Title: Our Young Folks at Home and Abroad
Editor: Daphne Dale
Release date: July 8, 2009 [eBook #29357]
Most recently updated: March 17, 2021
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29357
Credits: Alicia Williams, Chrome, the dedicated librarians who helped on this project, Sam W. and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
Illustrated Sketches and Poems
for Young People.
BY
ANNIE D. BELL, CLARA J. DENTON, AMANDA M. DOUGLAS,
FRANK H. SELDEN, CHAS. T. JEROME, LAURA
E. RICHARDS, MRS. L. A. CURTIS,
OLIVER OPTIC, ETC.
ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS.
BY
F. S. CHURCH, E. H. GARRETT, A. S. COX, CULMER BARNES,
PARKER HAYDEN, H. MOSER, H. PRUETT SHARE,
MISS L. B. HUMPHREY, ETC., ETC.
——————
EDITED BY
DAPHNE DALE.
——————
LONDON—NEW YORK—CHICAGO:
W. B. CONKEY COMPANY,
PUBLISHERS.
——————
Copyright 1894,
W. B. Conkey Company.
——————
ANIMAL LIFE FROM EVERY ZONE.
THE KITTENS’ STEPMOTHER
HOW SOME SEEDS ARE PLANTED
OLD SCORES REPAID, OR TRAGEDY REVERSED
TIPPY, THE FIREMEN’S DOG
NINE LITTLE FOXES
WHAT AILED THE BELL
THE HOOK AND LADDER
LITTLE JOE’S RIDE
GYPSY AND HIS TRICKS
A LITTLE GIRL’S WEDDING GIFT
DO RIGHT
DOG PRINCE
WHERE THE PRETTY PATH LED
A LETTER TO MOTHER NATURE
OUR MAY-DAY AT THE SOUTH
BERTIE’S STORY AND MINE
THE PORCUPINE’S QUILLS
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES
THE MERCIFUL PRINCE
THE OPOSSUM IN THE HEN-HOUSE
HOW ROY WENT A FISHING
A BEAR-STORY
HEAR US SING, SEE US SWING, UP IN THE OLD OAK TREE
SAILOR BABIES
PRETTY POLLY PRIMROSE
LOOK AT THE BABY
AN UNLUCKY SAIL
TO STRAWBERRY TOWN
FLOSSIE AND HER SHOE-BOAT
NELLIE’S LUNCH
DIME AND THE BABY
WIDE-AWAKE LAND
LULU’S FIRST THANKSGIVING
THE SUN-KISS
THE COUNTRY WEEK
THE ROAD TO SCHOOL
WHAT SAMMY’S MONKEY DID
BESSIE IN THE MOUNTAINS
PAULINE’S STRANGE PETS
“GO HALVES!”
LITTLE GAMES
WHAT WE FOUND IN OUR STOVE
THE JOHN AND LINCOLN FLEET
THE YACHT STARLIGHT
THE NEW PARASOL
THE MAN WHO WAS SHAKEN BY A LION
THE LAUGHING JACKASS
THE TRICK THEY PLAYED ON JOCKO
SOME OTHER THINGS BOBBY SAW AT SEA
THE MOSQUITO
THE LAUGHING GIRL
ANNIE’S DUCKS
VICK IN TROUBLE
IN GRANDMA’S ATTIC
LITTLE GIRL GRACIE
A MAGPIE AND HER NEST
AT THE BEACH
FARMER GRAY AND HIS APPLES
AH KEE
DICK AND GRAY
THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS
FIRST REWARD OF MERIT
FOUR LITTLE MICE
FINNETTE
ABOUT THE DEER
EVERYBODY’S DOG
A BIRD’S NEST
A RAINY DAY
THE STORY OF A CANE
MISS LOLLIPOP’S FANCIES
TOMMY’S TEMPTATION
A BEAR STORY
ANNA’S BIRTHDAY GIFT
RALPH AND THE BUTTERFLIES
A POEM
TOM’S LETTER
JANEY’S PRESENT
GOOD OLD ROSE
AUNT PATTY’S PETS
TOMMY AND THE GANDER
A NIGHT VISITOR
THE NIGHT MONKEY
BABY’S NAP
HURRAH! HURRAH!
