The Project Gutenberg eBook of Mrs. Turner's Cautionary Stories
Title: Mrs. Turner's Cautionary Stories
Author: Mrs. Turner
Editor: E. V. Lucas
Release date: May 25, 2010 [eBook #32523]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive.)
MRS.
TURNER'S
CAUTIONARY
STORIES
The Dumpy Books for Children
Selected by E. V. Lucas
I. The Flamp, The Ameliorator, and The Schoolboy's Apprentice.
Written
by E. V. LUCAS.
II. Mrs. Turner's Cautionary Stories
Other Volumes in the Series are in preparation
1s. 6d. each
Mrs. Turner's Cautionary Stories
LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS
1897
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction xiii
Bad Boys and Good—
The Window-Breaker 3
A Gunpowder Plot 5
Peter Imitates the Clown 7
Ben's Heavy Punishment 9
The Chimney-Sweeper 11
The Fighting Wicket-keeper 13
The Good Scholar 15
The Good Scholar Fights 16
The Death of the Good Scholar's Foe 17
Robert's Thoughtless Brothers 19
Joe's Light Punishment 20
Falsehood "Corrected" 22
The Superior Boys 24
George's Curious Taste 25
Thomas Brown's Disappointment 27
Considerate Philip 28
The Models 29
Politeness 30
Richard's Reformation 31
James's Sacrifice 32
The Excellent Lord Mayor 34
Clever Little Thomas 36
William's Escape 37
Good Girls and Bad—
Rebecca's Afterthought 41
A Hint to Mary Anne 42
How to Write a Letter 44
News for Papa 46
Maria's Charity 48
The Neglected Turk 50
Pride and Priggishness 52
How to Look when Speaking 54
Isabella's Parachute 56
Maria Snubbed 57
Matilda's Extravagance 58
Papa's Watchfulness 60
Isabella's Defeat 61
The Two Patients 62
Fanny's Bad Habit 63
Sarah's Danger 64
The Hoyden 65
The Giddy Girl 67
A Warning to Frances 69
Playing with Fire 71
How to Heal a Burn 72
Mary Anne's Kindness 74
Ambitious Sophy 75
Dressed or Undressed 76
Mrs. Birch's Influence 78
Rebellious Frances 80
Kindness and Cruelty—
The Harmless Cow 83
The Harmless Worm 84
The Bad Donkey-Boy's Good Fortune 86
Grateful Carlo 88
Grateful Lucy 90
Grateful Trusty 91
Something in Store for Richard 92
The Result of Cruelty 93
Things to Eat—
What is Best for Children 97
Billy Gill's Good Fortune 99
Civil Speech 101
The Cook's Rebuke 103
The Lost Pudding 105
Sammy Smith's Sad Fate 106
Stupid William 107
Poisonous Fruit 109
Harry's Cake 111
Peter's Cake 113
William's Cake 115
How to Make a Christmas Pudding 117
Introduction
The sixty-nine Cautionary Stories that follow have been chosen from five books by Mrs. Elizabeth Turner, written for the pleasure and instruction of our little grandparents and great-grandparents. The books are The Daisy, The Cowslip, The Crocus, The Pink and Short Poems. Between the years 1810 and 1850 they were on the shelves of most nurseries, although now they are rarely to be met with. There was also The Rose, but from that nothing has been taken for these pages, nor are the original pictures again offered. Except for these pictures, a frequent change of title, and a few trifling alterations for grammar's sake, the pieces selected are now printed exactly as at first.
Mrs. Turner's belief, as stated by Master Robert in the verses called "Books better than Toys" in The Pink, was that the children of her day, when they had money to spend and wanted a real treat, could not choose anything more suitable than her Cautionary Stories. The piece runs:
I'll give him what I said I would,
Two shillings for himself to spend;
He knows the shop of our good friend.'
Where folks, you know, so often stop
To view the prints. The windows—look!—
Are filled with toys and many a book.
For little girls and little boys;
At toys, indeed, I love to look,
But I prefer to buy a book.
Will buy The Cowslip and The Rose;
And when two more I get, I think
I'll buy The Daisy and The Pink.'
In our own time Robert's opinion is not very widely shared: most of us would not care to give up a cannon or a doll in order that we might be cautioned; but Mrs. Turner is not the less an entertaining author because her volumes have fewer attractions for us than some of the things in a Christmas bazaar. She told her tales with such spirit: her verses are so straightforward, the rhymes come so pat at the end of the lines, and you may beat time with your foot and never be put out.
In another piece, "Kitty's Favourites," Mrs. Turner wrote:
And often asks her aunt to tell
Are all about good girls and boys.
