"Clang, clang!" went the bell on the fire engine, and the whistle blew fiercely as the wheels rumbled along over the pavement.
Tommy ran across to the nursery window and pressed his face against the pane.
"Nurse, nurse!" he called out. "The engine has stopped just across the way. Why, it's at Jimmy Watson's."
Margaret, the nurse, looked out. "Why, so it is, dearie me!" she cried. "Just see the smoke."
Ladders were being placed against the house, and firemen in big red helmets ran up and down, dragging the hose after them and squirting water through the windows. It was very exciting and Tommy danced up and down on his toes. Just then a mass of flame shot up through the roof, and smoke poured out of the upper windows in big black clouds.
"I guess Jimmy's room is all burning up," said Tommy. "Just see the smoke going out of his window."
As he finished speaking he saw Jimmy himself coming down the front steps, holding tightly in his hands his favorite Teddy bear. After him came his mother and the servants, each carrying something.
"Dearie me!" said Nurse Margaret, "I'm afraid the house will be all burned up."
"Well," replied Tommy, "there's one thing to be thankful for, Jimmy has saved his Teddy bear."
| Butterfly | "Will you come into my auto?" Said the spider to the fly. "There is room in my Web-tonneau And I'll join you by and by." |
Phil and Marjorie had been very selfish. When baby brother had toddled up to them after dinner and asked them for a little bite of their candy they had run away and hidden behind the bureau, where they greedily ate it all. Soon after, while they were looking out of the nursery window, they saw a little boy earn a nickel by carrying several packages for a lady up to the front doorstep of her house. To their great surprise he ran down the street and gave it to a poor blind man on the corner.
This made the children think how mean they had been to their little brother. So Phil said, "Let's go to the candy shop and buy a peppermint stick for baby brother. We'll take our very own money."
"Let's give the poor blind man something, too," added Marjorie, as she turned her bank upside down to get out the money.
"And I'll give my other five-cent piece to the little boy who was so kind to the blind man!" cried Phil.
When they returned both children were smiling happily. "Did you see how glad the poor boy was to get the five cents?" asked Phil.
"Yes," answered Marjorie, "and did you hear how gratefully the blind man thanked me?"
But all that baby brother said was "Yum! Yum!" as he sucked away on his pink and white peppermint stick!
"Oh, my! what a snowstorm!" Little Dorothy looked out of the window at the fast falling flakes, which covered up so quietly and softly the shivering brown grass on the lawn and the trembling rose bushes in the garden. "How warm they'll be," said Dorothy to herself, "with their eiderdown covers."
Just then a little sparrow flew down on the walk and looked up at the window. "Hello!" said Dorothy, "what do you want?" The little bird turned his head first to one side and then the other, as if he didn't quite hear what Dorothy was saying behind the pane of glass. "Don't you hear me?" she called out, but he turned his head, as if to say, "No!" Dorothy pushed up the window and called out, "What do you want, birdie?" but he flew away just across the walk to the maple tree, where he sat looking at her with his queer little eyes. Every now and then he would turn his head this way and that way, as if, so Dorothy thought, trying to hear what she was saying. But Dorothy wasn't saying anything now. She was so disappointed that her little friend had flown off and that he should be afraid of her, just because she had opened the window, that she turned to Mother, who came into the room at that moment, and said: "Mother, just look at that cute little bird; only just a minute ago he was hopping on the walk right down here, but when I opened the window to say 'How-de-doo!' he flew over to the maple tree. See him over there?"
"I think he is waiting for you to give him some crumbs for breakfast," Mother answered with a smile. "Run into the dining-room and ask Mary for a piece of bread and we will see if Master Sparrow won't come back again."
"Oh, goody!" cried the little girl, and in a few minutes she was back at the window with enough crumbs for an army of sparrows.
"Open the window gently," said Mother, "and throw out the crumbs, and we will see what Master Sparrow will do."
Mr. Sparrow did exactly what Mother thought, and Dorothy hoped he would do. He looked at them with his little bright eyes and turned his head first this way and then that way, and after that, to Dorothy's delight, flew over to the crumbs and ate them up as if he had a great, big, healthy appetite. And when all the crumbs were gone he turned his head this way and that way (and I think he winked one of his little black eyes at Dorothy, only I'm not quite sure about this) and flew away.
"Oh, Mother!" cried Dorothy, "I think that's his way of talking—wagging his little head—something like the way Bijou wags his stubby tail!" And Mother said she thought so, too.
"Oh, see that wagon full of flowers. I wish we could get some," cried Bertie to sister Phillis.
