TOPSY STORIES.
V. TOPSY'S BABIES.
"I must teach the kittens some tricks," said Alice one day. "They are getting so big and plump. Don't you think they are old enough to learn to do things, mamma?"
"Well, little daughter, suppose you try teaching them," said mamma.
So Alice went to the door and called: "Kittens! kittens! kittens!
Come, Tip! Come, Trot! Come, kittens!" Now their real names were
Tipkins and Trotkins, but Alice always called them Tip and Trot for
short.
When the kittens heard their little mistress call, they came running as fast as their fat little bodies and their short little legs would let them come; for "Kittens, kittens, kittens!" almost always meant: "Here is some nice warm milk to drink."
Alice gathered the funny little things up in her arms. They looked just exactly alike, for Tipkins had a black spot on the end of his tail, and Trotkins had a black spot on the end of his tail, too; Tipkins' eyes were blue, so were Trotkins'; Tipkins' nose was black, and Trotkins' nose was black, too. Alice often wondered how their mother, Topsy, ever told them apart.
"Now," said the little girl, "you have grown to be such big pussies that it is time you learned to work. You must earn your dinner. What do you say to that?"
"Meow! meow!" said Tipkins. "Meow! meow!" said Trotkins. "Meow! meow!" said Tipkins and Trotkins together. Which seemed to mean, "That we will, little mistress; only show us how."
Alice took a tiny bit of meat in her fingers and let one of the kittens smell of it; then she said very slowly, "Now, pussy, roll over." The kitten liked the smell of the meat very much, so he said, "Meow! meow!" but he did not know in the least what "roll over" meant, so he did nothing. "Roll over, kitty," said his little mistress again, but he only said, "Meow! meow! meow!" once more. Then Alice made pussy lie down, and she gently rolled him over with her hand, saying very slowly as she did so, "Roll over." After this she gave him the bit of meat.
Then it was the other kitten's turn. He had no more idea than his brother what "roll over" meant; but after Alice had said the words two or three times, she gently rolled his plump little body over, too, and then gave him the nice bit of meat also. Then she set a big saucer of milk down in front of her pets, and so ended the first lesson of Tipkins and Trotkins.
This was only the first of many lessons, however. Alice worked patiently with the kittens every day for a whole month and, at the end of that time, both Tipkins and Trotkins knew just what she meant and would roll over every time she told them to, even though they got not a scrap of anything good to eat in return.
Tipkins seemed to think it was great fun, and he would sometimes roll over five or six times without stopping, just as Alice herself often rolled on the grass when at play. But Trotkins never seemed to like doing it, and would turn round and round until he was fairly dizzy before finally lying down. Then, as he rolled over, he would give a funny meow, as much as to say, "I don't like to; but, if I must, I will."
Tipkins learned to ring a small bell by striking it with one of his front paws. Trotkins could never be coaxed to touch this bell; but he would sit by while his brother rang it and cry, "Meow! meow! meow!" Alice thought that this was very funny, and she said that Trot sang while Tip did the playing.
Both the kittens learned to jump over a stick when their mistress held one out in her hand, about a foot from the floor; and Alice taught Tipkins to jump through a small wooden hoop; but she could never persuade Trotkins even once to try to jump through the hoop.
As Tipkins and Trotkins grew older, their mother, Topsy, taught them to hunt for mice in the big, dark barn, and to catch moles and grasshoppers in the field. They had less and less time, as the days went by, to play with their little mistress; and Alice found them so sleepy, when they did have time, that at last she gave up trying to teach them any new antics.
As the months passed by they grew sleek and fat. They were kittens no longer, but had grown as large and could hunt as well as Mother Topsy; and although they learned no new tricks now, the old ones, taught them by their little mistress, were never forgotten by Tipkins and Trotkins.
ETHEL'S FRIENDS.
Ethel was a little girl who lived in the great city of New York, but she loved the country very much and often wished that she could play in the big, green fields or pick wild flowers in the wood. She remembered one summer, when she was a very little girl, staying in the country for ever so many days, almost a whole month, and having such a happy time lying on the grass, listening to the birds, and watching the cows and horses and sheep, the cunning little lambs, and the old white hen with her brood of downy chicks. Oh, how she did wish that she could see them all again! But the country was far, far away, and Ethel's papa and mamma were too busy to take their little daughter there.
There was a place in the big city called Central Park that seemed to Ethel like the country. She loved to go there, and had a happy time watching the sparrows as they scratched for seeds and looked about for crumbs, and trying to get the gray squirrels to come nearer and take nuts from her hand. Here, some days, O happiest times of all! she could lie with her rosy face buried in the short, green grass, and press it close, oh! so close to the "great brown house," the home of the flowers.
