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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:55 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:44:55 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14610-0.txt b/14610-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5167ceb --- /dev/null +++ b/14610-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4459 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14610 *** + +[Illustration: "What's the matter?" said Charlie. "A great, horrid +green worm," said I. Page 53. _Miss Elliot's Girls._] + + +MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS + +STORIES OF +BEASTS, BIRDS, AND BUTTERFLIES + +By MRS. MARY SPRING CORNING + + +[Illustration] + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS +NEW YORK + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1886, BY +CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GREENY, BLACKY, AND SLY-BOOTS. + + +Sammy Ray was running by the parsonage one day when Miss Ruth called to +him. She was sitting in the vine-shaded porch, and there was a crutch +leaning against her chair. + +"Sammy," she said, "isn't there a field of tobacco near where you live?" + +"Yes'm; two of 'em." + +"To-morrow morning look among the tobacco plants and find me a large +green worm. Have you ever seen a tobacco worm?" + +Sammy grinned. + +"I've killed more'n a hundred of 'em this summer," he said. "Pat Heeley +hires me to smash all I can find, 'cause they eat the tobacco." + +"Well, bring one carefully to me on the leaf where he is feeding; the +largest one you can find." + +Before breakfast the next morning Ruth Elliot had her first sight of a +tobacco worm. + +"Take care!" said Sammy, "or he'll spit tobacco juice on you. See that +horn on his tail? When you want to kill him, you jest catch hold this +way, and"-- + +"But I don't want to kill him," she said. "I want to keep him in this +nice little house I have got ready for him, and give him all the tobacco +he can eat. Will you bring me a fresh leaf every, morning?" + +While she was speaking she had put the worm in a box with a cover of +pink netting. On his way home Sammy met Roy Tyler, and told him (as a +secret) that the lame lady at the minister's house kept worms, and would +pay two cents a head for tobacco worms. "Anyway," said Sammy, "that's +what she paid me." + +If there was money to be got in the tobacco-worm business, Roy wanted a +share in it; and before night he brought to Miss Ruth, in an old tin +basin, eight worms of various sizes, from a tiny baby worm just hatched, +to a great, ugly creature, jet black, and spotted and barred with +yellow. The black worm Miss Ruth consented to keep, and Roy, lifting him +by his horn, dropped him on the green worm's back. + +"Now you have a Blacky and a Greeny," the boy said; and by these names +they were called. + +Roy and Sammy came together the next morning, and watched the worms at +their breakfast. + +"How they eat!" said Sammy; "they make their great jaws go like a couple +of old tobacco-chewers." + +"Yes; and if they lived on bread and butter 't would cost a lot to feed +'em, wouldn't it?" said Roy. + +"Look at my woodbine worm, boys," Miss Ruth said, as she lifted the +cover of another box. "Isn't he a beauty? See the delicate green, shaded +to white, on his back, and that row of spots down his sides looking like +buttons! I call him Sly-boots, because he has a trick of hiding under +the leaves. He used to have a horn on his tail like the tobacco worms." + +"Where that spot is, that looks like an eye?" + +"Yes; and one day he ate nothing and hid himself away, and looked so +strangely that I thought he was going to die; but the next morning he +appeared in this beautiful new coat." + +"How funny! Say, what is he going to turn into?" + +But Miss Ruth was busy house-cleaning. First she turned out her tenants. +They were at breakfast; but they took their food with them, and did not +mind. Then she tipped their house upside down, and brushed out every +stick and stem and bit of leaf, spread thick brown paper on the floor, +and put back Greeny and Blacky snug and comfortable. + +The next time Sammy and Roy met at the parsonage, three flower-pots of +moist sand stood in a row under the bench. + +"Winter quarters," Miss Ruth explained when she saw the boys looking at +them; "and it's about time for my tenants to move in. Greeny and Blacky +have stopped eating, and Sly-boots is turning pale." + +"A worm turn pale!" + +"Yes, indeed; look at him." + +It was quite true; the green on his back had changed to gray-white, and +his pretty spots were fading. + +"He looks awfully; is he going to die?" + +"Yes--and no. Come this afternoon and see what will happen." + +But when they came, Blacky and Sly-boots were not to be seen. Their +summer residence, empty and uncovered, stood out in the sun, and two of +the flower-pots were covered with netting. + +"I couldn't keep them, boys," Miss Ruth said; "they were in such haste +to be gone. Only Greeny is above ground." + +Greeny was in his flower-pot. He was creeping slowly round and round, +now and then stretching his long neck over the edge, but not trying to +get out. Soon he began to burrow. Straight down, head first, he went +into the ground. Now he was half under, now three quarters, now only the +end of his tail and the tip of his horn could be seen. When he was quite +gone, Sammy drew a long breath and Roy said, "I swanny!" + +"How long will he have to stay down there?" + +"All winter, Roy." + +"Poor fellow!" + +"Happy fellow! _I_ say. Why, he has done being a worm. His creeping days +are over. He has only to lie snug and quiet under the ground a while; +then wake and come up to the sunshine some bright morning with a new +body and a pair of lovely wings to spread and fly away with." + +"Why, it's like--it's like"-- + +"What is it like, Sammy?" + +"Ain't it like _folks_, Miss Ruth?" Grandma sings:-- + + 'I'll take my wings and fly away + In the morning,' + +"Yes," she said; "it _is_ like folks." Then glancing at her crutch, +repeated, smiling: "In the morning." + +When the woodbine in the porch had turned red, and the maples in the +door-yard yellow, the flower-pots were removed to the warm cellar, and +one winter evening Sammy Ray wrote Greeny's epitaph:-- + + "A poor green worm, here I lie; + But by-and-by + I shall fly, + Ever so high, + Into the sky." + +He came often in the spring to ask if any thing had happened, and one +day Miss Ruth took from a box and laid in his hand a shining brown +chrysalis, with a curved handle. + +"What a funny little brown jug!" said Sammy. + +"Greeny is inside; close your hand gently and see if you feel him." + +"How cold!" said the boy; and then: "Oh! oh! he _is_ alive, for he +kicks!" + +In June Greeny and Blacky came out of their shells, but no one saw them +do it, for it was