very tame. Polly had often fed them peanuts, but she thought it would be lots of fun to have a real peanut hunt. So she ran around as quickly as she could, hiding the peanuts from her bag.
“First one very old fat squirrel found three peanuts hidden under a rock.
“He called to the other squirrels and waved his bushy tail in the air, trying to say, ‘There are peanuts if we will hunt for them!’
“The squirrels didn’t stop to eat the peanuts after they discovered that there were so many hidden. They just kept on getting more and more until finally they had succeeded in finding them all.
“Then they began to carry the peanuts to their little homes, and they looked so happy, just as if they were free from cares or worries for days to come, for, of course, they didn’t have to worry about meals for ever and ever so long with the wonderful supply they now had on hand.”
FEBRUARY 27: The Game of Manners
“I must tell you a story about the game of good manners which they play in a large public school in a big city,” said daddy. “They are let into the secret that it’s a lesson, but it is a play-time lesson and they have it in connection with their gymnasium and play-time work, though it doesn’t take the place of recess.
“And they grow to understand their teachers better, who are teaching them the game of manners and they get on so much better when both teachers and pupils understand each other and really like each other.
“For example, they hear a story of a little boy who didn’t want to wash his hands or face and who became so dirty that he found himself without any companion except a pig.
“After they have heard such a story they all act it out, one taking the part of the dirty little boy, and the others of the people he met who wouldn’t play with him or have anything to do with him, or invite him into their homes, or anything nice like that.
“And they take turns in having the story about a boy and about a girl.
“They hear a story of a very rude boy or girl and of how he grew up into a cross man or woman, and they hear of his adventures and what horrible times he had making others miserable as well as himself.
“Then they act out these stories in their classes where they have dramatics and different ones take the parts of the bad child or the unmannerly child or the unmannerly grown-up, and of all the people whom these met with in their adventures.
“And oh, what laughter there is when a boy makes a mistake in acting his part of the teacher and in being very unlike the teacher and more like himself which of course is quite natural. Yes, the game of good manners is a great and successful game in this school where there are three thousand and six hundred boys and girls.”
FEBRUARY 28: Naughty Julius
“There is nothing more dreadful to my mind,” said daddy, “than a little boy who is mean to other children not so big and strong as he is. I once knew a little boy like that and will tell you about him this evening.
“The little boy’s name was Julius.
“A family came to live one day in the house opposite where Julius lived. The house had been vacant for a long time, so Julius was delighted when he found he was to have neighbors. What was his disappointment, though, to find that the family opposite consisted only of a mother, daddy and a little sick boy named Hugh. He was cross when he saw Hugh’s little pale face at the window opposite. He would laugh at him until he saw the tears trickle down Hugh’s face and he would turn away from the window.
“One day Julius’ mother came to him and said, ‘Julius, it is very cruel to make fun of a little sick boy, and I will tell you what is the trouble with Hugh.
“‘Hugh had his right foot frozen last winter, and he has had to have it taken off. To-day he is going out for the first time on his crutches,’ concluded his mother.
“Julius kept very quiet, but inwardly he was planning something very mean to do. He waited around for some time, and still no sign of Hugh. At last he saw him, so he shrieked from the window, ‘Hello, tenderfoot!’
“Hugh was bound he would be brave, so he beat back the tears. Julius rushed downstairs and out into the street.
“Just at that moment a fast motor-car came along. Julius did not see it, but Hugh did, and as his little voice was too weak to rise above Julius’ laughter he hobbled on his crutches and pulled Julius out of the way just in the nick of time. Oh, how frightened Julius was! And his escape from some terrible injury seemed marvelous.
“In a flash he saw what it would have meant to him to have no football, no skating, no sports, and the little crippled Hugh he had laughed at and who had so much to bear had saved him.
“Hugh forgave Julius, and they became fast friends from that time, and Julius never forgot that Hugh had saved his life.”
FEBRUARY 29: The Whistling Boy
“I am going to tell you a story,” said daddy, “about a whistling boy. It is a true story too. The boy was asked to a party and he went.
“All the children were playing games—follow the leader, prisoner’s base, blind man’s buff, hide and go seek, still-pond-no-more-moving, and many other games.