Kitty's taste, like Robert's, is no longer general. The common view is that stories about bad children are more fun; and therefore I think you will be amused by these pages. Whether or not punishment always did follow the offences as surely and swiftly as Mrs. Turner declares, I am not prepared to say. If you are in any doubt you had better ask your parents.
E. V. Lucas.
November 1897.
Bad Boys and Good
THE WINDOW-BREAKER
Would often throw stones,
And often he had a good warning;
And now I will tell
What Tommy befell,
From his rudeness, one fine summer's morning.
Upon Trinity Square,
And, as usual, large stones he was jerking;
Till at length a hard cinder
Went plump through a window
Where a party of ladies were working.
Had left half a crown
For her nephew (her name was Miss Frazier),
Which he thought to have spent,
But now it all went
(And it served him quite right) to the glazier.
Note.—The foregoing story is stated to be "founded on fact."
A GUNPOWDER PLOT
Said Betty one day to mamma:
"'Twill be long, ma'am, before John is well,
On his eye is so dreadful a scar.
To join with some more little boys;
They went in the garden to play,
And I soon heard a terrible noise.
Of gunpowder, ma'am, on the wall;
It has put them to infinite pain,
For it blew up, and injured them all.
Tom's nose is bent out of its place;
Sam Bushy has lost all his hair;
And Dick White is quite black in the face."
Note.—As a matter of fact, a train of gunpowder does not make a terrible noise; it makes hardly any noise at all—a mere pfff! and though John, Sam Bushy, and Dick White are shown to have been hurt as they might have been, a train of gunpowder could not bend Tom's nose, it could only burn it. Probably Mrs. Turner did not often play with explosives herself, and therefore did not know. Master Wilful seems to have escaped altogether.
PETER IMITATES THE CLOWN
When he made it look pretty and red;
For the beautiful sparks made him think it fine play,
To lift it as high as his head.
Were terribly scorched by the heat;
And he scream'd out aloud for his mother to come,
And stamp'd on the floor with his feet.
His fingers would not have been sore;
And he promised again, as she bound up his hand,
To play with hot pokers no more.
BEN'S HEAVY PUNISHMENT
To benefit by kind advice;
No little child of virtuous mind
Should need receive a caution twice.
(Oft us'd by them, and butchers too),
And little Ben was much to blame
For doing what he should not do.
Alas! he did; away they flew;
In vain he pull'd with all his force,
The pony ran a mile or two.
Ah! who will pity? who's to blame?
Alas! the fault is all his own—
Poor little Ben for life is lame!
THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPER
With brush and bag upon his back,
And black from head to foot;
While daily, as he goes along,
"Sweep! sweep! sweep! sweep!" is all his song,
Beneath his load of soot.
Oh no! he once was pretty Jack,
And had a kind papa;
But, silly child! he ran to play
Too far from home, a long, long way,
And did not ask mamma.
Up chimneys, crying, "Sweep! sweep! sweep!"
Note.—This was written in the days when little boys, like Tom in Water Babies, were sent actually up the chimneys to clean them out.
THE FIGHTING WICKET-KEEPER
All heard a great noise.
Charles Moore had just finish'd his writing,
So ran out to play,
And saw a sad fray:—
Tom Bell and John Wilson were fighting.
Oh, come away, John,
We want you to stand at the wicket;
And you, Master Bell,
We want you as well,
For we're all of us going to cricket.
Will shortly be out,
For you know that at twelve study ceases;
And you'll find better fun
In play, ten to one,
Than in knocking each other to pieces."
THE GOOD SCHOLAR
That if, when he grew old,
He had not learned rightly to spell,
Though his writing were good,
'Twould not be understood:
And Joe said, "I will learn my task well."
To be silent at school,
And what do you think came to pass?
Why, he learnt it so fast,
That from being the last,
He soon was the first in the class.
THE GOOD SCHOLAR FIGHTS
The boy who learnt his lesson best,
Was trying how his whip would crack,
By chance he hit Sam Headstrong's back.
With all his might, a sudden blow:
Nor would he listen to one word,
When Joe endeavoured to be heard.
For what was accidental quite,
Although he never fought before,
Beat Headstrong till he'd have no more.
THE DEATH OF THE GOOD SCHOLAR'S FOE
His grandmamma said,
"I think I have caution'd you twice;
I hope you'll take heed,
I do, love, indeed,
And I beg you'll not venture on ice.
On the ice often go,
And also will others entice,
When there has not been frost
Two days at the most,
And when very thin is the ice."