One sunshiny day in June Ethel had been playing in the park for a long time. Though she had coaxed and coaxed the squirrels, they would not come near; and though she had listened for a long time to the hoarse croak of a frog, and watched and waited, and looked about with big bright eyes, she could not get even so much as a peep at him. At last she grew very tired and sat down upon a bench near by to rest before going home. Scarcely was she seated when she heard some one call her name. "Ethel! Ethel!" a sweet voice said. She looked all about but could see no one. "Ethel! Ethel!" it called again, this time very near. She looked around, saying, "Here I am; who is calling?" "It is I. Don't you see me? I am close beside you," said the same sweet voice.
Looking down Ethel saw at her feet a tiny creature all dressed in dainty green. "Oh!" thought she, "this must really and truly be a fairy. Why, I supposed fairies were only make-believe people!" and Ethel was so surprised that she forgot to answer the little creature.
Soon the fairy said: "Ethel, because you love the birds and the flowers and the trees and all the animals, I have come to take you out into the country to visit your friends."
Ethel clapped her hands and said: "Oh, I should love to go to the country! but I haven't any friends there."
"Yes, you have," said the fairy, "come and see."
So away they went, and Ethel all the time wondered whom the fairy could possibly mean by her friends; but they went so fast that, before she had time to do much thinking, Ethel found herself in a great, green meadow, bright and fresh and cool. Soon they came to a tree with spreading branches; and there, lying under it and resting in its shade, was a gentle looking creature with soft eyes, long smooth horns, and a hairy dress of red and white.
"Here," said the fairy, "is one of your friends, and a very good friend she is too." "Oh," said Ethel, "now I know whom you mean by my friends!"
I wonder who can tell me why the fairy called the cow Ethel's friend. Yes, because without this friend Ethel would miss her cup of milk at breakfast and the golden butter for her bread.
Ethel gave the white star on the cow's forehead a gentle pat and, looking into her great dark eyes, she said, "Surely you are my friend, Bossy." But the fairy said, "Come on, little girl, there are many more friends to see." So Ethel visited all the friendly animals,—the sheep with their woolly coats, the pigs in their sty, the chickens, the ducks and the geese in the barnyard, the pigeons in their home on the roof, the great clever collie in his kennel; and she found that she owed something to every one of them.
Just as she was giving Rover a farewell pat, old Dobbin, harnessed to the farm wagon, came clattering up to the barn. "Here comes the best friend of all!" cried Ethel. "What should we do without Dobbin to carry the milk and the butter and the eggs to the city, to draw the wood and the coal that keep us warm, to help the farmer plow and harrow the ground in the springtime, to draw in the hay and the grain in the autumn, and to trot cheerfully along the country road when the children take a ride? Oh! I hope the farmer gives him a good, dry bed to sleep upon, a manger of hay and a measure of oats when he is hungry. I hope he combs and smooths Dobbin's black coat well, and puts a blanket on his back when the weather is cold. I'm sure the farmer wouldn't cut off Dobbin's shiny black tail for the world, for how could Dobbin drive away the flies that trouble him, without his tail? I know that there is always plenty of fresh water for Dobbin to drink whenever he is thirsty, and that, sometimes, the children give him a lump of sugar to eat. The farmer never lets Dobbin lose a shoe, I'm sure, for fear he might go lame, but always takes him to the blacksmith if only a nail is loose."
Buzz z z z! buzz z z z! sounded close to Ethel's ear. She opened her eyes and looked about. There she sat upon a bench in the park. The sun had gone down behind the tall buildings, and it was almost dark. The pretty elfin in green had vanished. Her country friends were nowhere to be seen. A bee's gauzy wings and yellow legs were disappearing in the distance. "There goes another of my friends," said Ethel, "I think he must have come to tell me that it is time to go home."
So Ethel ran home and told her mother all about the fairy and her friends. "Oh, mamma! do you suppose the fairy really and truly took me to the country?" said Ethel.
"No," said mamma, "I think my little girl was asleep and dreaming; but, for all that, the animals on the farm are really among our very best friends."
"Yes, I know that," said Ethel, "how I wish I could see them!" And for many days after her wonderful dream Ethel never went to the park without thinking of how the little fairy in green took her to visit all her friends in the country.
End of Project Gutenberg's A Kindergarten Story Book, by Jane L. Hoxie