“They asked him if he wanted to play and he put his hands in his pockets and whistled. Then they had supper and they asked him if he liked creamed chicken and he whistled.
“They asked him if he liked ice-cream and he whistled. And as he whistled the same three notes whenever he was asked anything they didn’t know whether he liked ice-cream or not.
“They gave him some supper when everything was passed around and he whistled when he took his plates and his cup of cocoa. When he had finished, without saying a word to any other children he got up, put his hands in his pockets once more and whistled.
“The children began to giggle, for they thought he was such a funny boy, and a funny boy he was. He had been rather spoilt and he hadn’t really learned to play with other children.
“They felt very sorry for him, but still he wouldn’t say a word or do anything. They had asked him to the party because he had just come to the town to live and they thought he must be lonely.
“Well, when he got home he felt very badly, as many shy people do who have been rude because they were so shy they didn’t know what to say, and so did the wrong thing.
“He cried when he was going to bed. And he was much ashamed of himself, for he thought it was a dreadful thing for a boy to cry.
“After a while he went to sleep, and in his sleep the Dream King came to him.
“‘I’ll help you,’ said the Dream King, ‘and I will not let you behave as badly as you did this afternoon if I can help it. For listen, Boy. If you whistle again instead of talking and playing I will take away your tongue for a whole month and you won’t be able to make any sound.’
“And the dream seemed so real to the boy that he tried his best to act as other boys, and he succeeded too.”
MARCH 1: Lucy’s Tonsils
Now, there were two tonsils and they had made their home in Lucy’s throat.
Tonsils always make their homes in throats. They do not care for other kinds of homes.
They are all alike in that way.
Now people are very different. Some people like to have their homes in country places. Others like to have their homes in big cities where there are crowds and crowds of people.
Still others like to have their homes in seaside places, so they can be neighbors of dear old Mother Ocean.
But tonsils like to make their homes in throats. And these twin Tonsils were in Lucy’s throat.
One Tonsil was named Ton Tonsil and the other was Tom Tonsil.
“Hello, Ton,” said Tom, “are you up to mischief?”
“Indeed I am,” said Ton. “I’m causing trouble. How about you?”
“Doing all I can think of and I’ve a good many pranks left to play, too,” said Tom. “I tell you what, we have a loyal and faithful little friend in Susy Sore Throat. She’s a mean one.
“She’s a good playmate for us. She’s going to be with us to-day. Gracious me, it’s surprising how Susy does turn up, and half the time no one knows from where she comes.
“She’s going to bring her little half-brother along with her—you know—Ronald Raw Throat. They’re very fond of being together.”
“I think we’ll have a fine party,” said Ton Tonsil. “I feel puffed up with excitement already.”
“So do I,” said Tom.
“I tell you Lucy’s throat is a fine home for us,” said Ton.
“Yes,” said Tom, “it’s gorgeous. We have had lots of room to grow big with pride, and we have. We’ve grown big with Tonsil pride.
“They say it’s not nice for Tonsils to grow so proud because they’ve nothing to be proud of—but gracious me, that is just the point.
“Things that have no reason to be puffed up and proud are usually the kind that are most conceited.
“And those creatures who are modest and not conceited are usually the ones who can do things. You’ll almost always find it is that way.”
“That’s the way it usually is,” said Ton. “Well, we mustn’t talk any more. We must get bigger and bigger and just let Lucy know we’re making ourselves quite at home in her throat.
“In fact, she needn’t think she has any rights to her own throat. We’re the ones with rights.”
“And don’t forget us,” said the little Adenoid Cousins. “Don’t forget us.”
“We won’t,” said the Tonsil Twins. “We won’t forget you.”
Along then came Susy Sore Throat and Ronald Raw Throat, and Carrie Cold came too, and so did Clarence Cough. Oh, they all came and had a party in Lucy’s throat.
Well, they liked the party so much that they came again and again. Sometimes they had little parties and sometimes big parties.
One day, however, Lucy decided to let her Tonsils know that they could not make their home any longer in her throat.
So she went to the big doctor who had promised to take them out and who had told her that she would get rid of those wretched little Twins.