in the night; but Sly-boots was more obliging. One +morning Miss Ruth heard a rustling, and lo! what looked like a great +bug, with long, slender legs, was climbing to the top of the box. Soon +he hung by his feet to the netting, rested motionless a while, and then +slowly, slowly unfolded his wings to the sun. They were brown and white +and pink, beautifully shaded, and his body was covered with rings of +brown satin. Blacky and Greeny were not so handsome. They had +orange-spotted bodies, great wings of sober gray, and carried long +flexible tubes curled like a watch-spring, that could be stretched out +to suck honey from the flowers. + +At sunset Miss Ruth sent for the boys. She placed the uncovered box +where the moths waited with folded wings, in the open window. Up from +the garden came a soft breeze sweet with the breath of the roses and +petunias. There was a stir, a rustle, a waving of dusky wings, and the +box was empty. + +So Greeny and Blacky and Sly-boots "took their wings and flew away," and +the boys saw them no more. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE PATCHWORK QUILT SOCIETY. + + +The minister's wife came home from a meeting of the sewing society one +afternoon quite discouraged. + +"Only nine ladies present!" she said, "and very little accomplished; and +the barrel promised to that poor missionary out West, before cold +weather--I really don't see how it is to be done." + +"What work have you on hand?" Miss Ruth inquired. + +"We have just made a beginning," Mrs. Elliot answered with a sigh. +"There's half a dozen fine shirts to make, and a pile of sheets and +pillowcases, dresses and aprons for four little girls, table-cloths and +towels to hem, and I know not what else. We always have sent a +bed-quilt, but this barrel must go without it. It's a pity, too, for +they need bedding." + +"Why, so it is," said Miss Ruth. "Susie,"--to a little girl sitting +close beside her,--"why can't some of you girls get together one +afternoon in the week and make a patchwork quilt to send in the barrel?" + +Susie put her head on one side and considered. + +"Where could we meet, Aunt Ruth?" + +"Here in my room, Susie, if mamma has no objection." + +"Certainly not," Mrs. Elliot said; "but are you well enough to undertake +it, Ruth?" + +"Yes, indeed, Mary; I shall really enjoy it." + +"And would you cut out the blocks for us, and show us how to keep them +from getting all _skewonical_, like the cradle-quilt I made for Amelia +Adeline?" + +Amelia Adeline was Susie's doll. + +"Yes; and I could tell you stories while you were working. How would +that do?" + +"Why, it would be splendid!" said the little girl. "There comes Mollie, +I guess, by the noise. Won't she be glad? Say, Mollie!--why, what a +looking object!" + +This exclamation was called forth by the appearance of the little girl, +who had been heard running at full speed the length of the piazza, and +now presented herself at the door of Miss Ruth's room, her face flushed, +her hair in the wildest confusion, and the skirt of her calico frock +quite detached from the waist, hanging over her arm. + +"Wasn't it lucky that the gathers ripped?" she cried, holding up the +unlucky fragment. "If they hadn't, mamma, I should be hanging, head +down, from the five-barred gate in the lower pasture, and no body to +help me but the cows. You see, I set out to jump, and my skirt got +caught in a nail on the post." + +"O Mollie!" said her mother, "what made you climb the five-barred gate?" + +"'Cause she's a big tom-boy," said Lovina Tibbs, who had come from the +kitchen to call the family to supper. "Ain't yer 'shamed of yerself, +Mary Elliot?--a great girl like you, most ten years old, walkin' top o' +rail fences and climbin' apple-trees in the low pastur'!" + +"No, I'm not!" said Mollie, promptly. + +"Hush, Mollie," said Mrs. Elliot. "Lovina, that will do. Wash your face +and hands, Mollie, and make yourself decent to come to supper." + +An hour later, seated in the hammock, the girls discussed their aunt's +plan. + +"We'll have the Jones girls," said Susie, "and Grace Tyler, and Nellie +Dimock, she's such a dear little thing; and I suppose we must ask Fan +Eldridge, because she lives next door, though I dread to have her come, +she gets mad so easy; but mamma wouldn't like to have us leave her out; +and then, let's see--oh! we'll ask Florence Austin, the new girl, you +know." + +"Would you?" said Mollie, doubtfully. "We don't know her very well, and +she dresses so fine and is kind of _citified_, you know. Ar'n't you +afraid she'll spoil the fun?" + +"No," said Susie, decidedly. "Mamma said we were to be good to her +because she's a stranger; and I think she's nice, too--not a bit proud, +though her father is so rich." + +"Well," Mollie assented, who, though thirteen months older than her +sister, generally yielded to Susie's better judgment; "let her come, +then. That makes six besides us, and Aunt Ruth said half a dozen would +be plenty. Sue, I think it's going to be real jolly, don't you?" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE STORY OF DINAH DIAMOND. + + +Miss Ruth Elliot was the minister's sister. And two years before, when +she came to live in the parsonage, an addition of two rooms was built +for her on the ground floor because she was an invalid, and lame, and +could not climb the stairs. + +They were pretty rooms, with soft carpets, pictures on the walls, and in +the winter time the sun shining in all day at the south window and the +glass door. In summer with this door wide open and the piazza cool and +shady with woodbine and clematis, you would have agreed with the little +girls who made up Ruth Elliot's sewing circle, that first Wednesday +afternoon, that they were "just lovely!" + +All were there--the Jones' twins, Ann Eliza and Eliza Ann, tall girls as +like each other as two peas and growing so fast one could always see +where their gowns were let down; Grace Tyler with curly black hair and +rosy cheeks; Nellie Dimock, a little dumpling of a girl with big blue +eyes and a funny turned up nose; Fannie Eldridge, looking so sweet and +smiling, you would not suspect she could be guilty of the fault Susie +had charged her with; and Florence Austin, whose father had lately +purchased a house in Green Meadow, and with his family had come to live +in the country. Last of all, the minister's two little daughters, whom +you have already met. + +Ruth Elliot was sitting at a table covered with piles of bright calico +pieces cut and basted for sewing, and when each girl had received a +block with all necessary directions for making it, needles were +threaded, thimbles adjusted, and the Patchwork Quilt Society was in full +session. + +"Now, Aunt Ruth," said Susie, "you promised to tell us a story, you +know." + +"Yes; tell us about Dinah Diamond, please," said Mollie. + +"You and Susie