"I'll ask Mother," replied Phillis; "she said the other day that we might buy flowers for our garden."
"Good," said Bertie, "where's my bank?"
And when Phillis found hers, both children ran down the stairs and out into the street. As soon as they had bought the flowers they hurried to the yard at the back of the house where each had a little garden.
"Look, Mother," said Phillis, "Bertie has two geraniums and one lily, and I have three tulips."
"They are very pretty," said Mother; "be careful how you handle these frail little plants. By-and-by they will be stronger."
Then she helped take them out of the pots and place them carefully in the earth.
"Now you must water them. But remember never to water plants if the sun is shining on them." After everything was cleaned up nice and neat, the children felt just a little bit tired, so Mother told them they might go over to the drug store and get an ice cream soda, at which Bertie and Phillis both gave Mother a great big kiss.
The next morning as Mrs. Oriole was singing her pretty song, all of a sudden, a big tramp cat ran up the tree. And he would have caught Mrs. Oriole right then and there if Little Sir Cat hadn't shouted: "Don't touch that little bird!" And would you believe it? That tramp cat said, "I won't!" and began to purr:
Well, all of a sudden, Little Sir Cat said "Phist!" which so frightened that naughty cat that he ran away, and I guess he's running yet, for nobody ever saw him again. And this made the little Orioles so happy that they began to sing:
"Helloa!" said Little Sir Cat, "how is Mrs. Turkey?" But the old Turkey Gobbler never answered. He just gobbled, gobbled, not food, you know, but air, for that is the way a turkey talks.
"I can't understand you. You had better go home and talk to Mrs. Turkey," said Little Sir Cat, and away he went, hoping next time to meet a more sociable person.
Well, pretty soon he saw a little pig caught in the fence. So he helped him out and then they set off together, and after a while, not so very far, they came to a big pond where some boys were sailing toy boats. And they were the funniest, queerest little toy boats you ever saw. In fact, they weren't boats at all, but big wooden letters. And just then a little bird began to sing:
"They're Alphabet Boats," cried Little Sir Cat. "I once read about Alphabet Town where all the letters were alive,—'A' was an Ant, and 'B' was a Bee, and if you weren't an artist you couldn't write letters to your friends."
"He, he!" laughed little Piggie Porker, "that was a queer place."
Well, after that Little Sir Cat and Piggie Porker went into the wood to see Goggle Woggle, a little dwarf who knew just where the fairies and Giant Oatencake lived. And as soon as Goggle Woggle saw Little Sir Cat and Piggie, he said: "Let's go up the hill to Giant Oatencake. I've got a wooden sword and if he comes out of his castle, I'll cut off his head!" So off they went, Little Sir Cat, Piggie and Goggle Woggle, and by and by, not so very long, they came to the top of the hill.
"Wait a minute till I get my sword ready," said Goggle Woggle, and maybe it took him quite a long time, for he was just a little bit afraid, you know. And so would you and so would I if we were going to fight Giant Oatencake.
But Little Sir Cat said: "Don't be afraid. I'm with you!" and this made Goggle Woggle feel lots braver. And after that he shouted:
"Come out of your castle!"
Now Giant Oatencake was only a great big tremendous cornstalk, and as soon as Goggle Woggle struck him with his sword, a big ripe ear of corn fell to the ground.
"Here is his head," cried Goggle Woggle, as he put it under his arm. "I'll make pop-corn balls out of it," and he ran back to his big tree in the wood. And in the next story you shall hear what happened after that, unless
"I wish I could do something for those poor little Brown children," said Susan one morning as she and brother Billy sat by the nursery window reading. "Their father is out of work, and I'm afraid they won't get any Thanksgiving dinner this year."
"I tell you what," suggested Billy, "as we have spent all our money, let's dress up in some of mother's old clothes and make believe we are rag-a-muffins. We'll slip out carefully tomorrow morning, without making any noise."
"That's a fine idea," said Susan. "We can use your water colors to paint our faces."
About 10 o'clock Thanksgiving morning the children went quietly upstairs to their playroom and painted their faces. Then, after dressing, they crept downstairs and out of the house. Their queer costumes attracted much attention, and their pretty, wistful ways gained for them many friends. In an hour, when they had counted their pennies, they found to their delight that they had over three dollars.
"Now we had better hurry to the store and buy the things," said Susan. The kind-hearted butcher let them have a chicken for half price, in order that there should be no disappointed little hearts over the lack of sufficient funds. The basket was soon filled to overflowing and on the top of the vegetables was placed with great care a mince pie.