It wasn’t pleasant to think of getting rid of the Twins. They wouldn’t come out by a mere kind word. No, they had to be cut out. Harsh ways had to be used with them. But Lucy was brave—and she knew that once she got rid of those wretches her throat would never again be the place for the Tonsil parties.
So the big doctor took the Tonsil Twins out and their Adenoid Cousins along with them, and the Tonsils wept red tears as they left Lucy, but they said each to the other:
“It was all our fault for behaving as we did!”
MARCH 2: Lucy’s Visitors
The Tonsil Twins had been taken away from Lucy’s throat and no longer did they make their home there and give the horrible parties they had been giving for so long a time. And, while Susy Sore Throat was leaving, nice visitors came to see Lucy.
A most attractive little toy wooden bunny came. His ears could be moved up and down and a most roguish look he would have when one ear was up and the other down.
Lucy gave him chicken broth and he was extremely pleased.
If he had not been afraid his wooden face would have cracked he would surely have smiled. For it was pleasant indeed when one was only a little wooden bunny rabbit to be given chicken broth.
It was most superior chicken broth, too. Oh, yes, for it had been made for Lucy and was made so as to give her lots of extra strength.
Besides the toy bunny a rag doll came to see Lucy. Yes, a very lovable sweet rag doll came to visit her.
She wore a little knitted hood on her head and a little sweater and a knitted scarf to keep her warm.
And she had a pair of warm knitted shoes. She wore her outside jacket, too, over her sweater, and she took along her little apron, so she could wear that when she played, so as not to hurt her good dress.
Oh, yes, the rag doll was going to play with Lucy and have an excellent time.
Then many members of the game family came to call on Lucy. They, too, came ready for play. Yes, there is nothing in the world that a game is more ready for than a good play.
Then people came to see Lucy, too, and congratulate her on the fact that the Tonsil Twins and the Adenoid Cousins had left.
A lovely gray felt bunny and a brown felt monkey always were with Lucy. They had always belonged to her and, though new visitors came, they did not leave her. The monkey put his arm around the bunny and with his other arm on the pillow by Lucy he looked most comfortable.
He hadn’t left her when she had gone to have the Tonsil Twins out. He had been such a comfort. Of course, when they were actually to be taken out he had to stay behind, but he was with her just as long as he could be and he joined her again as soon as he could.
“Well,” he was saying to the gray rabbit, “I’m laughing up my sleeve.”
“How can you do that?” asked the rabbit. “You haven’t any sleeve and you aren’t laughing up your arm. You’re not even turning your mouth in that direction.
“What do you mean by saying that?”
“Oh, it is just an expression,” said the monkey. “When Creatures say they’re laughing up their sleeve it does not really mean that they’re holding open their sleeve and saying:
“‘Ha, ha, ha,’ up it. But it means they’re laughing inwardly or to themselves or so no one can see their laughter. That is what the expression means.
“So, you see no one can see my laughter, but I’m laughing all right at the good joke played on those wretched Tonsil Twins!”
Just then there came another visitor. This time it was the prince of desserts—Prince Ice-Cream. Proudly the Prince came in on the best and most royal of saucers and just at that moment Susy Sore Throat left for good and all.
[Illustration: “A LOVELY FELT BUNNY AND A BROWN FELT MONKEY ALWAYS WERE WITH LUCY.”—_Page 50_]
MARCH 3: The Homesick Puppy
Daddy had a story about a little dog that he knew would please both the children.
“Would you like to hear of a little dog who was homesick?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Evelyn, “we would love to hear about it—that is, if he didn’t die of homesickness.”
“No, indeed,” said daddy, “this little dog didn’t die of homesickness, for he was sent home again and then was perfectly happy.
“He was the pet puppy of his mother, and he had told the man who had sold him to a little girl that he didn’t want to go.
“The man who sold him thought that the little girl would give him such a nice home, and so she did, but the little puppy wanted more than just a nice home. He wanted his mother.
“Of course the little girl hadn’t hesitated a moment about buying him, for he was a beautiful little Boston bull, and she promised him that she would make him happy.
“Now, when the little girl reached home with her puppy she gave him a great big bowl of the most delicious warm milk and a good puppy biscuit. But the puppy wouldn’t touch the milk and biscuit.