have heard that story before, Mollie." + +"That does not make a bit of difference, Auntie. The stories we like +best we have heard over and over again. Besides, the other girls haven't +heard it. Come, Aunt Ruth, please begin." + +And so, while all sat industriously at work, Ruth Elliot related to the +little girls + + +THE TRUE STORY OF DINAH DIAMOND. + +"When I was a little girl," she began, "I had a present from a neighbor +of a black kitten. I carried her home in my apron, a little ball of +black fur, with bright blue eyes that turned yellow as she got bigger, +and a white spot on her breast shaped like a diamond. I remember she +spit and clawed at me all the way home, and made frantic efforts to +escape, and for a day or two was quite homesick and miserable; but she +soon grew accustomed to her surroundings, and was so sprightly and +playful that she became the pet of the house. + +"The first remarkable thing she did, was to set herself on fire with a +kerosene lamp. We were sitting at supper one evening, when we heard a +crash in the sitting-room, and rushing in, found the cloth that had +covered the center table and a blazing lamp on the floor. It was the +work of an instant for my father to raise a window, wrap the lamp in the +table-cloth, and throw both into the street. This left the room in +darkness, and I don't think the cause of the accident occured to any of +us, till there rushed from under the sofa a little ball of fire that +flew round and round the room at a most astonishing pace. + +"'Oh, my kitten! my kitten!' I screamed. 'She's burning to death! Catch +her! Catch her! Put her out! Throw cold water on her! Oh, my poor, poor +Dinah!' and I began a wild chase in the darkness, weeping and wailing as +I ran. The entire family joined in the pursuit. We tumbled over chairs +and footstools. We ran into each other, and I remember my brother +Charlie and I bumped our heads together with a dreadful crash, but I +think neither of us felt any pain. They called out to each other in the +most excited tones: 'Head her off there! Corner her! You've got her! No, +you haven't! There she goes! Catch her! Catch her!' while I kept up a +wailing accompaniment, 'Oh, my poor, precious Dinah! my burned up Dinah +Diamond,' etc. + +"Well, my mother caught her at last in her apron and rolled her in the +hearth rug till every vestige of fire was extinguished and then laid her +in my lap. + +"Don't laugh, Mollie," said tenderhearted Nellie Dimock--"please don't +laugh. I think it was dreadful. O Miss Ruth, was the poor little thing +dead?" + +"No, indeed, Nellie; and, wonderful to relate, she was very little hurt. +We supposed her fine thick coat kept the fire from reaching her body, +for we could discover no burns. Her tongue was blistered where she had +lapped the flame, and in her wild flight she had lamed one of her paws. +Of course her beauty was gone, and for a few weeks she was that +deplorable looking object--a singed cat. But oh, what tears of joy I +shed over her, and how I dosed her with catnip tea, and bathed her paw +with arnica, and nursed and petted her till she was quite well again! My +little brother Walter ("That was my papa, you know," Mollie whispered to +her neighbor), who was only three years old, would stand by me while I +was tending her, his chubby face twisted into a comical expression of +sympathy, and say in pitying tones: 'There! there! poo-ittle Dinah! I +know all about it. How oo must huffer' (suffer). The dear little fellow +had burned his finger not long before and remembered the smart. + +"I am sorry to say that the invalid received his expressions of sympathy +in a very ungracious manner, spitting at him notwithstanding her sore +tongue, and showing her claws in a threatening way if he tried to touch +her. As fond as I was of Dinah, I was soon obliged to admit that she had +an unamiable disposition." + +"Why, Miss Ruth, how funny!" said Ann Eliza Jones. "I didn't know there +was any difference in cats' dispositions." + +"Indeed there is," Miss Ruth answered: "quite as much as in the +dispositions of children, as any one will tell you who has raised a +family of kittens. Well, Dinah made a quick recovery, and when her new +coat was grown it was blacker and more silky than the old one. She was +a handsome cat, not large, but beautifully formed, with a bright, +intelligent face and great yellow eyes that changed color in different +lights. She was devoted to me, and would let no one else touch her if +she could help it, but allowed me to handle her as I pleased. I have +tucked her in my pocket many a time when I went of an errand, and once I +carried her to the prayer-meeting in my mother's muff. But she made a +serious disturbance in the midst of the service by giving chase to a +mouse, and I never repeated the experiment. + +"Dinah was a famous hunter, and kept our own and the neighbors' premises +clear of rats and mice, but never to my knowledge caught a chicken or a +bird. She had a curious fancy for catching snakes, which she would kill +with one bite in the back of the neck and then drag in triumph to the +piazza or the kitchen, where she would keep guard over her prey and call +for me till I appeared. I could never quite make her understand why she +was not as deserving of praise as when she brought in a mole or a mouse; +and as long as she lived she hunted for snakes, though after a while she +stopped bringing them to the house. She made herself useful by chasing +the neighbors' hens from the garden, and grew to be such a tyrant that +she would not allow a dog or a cat to come about the place, but rushed +out and attacked them in such a savage fashion that after one or two +encounters they were glad to keep out of her way. + +"Once I saw her put a flock of turkeys to flight. The leader at first +resolved to stand his ground. He swelled and strutted and gobbled +furiously, exactly as if he were saying, 'Come on, you miserable little +black object, you! I'll teach you to fight a fellow of my size. Come on! +Come on!' Dinah crouched low, and eyed her antagonist for a moment, then +she made a spring, and when he saw the 'black object' flying toward him, +every hair bristling, all eyes, and teeth, and claws, the old gobbler +was scared half out of his senses, and made off as fast as his long legs +would carry him, followed by his troop in the most admired disorder. + +"I was very proud of one feat of bravery Dinah accomplished. One of our +neighbors owned a large hunting dog and had frequently warned me that if +my cat ever had the presumption to attack his dog, Bruno would shake the +breath out of her as easy as he could kill a rat. I was inwardly much +alarmed at this threat, but I put on a bold front, and assured Mr. Dixon +that Dinah Diamond always had come off best in a fight and I believed +she always would, and the result justified my boast. + +"It happened that Dinah had three little kittens hidden away in the +wood-shed chamber, and you can imagine under these circumstances, when +even the most timid animals are bold, how fierce such a cat as Dinah +would be. Unfortunately for Bruno he chose this time to rummage in the +wood-shed for bones. We did not know how the attack began, but suppose +Dinah spied him from above, and made a flying leap, lighting most +unexpectedly to him upon his back, for we heard one unearthly yell, and +out rushed Bruno with his unwelcome burden, her tail erect, her eyes +two balls of fire, and every cruel claw, each one as sharp as a needle, +buried deep in the poor dog's flesh. How he did yelp!