MOSES GOES TO A CANDY PARTY
FAN’S CARDS:—A CHRISTMAS HINT
KITTY’S TRAMP
THREE ROYAL CHILDREN
AN OSTRICH PLUME
WHO KILLED THE GOOSE?
A TEMPERANCE HORSE
HOW THE WIND BLOWS
DIME AND BETTY
SAVED FROM FREEZING TO DEATH
LILY’S GARDEN
WHERE?
A GOAT IN TROUBLE
A NEGRO MELODIST
TIME ENOUGH
THE MOUSE WEDDING
SHE HAD NEVER SEEN A TREE
A FUNNY HORSE
MRS. GIMSON’S SUMMER BOARDERS
AS NIGHT CAME DARKLY DOWN
GRANDMOTHER’S CLOCK
A STUFFED JUMBO
THE TREES IN SILVER LAND
SMALL BEGINNINGS
GARDEN OF THE GODS
YOUNG ARTIST
A CHANCE WORD
A LITTLE DANCE
LOOKING OUT FOR NUMBER ONE
WOODCROFT
IN THE WOODS
AUTUMN LEAVES, AND WHAT KATIE DID
THE SPINNING LESSON
FOSTER PARENTS
HAYMAKING
WINDOW GARDENING
“CHEER UP.”
WAIF’S ROMANCE
“MAY I GO WITH YOU?”
A SUMMER AT WILLOW-SPRING
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
“WHERE’S SOPHIE?”
“IF I CAN, I WILL.”
WINDSOR CASTLE
THE LITTLE PRINCES
THE TOWER OF LONDON
MARY AND HER LAMB
JAMIE’S GARDEN
CAMP TRIO
THE SENTIMENTAL FOX
EARTHEN VESSELS
BIRDIE’S BREAKFAST
A BATTLE
GRACE DARLING, THE HEROINE
ADAM AND EVE
SWINGING SONG
HOW THE DAYS WENT AT SEA-GULL BEACH
MAX AND BEPPO
PANSIES
“COME, LITTLE BIRD!”
SIRENA’S TROUBLE
LADY VIOLET
ON TRIAL
TWO LITTLE GIRLS
HELPFUL WORDS
FALSE SHAME
CLARA AND THE ANIMAL BOOK
AN ANECDOTE
THE UNSOCIABLE DUCKS
PUTTING OUT THE CANDLE
SULKY ARCHIE
A WISH FOR WINGS
CONSEQUENCES: A PARABLE
COMFORTABLE MRS. CROOK
AN EVENING SONG
“BUT THEN.”
AN ANECDOTE
WHAT THE SNAIL SAID
ONLY NOW AND THEN
A SERPENT AMONG THE BOOKS
“LITTLE MOTHER.”
LITTLE SCATTER
WHAT CHICKY THINKS
STOP-A-WHILE
THE BIRDS’ CONCERT
ONLY A BOY
BIRD NEEDLEWORK
HE WAS A GENTLEMAN
TIME FOR BED
THE VALUE OF A GOOD NAME
DINGFORD’S BABY
A BED-TIME STORY
THE LESSON AFTER RECESS
THE LION AT THE “ZOO”
DISOBEYING MOTHER
PLANTS THAT EAT
THE CUCKOO CLOCK
DAVY’S GIRL
EARLY TEA
BONEY
CATCHING SNOW FLAKES
A MISCHIEVOUS MONKEY
THE AFRICAN SLAVE BOY
CLIMBING
LITTLE ELSIE
KITTY STRIKER
MAYING
GRACIE’S TEMPER
AN ANECDOTE
THE SWEET-GRASS HOUSE
JOHNNY’S GARDEN
BOY BILLY AND THE RABBIT
A FISH STORY
There are two little girls living nearly a hundred rods apart, Mamie and Fannie. Each had a nice pet cat.