The Browns were very grateful and Bobby, Billy and Susan were very happy to think that they had done it all themselves.
As Little Sir Cat and Piggie Porker traveled on they met Sir Launcelot, the noble Knight of good King Arthur's round table, riding a great horse with Miss Muffet in the saddle. Well, by-and-by, along came old Dame Trot with a basket of eggs on her arm. She was singing in a high cracked voice a funny song that went like this:
"How much are they?" asked Sir Launcelot, taking a gold piece from his purse. And of course, she didn't answer but handed the basket to him with a curtsy. "They are yours, Sir Knight," and, taking the gold piece, she wrapped it up in her handkerchief and put it away in the pocket of her short green skirt.
Sir Launcelot laughed, for he knew that a gold piece was too much to pay for the eggs, but he was such a generous knight he didn't care.
Then Piggie took Little Sir Kitten home with him to meet Mrs. Porker and the little Porkers. And after a while Little Sir Cat set out again to find his fortune.
Well, by-and-by, he came to a tall flag-pole at the top of which floated a beautiful flag with red stripes and silver stars. But Little Sir Cat didn't know what flag this was, for he had never crossed the ocean blue, and Mother Goose Land is not on this side of the water, you know. And then a big bird said, "Three cheers for the Red, White and Blue!" He was the big American Eagle, only, of course, Little Sir Cat didn't know that either; he only knew Mother Goose people, you see.
"Why, I didn't think you could cheer so well," said Little Sir Cat, and he opened his knapsack and took out a red, white and blue lollypop and gave it to him, and wasn't that eagle pleased? Well, I should say he was. He flapped his wings and began to sing:
And when he finished he said to Little Sir Cat, "Climb on my back and we'll fly away, far away, across the water wild with spray, way, way off to the U. S. A."
Isn't it wonderful how an eagle could say things like this in rhyme? It must have been because he was in Mother Goose Land where everybody talks in poetry.
"I'm afraid I can't," replied Little Sir Cat. "My mother would worry if I went so far away." So the big eagle said good-by, but before he left, he pinned a tiny red, white and blue flag on the little Kitten's coat.
Dobbin has an iron shoe
On each of his feet, so you Can see it's hard for him to go Anything but very slow. |
Billy Bull Frog had a deep bass voice, and every night he would sit on a big flat rock amid tall sedge grass and sing. There was a little green lady frog that sang a beautiful soprano, but, you see, his voice was so loud and strong and deep that hardly any one could hear her when she sang. She could hardly ever hear herself, for the louder she sang the more noise Billy would make, till finally the little green lady frog wouldn't sing at all.
But this did not make Billy feel badly, because he loved to hear his own voice so much. The little green lady frog would sit very still on her lily pad, and would not even look at Billy when he sang. But, oh, dear me! he was so conceited about his own voice that he thought the little green lady frog was jealous of him.
She wasn't at all, and Billy was wrong, and was acting very, very foolishly. The real truth of the matter was that the little green lady frog had heard a tree toad singing in a tree quite close to the lake, and she thought his voice very beautiful, because it was a high tenor, and it sounded much better when she sang with him than it did when she sang with Billy Bull Frog.
At first she hardly dared sing with Tommy Tree Toad, because she was afraid of Billy Bull Frog, and then, too, she didn't know Tommy Tree Toad very well.
But after a while she became bolder and one night, when the moon was shining brightly in the sky and throwing a silver path from the water right up to Tommy Tree Toad's tree, she climbed up the bank and stood on the silver path of the moon and listened while Tommy sang his most beautiful song.
And the longer she waited the more she wanted to go close up to the big tree and sing with Tommy. He kept singing in his beautiful tenor voice, "Kum-kum, kum-kum!" and at last she hopped along the silver way up to the big tree. And then they sang a lovely duet together and all the frogs in the lake held their breath because it was so sweet.
The Princess Lil stood on the edge of the lake waiting for her turtlemobile to take her to her lily castle, which rested on the bright waters in the center of the lily pond.
Presently she heard the honk, honk of chauffeur Billy Bullfrog's horn, and in another moment the turtlemobile swung around the tall sedge grass.
"You're late," she said, as she took her seat.
"I'm sorry, your Royal Highness," said chauffeur Billy Bullfrog, "but the turtlemobile was tired, and I couldn't make him put on more speed."
The princess made no reply, but sat gazing at the setting sun's reflection in the bright waters of the lake. The sky was all fairy colors, and just above the green tree tops the evening star was shining.