--ki! ki! ki! ki! +and how he ran, through the yard and the garden, clearing the fence at a +bound, and taking a bee-line for home! Half-way across the street, when +Dinah released her hold and slipped to the ground, he showed no +disposition to revenge his wrongs, but with drooping ears and tail +between his legs kept on his homeward way yelping as he ran. Nor did he +ever give my brave cat the opportunity to repeat the attack, for if he +chanced to come to the house in his master's company, he always waited +at a respectful distance outside the gate. + +"It would take too long to tell you all the wonderful things Dinah did, +but I am sure you all agree with me that she was a remarkable cat. She +came out in a new character when I was ill with an attack of fever. She +would not be kept from me. Again and again she was driven from the room +where I lay, but she would patiently watch her opportunity and steal in, +and when my mother found that she was perfectly quiet and that it +distressed me to have her shut out, she was allowed to remain. She would +lie for hours at the foot of my bed watching me, hardly taking time to +eat her meals, and giving up her dearly loved rambles out of doors to +stay in my darkened room. I have thought some times if I had died then +Dinah would have died too of grief at my loss. But I didn't die; and +when I was getting well we had the best of times, for I shared with her +all the dainty dishes prepared for me, and every day gave her my +undivided attention for hours. It was about this time that I composed +some verses in her praise, half-printing and half-writing them on a +sheet of foolscap paper. They ran thus:-- + + 'Who is it that I love so well? + I love her more than words can tell. + And who of all cats is the belle? + My Dinah. + + Whose silky fur is dark as night? + Whose diamond is so snowy white? + Whose yellow eyes are big and bright? + Black Dinah. + + Who broke the lamp, and in the gloom + A ball of fire flew round the room, + And just escaped an awful doom? + Poor Dinah. + + Who, to defend her kittens twain, + Flew at big dogs with might and main, + And scratched them till they howled with pain? + Brave Dinah. + + Who at the table takes her seat + With all the family to eat, + And picks up every scrap of meat? + My Dinah. + + Who watched beside me every day, + As on my feverish couch I lay, + And whiled the tedious hours away? + Dear Dinah. + + And when thou art no longer here, + Over thy grave I'll shed a tear, + For thou to me wast very dear, + Black Dinah.' + +"Did you really used to set a chair for her at the table and let her eat +with the folks?" Fanny Eldridge asked. + +"Well, Fannie, that statement must be taken with some allowance. +Occasionally when there was plenty of room she was allowed to sit by me, +and I assure you she behaved with perfect propriety. I kept a fork on +purpose for her, and when I held it out with a bit of meat on it she +would guide it to her mouth with one paw and eat it as daintily as +possible. I never knew her to drop a crumb on the carpet. Indeed, I know +several boys and girls whose table manners are not as good as Dinah +Diamond's." + +"I suppose you mean me, Auntie," said Mollie. "Mamma is always telling +me I eat too fast, and I know I scatter the bread about sometimes when +I'm in a hurry." + +"Well, Mollie," said Miss Ruth, laughing, "I was _not_ thinking of you, +but if the coat fits, you may put it on." + +"What became of Dinah at last, Miss Ruth?" + +"She made a sad end, Fannie, for as she grew older her disposition got +worse instead of better, until she became so cross and disagreeable that +she hadn't a friend left but me. She would scratch and bite little +children if they attempted to touch her, and was so cruel to one of her +own kittens that we were raising to take her place--for she was too old +and infirm to be a good mouser--that we were afraid she would kill the +poor thing outright. One morning, after she had made an unusually savage +attack on her son Solomon, my mother said: 'We must have that cat +killed, and the sooner the better. It isn't safe to keep such an ugly +creature a day longer.' Dinah was apparently fast asleep on her cushion +in the corner of the kitchen lounge when these words were spoken. In a +few minutes she jumped down, walked slowly across the room and out at +the kitchen door, and we never saw her again." + +"Why, how queer! What became of her?" + +"We never knew. We inquired in the neighborhood, and searched the barn +and the wood-shed, and in every place we could think of where she would +be likely to hide, but we could get no trace of her, and when weeks +passed and she did not return we concluded that she was dead." + +"You don't think--_do_ you think, Miss Ruth, that she understood what +was said and knew if she stayed she would have to be killed?" + +"_I_ do," said Mollie, positively. "I'm sure of it!--and so the poor +thing went off and drowned herself, or, maybe, died of a broken heart." + +"Oh!" said Nellie Dimock, "poor Dinah Diamond!" + +"Nonsense, Mollie!" said Susie Elliot. "Cats don't die of broken +hearts." + +"She had been ailing for some days," Miss Ruth explained, "refusing her +food and looking forlorn and miserable, and I am inclined to think +instinct taught her that her end was near. You know wild animals creep +away into some solitary place to die, and Dinah had a drop or two of +wild-cat blood in her veins. I fancy she hid herself in some hole under +the barn and died there. It was a curious coincidence, that she should +have chosen that particular time, just after her doom was pronounced, to +take her departure. But what grieved me most was that, excepting myself, +every member of the family rejoiced that she was dead. + +"Poor Dinah Diamond! She was beautiful and clever, and constant and +brave, but she lived unloved and died unlamented because of her bad +temper." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY. + + +"If I can't have the seat I want, I won't have any; and I think you are +real mean, Mollie Elliot! I ain't coming here any more." + +These were the words Miss Ruth heard spoken in loud angry tones as she +opened the door connecting her bedroom with the parlor, where the little +girls were assembled, and caught a glimpse of an energetic figure in +pink gingham running across the lawn that separated the minister's house +from his next door neighbor. + +"Now, Auntie," said Mollie, in answer to Miss Ruth's look of inquiry, "I +am not in the least to blame. I'll leave it to the girls if I am. Fan +Eldridge is so touchy! She came in a minute ago and Nellie Tyler +happened to be sitting by me, and Fan marched up to her and says, 'I'll +take my seat if you please'; and I said, 'It's no more your seat than it +is Nellie's,' We don't have any particular seats, you know we don't, +Auntie, but sit just as it happens. Well, she declared it was her seat +because she had had it the last two afternoons, and I told Nellie not to +give up to her because she acted so hateful about it, and then she went +off mad. I'm sure I don't care; if she chooses to stay away she can." + +"You don't quite mean that, Mollie," her aunt said gravely. "The +Patchwork Society can't afford to lose one of its members, certainly not +for so small a difference as the choice of a seat. We must have Fanny +back, if I give up my seat to her. But come into this room, girls. I +have something pretty to show you. Softly! or you will frighten him +away." + +There was a honeysuckle vine trained close to the window, in full bloom, +and darting in and out among the flowers, taking a sip now and then from +a honey-cup, or resting on a leaf or twig, was a large butterfly with +black-velvet wings and spots and bands of blue and red and yellow. + +"O you beauty!" said Miss Ruth. "Do you know, girls, of all the moths +and butterflies I have raised from the larvæ,--and I have had Painted +Ladies, and Luna Moths, and one lovely Cecropia which was the admiration +of all beholders,--my favorite has always been the Swallow-tailed? +Perhaps it was because he was my first love. I was no older than you, +Nellie, when, half curious and half disgusted, I held at arm's length on +a bit of fennel-stalk, and dropped in an old ribbon-box Aunt Susan +provided for the purpose, the great green worm that, after various +stages of insect life, turned into just such a beautiful creature as you +see flying about among the flowers. Since then I have raised dozens of +them." + +"I don't see how you could have any thing to do with worms," said Eliza +Jones. "I hate them--the horrid, squirming things!" + +"So did I, Eliza, till I studied into their ways and learned what +wonderful things they can do; and now, I assure you, I have a high +respect and admiration for them." + +"Will you tell us about it?" Florence asked. "I've always wanted to know +just how worms turned into butterflies," + +"And I should like nothing better than to tell you," she answered. +"'Making butterflies,' as a dear little boy once defined my favorite +occupation, and telling those who are interested in such things how they +are made, is very delightful to me," + +"Come, then, girls, hurry!" said Nellie: "the sooner we get to work the +sooner the story will begin. Good-by, Mr. Swallow-tail,--I wonder what +they call you so for,--we are going to hear all about you," + +But when they returned to the other room they found Sammy Ray and Roy +Tyler on the piazza, close to the open door. Roy beckoned to his sister, +and they held a whispered conference during which the words, "You ask +her," energetically spoken by Roy, could be plainly heard by those +inside. + +Nellie turned presently, half laughing, but a little embarrassed. + +"The boys want to know if they can't come in," she said. "I tell them +it's ridiculous for boys to attend a sewing society, but they won't go +away till I've asked." + +Here the boys stepped forward and took off their hats. Their faces shone +with the scrubbing with soap and water they had given them, and both had +on clean collars. Sammy dived in his trowsers pocket and brought out a +couple of big brass thimbles and some needles stuck in a bit of flannel. + +"We are willing to help sew," said the boy, and bravely stood his +ground, though all the girls laughed, and even Miss Ruth looked amused +at the sight of these huge implements. + +"If we let you in at all, boys," she said, "it must be as guests. What +do you say, girls? Suppose we put it to vote. As many of you as are in +favor of admitting Samuel Ray and Roy Tyler to the meeting of the +Patchwork Quilt Society, now in session, will please to signify it by +raising the right hand." + +Every hand was lifted. + +"It is a unanimous vote," she announced. "Walk in, boys. One more chair, +Susie. Now, then, are we ready?" + +But this was fated to be a day of interruptions, for while she was +speaking the door opened and in walked Lavina Tibbs, bearing a plate +piled high with something covered with a napkin. + +"Miss Elliot's compliments," she said, "and would the Bed-quilt Society +accept some gingerbread for luncheon?" She set the plate on the table, +removed the napkin with a flourish, and added on her own account:-- + +"It's jest out of the oven, an' if it ain't good I don't know how to +make soft gingerbread, that's all!" + +Good? If you had inhaled its delicious odor, and seen its lovely brown +crust and golden interior, you would have longed (as did every boy and +girl in the room) to taste it directly; and, having tasted, you would +have eaten your share to the last crumb. Miss Ruth gave Susie a +whispered direction, and the little girl brought from a corner cupboard +a pile of pink-and-white china plates, and napkins with pink borders to +correspond. The plates had belonged to Miss Ruth's grandmother, and were +very valuable; but Ruth Elliot believed that nothing was too good to be +used, and that the feast would be more enjoyable for being daintily +served. But when all were helped, she still appeared to think some thing +was wanting, and, after looking round the circle, her glance rested upon +Mollie. The little girl had been unusually quiet ever since her dispute +with Fannie, for she knew very well, though not a word of reproof had +been spoken, that her aunt was not pleased with her. She dropped her +eyes before Miss Ruth's gaze, and grew red in the face; then suddenly +jumping up, she said:-- + +"I'll go and ask Fan Eldridge to come back, shall I, Auntie? and she may +have any seat she likes; I'm sure I don't care." + +"Yes, dear," Miss Ruth said, in the tone Mollie loved best to hear, "and +be quick, do! or the gingerbread will be cold." + +Fannie was standing idly at the window looking toward the parsonage, +already repenting of her hasty departure, when Mollie rushed in. + +"Come back, Fan, do! we all want you to," she said. "Mamma has sent in +some hot gingerbread, and Sam Ray and Roy Tyler are there, and auntie is +going to tell us about swallow-tailed butterflies, and she doesn't