“At bedtime the little girl showed the puppy his basket, which was nice and soft and comfortable. She thought that after a good night’s rest he would be hungry for his breakfast and feel better.
“But morning came, and the puppy still refused to eat. And, would you believe it, hours passed, and the puppy still would not eat.
“Then the little girl decided that the only thing to be done was to take her beautiful puppy back to his mother.
“She ordered her pony cart to be ready for a certain hour, and off she started, holding the puppy by her side.
“When the puppy came near his home and began to see familiar sights it was all she could do to keep him in the cart, and when they were right by his home she could not hold him, for with a bound he was out and frisked and jumped over his mother, and she did the same, looking as if they would almost kill each other with joy.
“‘I guess he had better stay home,’ said the man.
“‘Yes,’ answered the little girl, ‘this is where he belongs.’”
MARCH 4: Lady Ethel
“I want to tell you a story this evening of the horse called Lady Ethel,” said daddy.
“One time Lady Ethel’s master took a long ride far out into the country away from where people lived.
“He felt quite ill after he had ridden a long way, and all of a sudden he got quite dizzy and fell.
“Lady Ethel pulled him out of the road and off to one side so no one taking the same road would go dashing over him by mistake.
“And then she went back home, all the distance alone, and neighed so that the people came out with her and found her master.
“He was quite ill after that, for he had been feeling poorly when he had started out on his ride, but if it hadn’t been for Lady Ethel he wouldn’t have had the chance to have been taken home and put back to bed and nursed back to health.
“He said he was grateful to all who helped him get well, but the one he was most grateful to of all was the faithful Lady Ethel.
“And every day while he was ill they led her under his window and she neighed happily after he had called out with as much strength as he could:
“‘Hello, my faithful, fine Lady Ethel!’”
MARCH 5: The Soup
“We’re going to be mixed together, I hear,” said the tomato.
“You don’t say so,” said the milk. “Well, we will be chummy, won’t we?”
“Yes,” said the tomato. “They’re going to make cream of tomato soup. It’s supposed to be quite delicious. And when we’re both well cooked they will mix us together and season us up very fine and we’ll be eaten as the first thing at the meal. Yes, soup is very apt to take the lead. It’s a leader, soup is.”
“Good,” said the milk. “But how silly to call it cream of tomato soup, if they’re going to use me. I’m milk, I am.”
“Oh, well,” said the tomato, “let them have their little airs and graces. And maybe when you’re mixed with me you’re every bit as good as cream. Who knows!”
MARCH 6: Elephant Ways
“Why did you have your toe-nails cut, your skin oiled, and your feet sand-papered?” asked Sally of an elephant in the Zoo.
“One question at a time please,” said the elephant. “I can’t answer all three at once, for then the answers would be all jumbled up. Besides, I don’t know how to say more than one word at a time.
“My nails were cut because they needed it. And, come to think of it, I can answer all your questions at once. My feet needed to be sand-papered and my body needed to be oiled. My skin required it, and so the keeper looked after me, as he did after my friends here.” This he said waving his trunk.
“But what do you do when you are not in the Zoo?” asked Sally. “They don’t have sandpaper and nail scissors in the jungles, do they?”
“Ah, that is where you do not understand, and where the keeper does. In the wilds I can cut my nails on the great rocks. They keep them short. Here I cannot do it myself, and so the keeper has to do it for me. And I get the oil for my skin in the swamps when I’m free, and my feet are kept hard by the ground and rocks. We do not need the keeper’s scissors and so forth when we are free, for old Mother Nature looks after those things for us.”
MARCH 7: The Marbles
“The Marbles,” said daddy, “were very proud because they had been used so much by boys and girls—especially by boys.
“Then, too, the Elves had played marbles, as years before they had found out about them and thought they were lots of fun to play with.
“‘You are nothing but an ordinary Marble,’ said one large and very blue Marble to a little Marble.
“‘But I am useful for playing. And I joggle along and roll much better than you do. You are so big. You are quite awkward!’
“‘I’d feel pretty badly,’ said the big Marble, ‘if I were as cheap as you. You cost next to nothing. In fact, you didn’t even cost a cent. Not one whole cent!’