Mamie’s cat had three little kittens. When they were about three weeks old their poor mother was killed by a useless dog. For two days Mamie fed her kittens with a spoon, and did all she could to comfort them; but they would cry for their mother.
Fannie’s cat had only one kitten, and it died at once. Then Mamie took her three motherless kittens down to Fannie’s cat to see if she would adopt them. She took them at once, and made a great fuss over them. Then she was allowed to raise them.
When Mamie thought her kittens were old enough she took all three of them home again. But their stepmother would neither eat nor drink. She cried and looked for the kittens. At last Fannie carried her cat up to Mamie’s house to see the kittens. Then mother and kittens were all happy again, and played together as if they had never been separated.
When the girls saw how much the cat and kittens were attached to each other they concluded to take Fannie’s cat home again with only two of the kittens; in a short time bring back one of them, and later the last one. In this way they thought they could separate them without any trouble.
Fannie’s cat was not pleased with this plan. She began to look for and call the third kitten. The next morning, when Mamie went to feed her one kitten, she could not find it anywhere about the barn or woodshed. She went down to Fannie’s house, and there she found her kitten. Sometime in the night Fannie’s cat went to Mamie’s house, found the kitten, and carried it home. Since that time the girls have not tried to part the cat and kittens, and they are a happy family.
Many noble oak-trees are planted by the little squirrel. Running up the branches, this little animal strips off the acorns, and buries them in the ground for food in the cold weather; and when he goes to hunt them up he does not find all of them. Those he leaves behind often grow up into great and beautiful trees.
The nuthatch, too, among the birds, is a great planter. After twisting off a cluster of beech-nuts this queer little bird carries them to some favorite tree, and pegs them into the crevices of the bark in a curious way. How, we cannot tell. After a while they fall to the ground, and there grow into large trees.
Some larger animals are good seed-planters, and have sometimes covered barren countries with trees. It is very singular that animals and birds can do so much farm-work, isn’t it?
S. ISADORE MINER.
TIPPY was a little, black dog, and he lived at the engine-house, where the great engines, which put out the fires, were kept.
He was a poor, miserable, little dog, without a home until the firemen took pity on him and gave him one.
Dick was one of the horses that helped to pull the engine. He was very large and black, with a white spot on his forehead. He and Tippy were fine friends.
When it was cold the little dog would curl close down by Dick’s back, and sleep all night, as warm as could be.
One day, when it was Dick’s dinner-time, and he was very hungry, Tippy kept running into his stall and barking and biting at his heels.
Dick did not like it, and he wanted his dinner so much that it made him cross. So he put down his head, took Tippy by the back of the neck, and lifted him over the side of the low stall, as much as to say:—
“If you won’t go out I will put you out!”
Tippy soon grew to know what the engines were for, and when the fire-bells rang, and the great horses came from their stalls ready to be harnessed to the engine, he would bark and jump up and down, and beg to go too.
TIPPY, THE FIREMEN’S DOG.
One day he hid under the driver’s seat, and the firemen did not see him, so he went to the fire.
After that, the instant an alarm sounded, Tippy would spring on the engine. As it dashed down the street, the bells ringing, the firemen shouting, he would bark to let the people along the way know he was going to help put out the fire.
Every day the firemen would give Tippy a basket, and a penny to buy a bone with. He would take the basket in his mouth, and trot across the street to the butcher’s for the bone. The butcher would take the penny out, and put a bone in its place, and Tippy would run home to eat his breakfast.
Once in a while Tippy would be very naughty, and would have to be punished. Then the firemen would make him sit on a chair for a long while, until he would promise, by a bark which meant, “Yes,” that he would be good.
Tommy and Bessie, Bert, and even little Caddie, think there is no treat like a visit to Covill Farm.