like +to begin without you. Come, now, do! and you may have my seat." + +The little girl needed no urging, but her mother interposed. + +"Fannie was greatly to blame," Mrs. Eldridge said. "She has told me all +about it, and I think she deserves to be punished by staying at home." + +"Oh, but please, Mrs. Eldridge," said Mollie, "let her off this time! It +was my fault as well as hers, for you see I provoked her by answering +back." + +"Say you are sorry, Fannie." + +"Yes, truly, mamma, I am," said Fannie, with tears in her eyes; "and +I'll take any seat, or I'll stand up all the afternoon, if you'll only +let me go, and I _will_ try to break myself of getting angry so easy; +see if I don't!" + +On the strength of these promises Mrs. Eldridge gave her consent, and +the little girls crossed the lawn hand-in-hand, in loving companionship. +So harmony was restored in the Society, and all ate their gingerbread +with a relish. Sammy and Roy would have liked better to have munched +their share on the piazza-steps, without plate or napkin. Under the +circumstances, however, they behaved very well; for, though Roy took +rather large mouthfuls, and Sammy licked his fingers when he thought no +one was looking, these were small delinquencies, and you will be glad +to know that the girls were too well-bred to appear to notice. Mollie, +now fully restored to favor, was allowed to pass the finger-bowl, while +Susie collected the plates, distributed the work, and made every thing +snug and tidy in the room. Then Miss Ruth commenced the story of + + +THE SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY. + +"When I was ten years old, my brother Charlie and I spent a summer with +Aunt Susan, who lived in the old homestead some miles out of town. + +"One night after tea she sent us into the garden to gather some sprigs +of fennel for her to take to prayer-meeting--all the old ladies in +Vernon took dill or fennel to evening meeting. I had just put my hand to +the fennel-bush when I drew it back with a scream. + +"'What's the matter?' said Charlie. + +"'A great, horrid green worm,' said I. 'I almost touched it!' + +"'Here, let me smash him!' said Charlie; 'where is he?' + +"'Oh, don't touch him!' I cried; 'he might bite you. Oh, dear, I hate +worms! I wonder what they were made for!' + +"'That kind was made to turn into butterflies,' said Tim Rhodes. + +"Tim was working Aunt Susan's garden on shares that summer, and had +heard all we said, for he was weeding the onion-bed close by. + +"'What, that fellow!' said Charlie; 'will he turn into a butterfly?' and +we both of us looked at the caterpillar. He was about as long and as +thick as my little finger, of a bright leafy green, with black-velvet +rings dotted with orange at even distances along his body. He lay at +full length on a fennel-stalk, and seemed to be asleep; but when Charlie +touched him with a little stick, instantly there shot out of his head a +pair of orange-colored horns, and the air was full of the pungent odor +of fennel. + +"'It smells like prayer-meeting,' said Charlie, and ran off to play; but +I wanted further information. + +"'Mr. Rhodes,' said I, 'how do you know this kind of worm makes +butterflies?' + +"'Because I've seen 'em do it, child. If you should put that fellow now +in a box with some holes in the top, so as he could breathe, and give +him plenty of fresh fennel to eat, in a week (or less time if he's full +grown) he'll wind himself up, and after a spell he'll hatch out a +butterfly--a pretty one, too, I tell you,' + +"'I mean to try it,' I said; and I ran to the house and Aunt Susan gave +me an old ribbon-box, and Mr. Rhodes punched a few holes in the cover +with his pocket-knife; and after a little hesitation I picked the +fennel-stalk with the worm on it, and laid it carefully in the box, +making sure that the cover was tight. The box was then taken to the +house and deposited on a bench in the porch, for Aunt Susan objected to +entertaining this new boarder indoors. + +"I gave my worm his breakfast the next morning before I had my own, and, +forgetting my aversion, sat by the open box and watched him eat, as his +strong jaws made clean work with leaf and stem. + +"'He isn't so ugly, after all, Charlie,' I said; 'he is almost handsome +for a worm, with all those bright colors on him,' + +"Then Charlie caught a little of my enthusiasm, and said _he_ meant to +keep a worm too. So he searched the fennel-bush and found three, and +tumbled them unceremoniously into the box. + +"'Now they'll have good times together,' said he; 'that fellow was awful +lonesome shut up by himself,' + +"At Aunt Susan's suggestion I improved my worm-house by removing the top +of the box and stretching mosquito-netting across, fastening it securely +along the edges lest my prisoners should escape. And it was well I took +this precaution; for, though for several days they made no attempt to +get away, and seemed to do nothing but eat and sleep, one morning I +found my largest and handsomest worm in a very disturbed and restless +condition. He was making frantic efforts to escape. Up and down, round +and round, over and under his companions, who were still quietly +feeding, without a moment's pause, he was pushing his way. I watched him +till I was tired; but when I left him he was still on his travels. + +"In the afternoon, however, he had settled himself half-way up the side +of his house. His head was moving slowly from side to side, and a fine +white thread was coming out of his mouth. When I looked again he had +fastened himself to the box by the tip of his tail and by a loop of fine +silk passing round the upper part of his body. There he hung motionless +two, three, almost four, days. The green and orange and black faded +little by little, his body shrank to half its size, and he looked +withered, unsightly, dead. I thought he _was_ dead; but Tim Rhodes (who +all along had shown a friendly interest in my pursuit) took a look at my +poor dead worm,' and pronounced him all right. + +"'Keep a watch on him this afternoon,' said Tim,' and you'll see +something queer,' + +"So we did; and Aunt Susan was summoned to the porch by the news that +'the worm had split in the back and was coming out of his skin.' By the +time she had got on her glasses and was ready to witness this wonderful +sight, it was over. A heap of dried skin lay in the bottom of the box, +and a pretty chrysalis of a delicate green color hung in place of the +worm. + +"'O Auntie!' said Charlie, 'you ought to have seen him twist and squirm +and make the split in his back bigger and bigger till it burst open and +tumbled off, just as a boy wriggles out of a tight coat, you know!' + +"After this came three weeks of waiting, during which the green +chrysalis turned gray and hard and the other worms, one by one, went +through the same changes, until four gray