The turtlemobile glided swiftly in and out among the lily pads and hummocks of grass until it came to the open water. In the center of the lake was a beautiful white lily. Here the turtlemobile stopped, and the Princess Lil stepped out on the smooth green lily pad. Quickly running across, she tripped lightly down the golden stairway inside the stem of the beautiful white pond lily. When she reached the bottom of the golden flight, she opened a little door, and entered her pink and white chamber. Throwing herself down on a silken couch, she rang a bell, and presently a pretty little fairy appeared.
"Lorelei," said the princess, "I am weary; bring me my gossamer kimono, and do you loosen my hair. Afterwards you may coil it again and fasten it with a single firefly, as I wish to sit out in the garden after supper."
The moon was shining brightly as the Princess Lil ran up the golden staircase and out upon the big flat lily pad, which was arranged like a beautiful garden. There were small pink flowers growing in little beds of moist earth, and winding in and out was a narrow path of tiny shiny pebbles. Over this the princess tripped until she came to the end of the path, where she sat down, and began to sing softly, oh, so softly, a fairy lullaby.
"Ah!" said the little princess as she finished; "I think all the little boys and girls are asleep by this time. Indeed, I'm sure they are, for there goes the blue-bell tinkling 'Nine o'clock!'
"Good night, sweet moon!" she cried, as she paused before the portal of her lily castle, "good night, sweet moon!"
And then the little fairy princess ran down the golden staircase and disappeared in her pink and white chamber.
See the Papa Pussy go
Softly on his tippie-toe. I don t think it's very nice To catch the cunning little mice. |
Little Dorothy always begged her mother to loop up one of her window curtains when she went to bed, that she might go to sleep watching the stars twinkle, and in the morning see the sun rise, and after he had risen, see if his goldy locks were all on end, as her own often were.
One morning she woke up, not quite as early as usual, and found her room full of light, which seemed to dance about some bright object on a chair by her bedside. For a moment she lay quite still, thinking that perhaps it was some fairy's wand which caused such a glitter, and that presently a real, live fairy, with beautiful gold wings, would perch on her thumb, and offer to grant her three wishes like other obliging fairies she had read about. And the very first wish that came into her head was for a pair of roller skates; and having got fairly awake at last, she saw that this bright something by her bedside was indeed a beautiful new pair of skates, so bright that she could see her own happy face reflected in them!
"Mother, mother!" she called out, "come quick! Did you or the fairies bring me these lovely new skates?"
Mother smiled. "Who do you think?" she asked, cuddling her little daughter up close.
"I guess it was you, dear mother," answered the little girl, with a grateful hug; "you're better than any fairy."
After breakfast Dorothy hurried off to the park. She strapped her skates on as fast as she could and was just about to glide away on the smooth pavement when she noticed a poor little girl standing near, watching her with almost a hungry expression in her sad brown eyes. "Do you like to skate?" asked Dorothy.
"Do I! I just love it; but father had to sell my skates because he had no money to buy food with." Dorothy sat down again on the bench and undid the straps, letting one of the skates fall on the ground in her hurry.
"You put these skates on just as fast as you can, and then you take as long a skate as you want to; I'll sit here and watch you."
When the little girl came back, flushed and smiling, Dorothy said: "Would you like my old skates? They're not very nice, because one of the straps is gone, and they are dingy and rusty, but perhaps your father could put on a new strap."
The little girl smiled such a glad little smile. "Well, I just guess I would!" she answered quickly. "You're awfully good to me," and she looked at Dorothy with such a grateful little face that Dorothy answered, "Let's go home right away and get them."
"Look! there go the soldiers," cried Mazie, leaning out of the nursery window. "Jamie, come quick and see the real soldiers."
Her little brother left his toy warriors and ran to the window. "Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat!" went the drums as the troops swung forward in a long line, the gay flags flying in the breeze.
"Why, there's Harold Gray's papa!" said Mazie. "There he is, Jamie, on that beautiful black horse."
The little boy clapped his hands. "Hurray!" he shouted; "I wish my papa was a soldier."
"So do I," cried Mazie; "wouldn't father look fine on a big horse?"
"I'm very glad he's not," said Mother, coming into the nursery. "War is cruel, and many of those brave men may never come back."
Just then in the crowd Mazie saw little Harold Gray holding tightly to his mother's hand. The little boy's eyes were filled with tears as he watched his father ride away.
"Oh, mother!" cried Mazie and Jamie together, catching hold of her hand, "I'm so glad father isn't a soldier. How we'd miss him if he didn't come home tonight."