They all jumped for joy when, one bright afternoon in early summer, their papa said:—
“I am going out past the Covill Farm, and if any little folks want to go along they may stop there while I do my errands.”
How soon they were all ready! How busy all the little tongues were, talking over what they would see and do!
“There’ll be lots of little chickens now; and ducklings, too!”
“Yes; and we’ll see the dear little lambs, and the little calfeys!”
“And maybe we can go down to the boat-house, and have a row on the lake!”
But they never dreamed of the funny sight they really saw that afternoon. Papa set them all down at the gate, and drove on, promising to come back for them in an hour.
When he came back he tied his horse, and set out to find the little folks. But in a few moments they saw him, and came rushing across the yard, all talking at once:—
“O papa, come! come and see!”
Little two-year-old Caddie was as much excited as the rest; she cried:—
“Take my hand, papa! Little piggies shall not bite you!”
“Little piggies,” indeed! Little foxes they were; and nine of the cunning creatures. Only think!
The manager of the farm said that something had been killing his lambs, and he had been on the watch to find out the rascal.
One day, when he was out with his gun, he saw something moving near an old woodchuck hole; at least, there had been woodchucks there the year before.
He went nearer, expecting to see a woodchuck again; but there were these little foxes playing around. The woodchucks must have burrowed out, and an old fox taken possession of their hole for a den.
Mr. Nash lay down on the ground to count the funny little things, and watch them tumbling over each other. Then he tried to stop up the entrance to their den with his coat, so that he could catch them. But a tree root lay across the hole in such a way that there was a place left big enough for the little foxes to get in; and in they went.
Then Mr. Nash went and called a man to help him. They took spades and dug into the hole until they found them.
They carried them up to the farm-yard, and put them into a pen. They were of a tawny color; and when the children saw them they were about as large as cats, and as full of play as any kittens.
Mr. Nash said he did not want to kill them, because they were so cunning. But it was a good thing that he caught them. Just think how many chickens, and ducks, and geese, and lambs those nine foxes might have killed, if they had grown up in their den!
It was the first day of school after a vacation. The children were playing in the yards. The teachers sat at their desks waiting for the bell to strike to call the children to the different rooms. The hands of the different clocks pointed to a quarter before nine.
The bell was a sort of gong, fastened to the outside of the building, and the master of the school could ring it by touching a knob in the wall near his desk. It was now time to call the children into school. The master pulled the bell and waited. Still the merry shouts could be heard in the school-yards. Very strange! The children were so engaged in play that they could not hear the bell, he thought. Then he pulled it more vigorously. Still the shouts and laughter continued.
The master raised his window, clapped his hands, and pointed to the bell.
The children rushed into line like little soldiers, and waited for the second signal. The teacher pulled and pulled, but there was no sound. Then he sent a boy to tell each line to file in, and he sent another boy for a carpenter to find out if the bell-cord was broken.
What do you think the carpenter found? A little sparrow had built its nest inside the bell, and prevented the hammer striking against the bell. The teacher told the children what the trouble was, and asked if the nest should be taken out. There was a loud chorus of “No, sir.”
Every day the four hundred children would gather in the yard and look up at the nest. When the little birds were able to fly to the trees in the yard, and no longer needed a nest, one of the boys climbed on a ladder and cleared away the straw and hay so that the sound of the bell might call the children from play.
|
Frankie was good at planning,
And seeing the glowing tree, “Let’s have a fire department And play ’tis a house!” said he. “Oh, yes, a hook and ladder,” Cried all; “what fun ’twill be!”
So they put the hose on the hydrant.
Searched everywhere about Until they found a ladder, And then, with yell and shout Of “fire” and clang of “ding-dong,” They rushed to put it out.
The hosemen pulled their jackets
Hastily from their backs; One climbed the tree like a squirrel, With a ball-bat for an axe And he hewed at the beautiful branches With frantic hacks and whacks. |
MRS. CLARA DOTY BATES.