chrysalis were fastened to the +sides of the box. + +"Every day I looked, but nothing happened, until it seemed to me, tired +of waiting, that nothing ever _would_ happen. But one bright morning I +forgot all my weariness when I found, clinging to the netting, a +beautiful creature like the one we saw on the honeysuckle this +afternoon, with a slender black body and wings spotted with yellow and +scarlet and lovely blue. When I opened the box he didn't try to fly. He +was weak and trembling, and his wings were damp, but every moment they +grew larger and his colors brighter in the sunshine. + +"While Charlie and I stood watching him, we discussed, in our own way, a +problem that has puzzled wiser heads than ours--how three distinct +individuals (the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly) could be one +and the same creature, and how from a low-born worm that groveled and +crawled could be born this bright ethereal being--all light and beauty +and color--that seemed fitted only for the sky. + +"Aunt Susan listened to our talk a while and then repeated a text of +Scripture:-- + +"'Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his +glorious body?'" + +"While we talked the butterfly grew stronger and more beautiful, until +at last, spreading his wings to their widest extent, he darted high into +the air and we lost him. But from the day I took the green worm from the +fennel-bush in Aunt Susan's garden I date my introduction to a +delightful study which I have followed all my life as I have found +opportunity. So you see it is no wonder I am fond of the swallow-tailed +butterfly; and I have another reason, for once on a time I tamed one so +that it sucked honey from my finger." + +"Auntie, you are joking!" + +"Indeed, no. It was a poor little waif which, mistaking chimney heat for +warm spring weather, hatched himself out of season, and whose life I +prolonged by providing him with food." + +"The dear little thing! Tell us about it, please." + +"Well, I had put away some chrysalids for the winter in a closet in my +sleeping-room, and one day my nurse--I was ill at the time--heard a +rustling in the box where they lay and brought it to me for +investigation; and, behold! when I opened it there was a full-grown +swallow-tail, who, waking too soon from his winter's nap, left the soft +bed of cotton where his companions lay sleeping side by side and, wide +awake and ready to fly, was impatiently waiting for some one to let him +out into the sunshine. + +"But the March sunshine was fitful and pale, and the cold wind would +have chilled him to death before night; so we resolved to keep him +indoors. We gave him the liberty of the room, and he fluttered about the +plants in the window, now and then taking a flight to the ceiling, +where, I am sorry to say, he bruised his delicate wings; but he seemed +to learn wisdom by experience, for after a while he contented himself +with a lower flight. Every day my bed was wheeled close to the window, +and I amused myself for hours watching my pretty visitor. He would +greedily suck a drop of honey, diluted with water, from the leaf of a +plant or from the end of my finger, and by sight or smell, perhaps by +both senses, soon learned where to go for his dinner. + +"And so he lived and thrived for a fortnight, and I had hopes of keeping +him till spring; but one cold night the furnace fire went out, and in +the morning my pretty swallow-tail lay dead on the window-sill. Wasn't +it a pity? + +"Oh," said Florence, "I like to hear about butterflies! Will you please +tell us about some of the other kinds you have kept?" + +"Tell us about that big fellow you said every body made a fuss over. +Ce-ce--I can't remember what you called him." + +"Cecropia!" said Susie, promptly. "Yes, do, Auntie! if you are not +tired." + +If Ruth Elliot had been ever so weary I think she would have forgotten +it at sight of the interested faces of her audience; but in fact she was +not in the least tired, but was as pleased to tell as they were to +listen to the story of + + +THE CECROPIA MOTH. + +"One day in November," she said, "a man who used to do odd jobs about +the place for my father, and whom we always called Josh,--his name was +Joshua Wheeler,--left his work to bring to the house and put into my +hand a queer-looking pod-shaped package firmly fastened to a stout twig. +It was of a rusty gray color and looked as much like a thick wad of +dirty brown paper as any thing I can think of. + +"'I found this 'ere cur'us lookin' thing,' he said, 'under a walnut-tree +on the hill yonder, where I was rakin' up leaves--an', thinks I, there's +some kind of a crittur stored away inside, an' Miss Ruth she's crazy +arter bugs an' worms an' sich like varmints, an' mebbe she'd like to see +what comes out o' this 'ere; so I've fetched it along.' + +"You may be sure I thanked him heartily and gave him a sixpence besides, +which I am afraid went to buy tobacco. 'Law, Doctor, don't I know it?' +Josh used to reply when my father urged him to break off a habit that +was making a shaky old man of him at sixty; 'don't I know it's a +dretful bad habit; but then you see a body must have somethin' to be +a-chawin' on.' + +"But what was in the brown package? That was the question I puzzled my +brains over. I had never seen a cocoon in the least like it before, and +I had no book on entomology to help me. With the point of a needle I +carefully picked away the outer layer till I came to loose silken fibers +that evidently were the covering of an inside case. Whatever was there +was snugly tucked away in a little inner chamber with the key inside, +and I must wait with what patience I could command till he chose to open +the door. + +"I kept my precious cocoon all winter in a cold, dry place; but when +warm spring weather came it lay in state on my work-table, in a box +lined with cotton, where I could watch it all day long. Nothing +happened till one bright day in June I heard a faint scratching inside +the brown case. It grew louder and louder every moment. Evidently my +tenant was bestirring himself and, with intervals of rest, was scraping +and tearing away his silken wrappings. Presently an opening was made and +out of this were poked two bushy legs with claws that held fast by the +outside of his house, while the creature gradually pulled himself out. + +"First a head with horns; then a part of the body and two more legs; +then, with one tremendous effort, he was free!