Resolv'd but to look,
And though he could slide very nice,
And the slides were so long,
He knew 'twould be wrong,
So he did not then go on the ice.
And his life thus he sav'd;
For Sam Headstrong (who ne'er took advice)
Went where it was thin—
Alas! he fell in:
He sank, and went under the ice.
ROBERT'S THOUGHTLESS BROTHERS
Now and then a naughty word,
Spoken in a random way
By his brothers when at play.
Was the baby then to blame
When he tried to lisp the same?
Know what words were right or wrong,
But for boys who better knew,
Punishment was justly due,
Which the thoughtless brothers met
In a way they won't forget.
JOE'S LIGHT PUNISHMENT
Near the cupboard one day,
When he thought no one saw but himself,
How sorry I am,
He ate raspberry jam,
And currants that stood on the shelf.
To the garden had gone,
To gather ripe pears and ripe plums;
What Joe was about
His mother found out,
When she look'd at his fingers and thumbs.
Said to Joe, "You will find,
It is better to let things alone;
These plums and these pears
No naughty boy shares,
Who meddles with fruit not his own."
FALSEHOOD "CORRECTED"
He told a very naughty fib,
And said he had not drown'd her;
But truth is always soon found out—
No one but Jack had been about
The place where Thomas found her.
(Though Jacky did not know of that),
And told papa the trick;
He saw him take a slender string
And round poor Pussy's neck then swing
A very heavy brick.
To find they had a boy so bad,
To say what was not true,
Determined to correct him then;
And never was he known again
Such naughty things to do.
THE SUPERIOR BOYS
To see a pretty lamb;
And, as they went, began to talk
Of little naughty Sam;
And threw him in the dirt;
And when his poor mamma was ill,
He teased her for a squirt.
Although he has a top":
But here the pretty little lamb
To talking put a stop.
GEORGE'S CURIOUS TASTE
Was such a display!
He was dress'd in a new suit of clothes;
And look'd so genteel,
With his buttons of steel,
And felt quite like a man, I suppose.
He partakes of his share,
Nor spills it, as careless boys do;
He is always so clean,
And so fit to be seen,
That his clothes, you would think, were just new.
And is lively and gay,
But is careful of spoiling his dress;
So a pinafore wears,
Which he likes, he declares;
And I think he is right, I confess.
THOMAS BROWN'S DISAPPOINTMENT
Could make a pancake, build a house,
Would make a regiment of guards,
And sit as quiet as a mouse.
Who came to dine and spend the day,
Took great delight to throw it down,
Then, rudely laughing, ran away.
He knew lamenting was in vain,
So patiently, and wisely too,
He, smiling, built it up again.
CONSIDERATE PHILIP
The servant begg'd he would be still;
Because the doctor and the nurse
Had said that noise would make her worse.
He kiss'd mamma, and whisp'ring said,
"My dear mamma, I never will
Make any noise when you are ill."
THE MODELS
At trap, it came to pass
Dick struck the ball, and far away,
He broke a pane of glass.
But walk'd up to the spot;
And offer'd for the damage done
What money they had got.
Dear children! this rely on:
All honest, honourable boys
Will act like Dick and Bryan.
POLITENESS
"I will," and "Give me these";
Oh no! that never is the way,
But, "Mother, if you please."
Good boys to say are ready;
And, "Yes, sir," to a gentleman,
And, "Yes, ma'am," to a lady.
RICHARD'S REFORMATION
She never said, "I wont";
If little Dick her playthings spoil'd
She said, "Pray, Dicky, don't."
And bang'd it round and round;
Then tore its legs and arms away,
And threw them on the ground.
And Lucy's tears ran down;
But Dick went supperless that night,
And since has better grown.
JAMES'S SACRIFICE
Went shooting one day,
Not thinking his sister was nigh;
The arrow was low,
But the wind raised it so,
That it hit her just over the eye.
Was exceedingly sad
At the pain he had given his sister;
He look'd at her eye,
And said, "Emma, don't cry,"
And then, too, he tenderly kiss'd her.
And it cost her a week
Before she recover'd her sight;
And James burn'd his bow
And his arrows, and so
I think little James acted right.
THE EXCELLENT LORD MAYOR
"How beautiful the Lord Mayor's show!
In that gold coach the Lord Mayor see—
How very happy he must be!"
"Let not strange notions fill your head:
'Tis not the gold that we possess
That constitutes our happiness.
His time did properly employ;
And, as he grew from youth to man,
To follow goodness was his plan.
And cheer him all the way they go;
They love him for his smiling face
More than for all his gold and lace."