One day as Little Sir Cat was riding along on his pony, Dapple Gray, he met the Cow that jumped over the moon.
"All right," he answered, and then he went on his way, and by-and-by he met Little Dog Muff, who spilt his master's snuff. And, goodness me! How he did bark! But this didn't frighten Little Sir Cat. No, Siree. He knew that Muff was only barking for joy. So he put out his paw and said:
"Helloa, Muff. Have you spilt any snuff lately?"
"No. I haven't," he answered. "I don't live with my master any more. He wasn't a kind man; so Old Dog Tray got me a good job, and I've been a watch dog ever since." And then Little Sir Cat rode down the street until he came to a Pat-a-Cake Baker Shop, outside of which stood a little boy.
And goodness me! that little boy stuffed a whole doughnut into his mouth, he was in such a hurry. "Hold on!" cried Little Sir Cat, "don't choke yourself!" And pretty soon the Baker Man came out of his little shop and gave Dapple Gray a lump of sugar. "You have a fine horse, Sir Cat. How much do you want for him?"
"Nothing."
"What!" cried the Baker Man, in astonishment.
"He's not for sale," said Little Sir Cat. And just then the school bell rang and off went the little boy to his lessons.
So Little Sir Cat said "Gid-ap!" and rode away with Muff at his heels, and by-and-by they came to a thick wood. "Don't let us go in," said Dapple Gray, "for, there may be robbers hidden among the trees." And just then a fierce-looking man ran out and, seizing Dapple Gray by the bridle, shouted: "Give me your purse, or I'll make you my prisoner!"
But Dapple Gray rose on his hind legs and with his front feet knocked the robber heels over head, and then off he went on a gallop. And after a while, not so very long, Little Sir Cat saw a great white bird sitting on a gold egg. "Did you lay that golden egg, Mr. Big Bird?" he asked. But the great white bird didn't answer. Maybe she was frightened, or maybe she was waiting for the golden egg to hatch, for just then, all of a sudden, the shell broke open and out hopped twenty-one little white birds armed with swords. And one of them was dressed like a captain, with gold epaulets on his shoulder wings, and one had a drum, like a regular little drummer boy. And then they all began to sing:
"Hurrah!" cried Little Sir Cat, and the great white mother bird flapped her wings, for she was mighty proud to think that she had raised a little sky army for Mother Goose Land.
The flowers in the big garden were all talking about the new rose that had just come to stay with them. "Moss Rose is very beautiful," remarked Peony to the Hollyhock; "you know she was just an ordinary kind of a rose until one evening, when the Queen of the Fairies didn't know just where to go for the night, she leaned over and said to her, 'Will you sleep in the heart of a rose?' and the Queen said of course she would, and in the morning the Fairy Queen in return for the hospitality gave her a delicate veil of moss, and from that time she was called the 'Moss Rose.'"
"Indeed!" replied the Hollyhock. "How lovely; I wish a fairy would come through our garden."
"Perhaps one will," said the Peony. "At any rate the Rose has always been the queen of flowers, and now that we have a new rose perhaps the Queen of the Fairies may visit our garden."
The Hollyhock smiled. "Tell me more," she said. "Do you know any more stories about red roses, or white roses, or pink roses, or yellow roses?"
"Yes, indeed," replied the Peony, "for I love roses; everybody does. You know the old Romans loved them just as much as we, and they somehow managed to make them bloom in the winter time. When they wanted to talk over matters that they did not want repeated abroad they hung a rose from the ceiling over the table, and all the conversation was called 'sub rosa,' 'under the rose.' The reason for this was because Cupid once gave a rose to Harpocrates, the God of Silence, and that was what the old Romans were thinking about when they hung the rose over the table and talked secrets."
"How interesting!" said the Hollyhock. "Where did you learn all of these wonderful things?"
"Oh," replied the Peony. "I learned it from a poet who used to walk among the flowers. The daughter of the owner of this garden would sit and listen to him while he told her stories and legends about roses; always roses, for her name was Rose, you know."
"Tell me more," said the Hollyhock, and all the other flowers bent near, too, for they had heard a little of what the Peony had told and were anxious to hear more of what the poet knew.
"He said, I remember," continued the Peony, "that the old name of Syria meant the 'land of roses' and many varieties came from there, and one, the 'Rose of Jericho,' was the most wonderful, for there is an old legend that it grew in the desert in places where the Virgin Mary touched her feet when flying into Egypt with the infant Jesus; and they say, too, it will always blossom at Christmas time."
"How beautiful!" cried all the flowers. "Poets are like us—for their poetry is the perfume of their souls."