“The Marble rolled along a little way as if it couldn’t be too near the cheap Marble.
“‘But a cent bought me,’ said the little Marble.
“‘Yes,’ said the big Marble proudly, ‘it bought you and also a number of other marbles, too. You were one of five for a cent. One cent bought you and four others! Now, as for me! well, it took the whole of five cents to buy me!’
“‘I know it,’ said the little Marble sadly.
“‘My Master only bought me yesterday,’ said the big Marble. ‘His friends have not seen me. They’ll trade everything for me! Gracious—they’d trade dozens of little Marbles just for me! I cost five cents!’
“The children had arrived, but they did not seem to want to trade everything for it! One of them said,
“‘It is a beauty, but then it is not nearly so nice to play with as the smaller ones; besides, if I gave up a lot of small marbles for that big one I’d never be able to have a real game.’
“And all the other children said just the same thing.
“They played and they played. But the big Marble was so mad that it rolled away crookedly and no one thought so much of it.
“After the children had finished playing and had taken their marbles, and after the Master of the big Marble had put it away with the smaller ones, the little Marble which had been bought with four others for a cent said,
“‘Well, you may be handsome and big. But you are not nearly such fun as we are. Sometimes the cheap things are the most fun. It doesn’t mean because you cost five cents that you can give more pleasure.’
“‘I’m glad I can’t be used all the time like you all are,’ said the big Marble. ‘I am too fine for little Marbles, anyway.’
“But all the little Marbles were happy because they were the best for the children’s games.”
MARCH 8: Tomatoes’ Advantages
“The Vegetables,” said daddy, “had been put into the cellar for the winter. There were the Potatoes, the Apples for cooking, Carrots, the Squash family and many others. As they were talking the cook came down in the cellar. ‘Well,’ said she to herself, ‘it’s nice to get something from the hot-house once in a while. I get so sick of these everlasting winter vegetables and apples that we keep in the cellar. It’s nice to have a few Tomatoes for a change.’
“Down she put a box with bright red Tomatoes—just from the hot-house.
“‘Well, Vegetables,’ said the Tomatoes, ‘how do you do?’
“‘We’re quite well,’ said the Vegetables and Apples, who were rather quiet right now.
“‘I don’t see why I shouldn’t talk to you, though I’m pretty different from you,’ said the biggest Tomato of all.
“‘And why shouldn’t you be?’ asked Mr. Potato. ‘You have been in a hot-house, spoilt and petted. You’d be queer if you weren’t superior. With sun and warmth of course you have a fine color!’ And the Tomatoes agreed that they had had unusual advantages.”
MARCH 9: The Old Woman and the Pot of Daffodils
“A little girl named Laura,” said daddy, “had been quite ill. One day she was wondering if she would ever feel like herself again, able to do things and to play around. She was sitting up by the window in a big chair. She was looking out, feeling very sad and forlorn, when suddenly she saw a funny old woman who looked just like a witch stop by the window and then walk right into the room.
“The funny old woman spoke at once.
“‘Don’t be frightened,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to hurt you. Instead, you see this pot of daffodils I am carrying?’
“‘Yes,’ exclaimed Laura. ‘Aren’t they beautiful?’
“‘I am so glad you like them,’ continued the old woman, ‘for they are for you.’
“‘For me?’ repeated Laura. ‘For me?’
“‘Yes,’ said the old woman. ‘When the spring comes I take a walk each day, carrying with me a pot of daffodils. When I see some one sitting in the window of a house looking sick and longing to go out I just go right in and leave my pot of daffodils, for they are better than any spring tonic, to my mind.’
“And the yellow flowers smiled at Laura and bobbed their pretty heads, saying, ‘We’ll make you well.’
“And, sure enough, they really did more toward making Laura well than anything else. How could she help but feel better with the bright flowers smiling at her and cheering her up?”
MARCH 10: The Tick-Tock Twins
“Hello, twin Tock,” said Tick, and Tock answered, just as quickly as anything:
“Hello, Tick.”
They never got tired of saying to each other “Tick” and “Tock.” They were the two clock twins, as you may have guessed, but sometimes between their words to each other, sometimes between saying to each other “Tick” and “Tock,” they talked.
Of course they wo
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