--an odd beast of no +particular color, looking exceedingly damp and disagreeable, with his +fat chunky body and short legs, like an exaggerated bumble-bee, only not +at all pretty. He was shaky on his legs and half tumbled from his box +to the window-sill, along which he walked trembling till he came to the +tassel of the shade, just within his reach. This he grabbed with all +four claws, his wings hanging down. + +"'It's nothing but a homely old brown bug!' said my brother Charlie, +whom I had called to see the sight. + +"'No,' I said, "'it isn't a bug. I'm sure I don't know what it is,' + +"I was ready to cry with disappointment and vexation, for I had expected +great things from my brown chrysalis. + +"The tassel was gently swaying with the weight of the clumsy creature, +and in the warm sunshine which was gradually drying body and wings faint +colors began to show--a dull red, a dash of white, a wavy band of gray, +with patches of soft brown that began to look downy like feathers. Every +moment these colors grew more distinct and took new shapes. None of +them were bright, but they were beautifully blended and the whole body +was of the texture of the finest velvet. + +"But the wings! How can I describe to you how those thick, crumpled, +unsightly appendages grew and grew, changing in color from a dingy black +to a dark brown, with bands of gray and red? how the great white patches +took distinct form, and some were dashed with red and bordered with +black, and others eye-shaped with crescents of pale blue? It must have +taken an hour for all this to come about--for the great wings to unfurl +to their widest extent and the cecropia moth to show himself in all his +beauty to our admiring gaze. + +"The whole family had gathered to see the show. My father lingered, hat +and riding-whip in hand, though he had a round of twenty miles to make +among his patients before night; and Aunt Susan, who was on a visit, +stood peering through her spectacles, too much absorbed to notice black +Dinah taking a nap in her work-basket and the kitten making sad havoc +with her knitting. Josh was called in from the wood-shed, and, with his +hat on the back of his head and hands deep in his pockets, gazed in +silence. + +"'Wal,' he said at length, 'if that don't beat all natur'! Look at the +size of that crittur, will you, and the hole he's jest crawled out of. +Why, he's as big as a full-grown bat, measures full seven inches across +from wing to wing. Wal, now, I'd gin consider'ble to know what's be'n +goin' on for a spell back in that leetle house where he's passed his +time; and I'll bet, Doctor, with all your larnin', _you_ can't tell.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FURRY-PURRY BECOMING GOLD ELSIE. + + +Miss Ruth found on her table the next Wednesday afternoon a note very +neatly and carefully written, which read as follows:-- + + Miss RUTH,--Will you Please tell us Another Cat Story, becaus I + like them best. So does Fannie Eldridge she said So after You told + Worm stories. + + Miss Ruth I Have Named my Black Kitty After your Dinah Diamond, her + Last Name has to Be Spot Becaus her Spot is not a Diamond, this is + from your Friend. + + NELLIE DIMOCK. + +"I hold in my hand," Miss Ruth said, when she had carefully perused this +epistle, "a written request from two members of our Society for another +cat story. Susie and Mollie, have I any more cat stories worth telling?" + +"Yes, indeed, Auntie" said Mollie. "Don't you remember the pretty fairy +story you used to tell us about the good little girl who saved a cat +from being drowned by some bad boys, and carried her home? and she +turned out to be a fairy cat and gave that girl every thing she wished +for--cakes and candy, and a lovely pink silk frock packed in a nutshell +for her to wear to the party?" + +"O Mollie! that's too much of a baby story," said Susie. "Tell us about +the musical cat who played the piano by walking over the keys, and all +the people in the house thought it was a ghost." + +"Yes, Auntie; and the funny story of the cat and the parrot--how the +parrot got stuck up to her knees in a pan of dough, and in her fright +said over every thing she had learned to say: 'Polly wants a cracker!' +'Oh, my goodness' sakes alive!' 'Get out, I say!' 'Here's a row!' 'Scat, +you beast!' and so on;--and how the cat got her out." + +"These are old stories, girls, and you have told them for me." + +"Our old cat Jane," said Eliza Ann Jones, "is a regular cheat. You see, +she _would_ lie in grandma's chair. She used to jump in if grandma left +it only for a minute; and grandma wouldn't know she was there, and two +or three times sat right down on her. Why, it was just awful, and scared +poor grandma half to death. Well, ma whipped the old cat every time she +caught her in the chair, and we thought she was cured of the habit; but +one day ma came into the room and there was nobody there but Jane, and +she was stretched on the rug and seemed to be fast asleep; but grandma's +chair was rocking away all by itself. Ma wondered what made the chair +go, so she thought she'd watch. She left the door on a crack and peeped +through, and as soon as the cat thought she was alone she jumped into +the chair and settled herself for a nap; but when ma made a little +noise, as if somebody were coming out, she hopped out and stretched +herself on the rug and made believe she was fast asleep. 'Twas her +jumping out so quick that set the chair rocking. Now, wasn't that cute?" + +"I never knew till the other day," said Florence Austin, "that cats +scatter crumbs to attract the birds, and then watch for them and spring +out on the poor things when they are feeding." + +"What a shame! I wouldn't keep a cat who played such a cruel trick," +Mollie said. + +"My Dinah Spot doesn't catch birds or chickens," said Nellie Dimock; +"only mice." + +Mrs. Elliot had come in with a message to her sister while this talk +went on, and had lingered to hear Eliza's story of old Jane. + +"Girls," she said, "with your President's permission, I will tell you a +story about a cat. It is curious, because it proves that a cat remembers +and reasons much as a man or woman would in similar circumstances. Susie +and Mollie, I have told it to you before, but you will not mind hearing +it again. + +"When my brother Charles was a young man he kept a bachelor +establishment in the country, and with other pets owned a beautiful gray +cat he had; brought with him from Germany. She was very intelligent and +docile, a great favorite with her master, and was allowed many +privileges in the house. She came in and out through a small door cut in +the side of the house which she opened and closed for herself. A chair +was regularly placed for her at the table; she slept at the foot of my +brother's bed, and perched herself on his shoulder when he took a stroll +in the garden. She could distinguish the sound of his bell from any +other in the house, and was greatly disturbed if the servant delayed in +answering his call. + +"One summer my sister Helen and her two boys were staying with Charles, +and in the midst of the visit he was called away on business, and was +absent for several weeks. Now, Carl and Teddy were dear little fellows, +but full of mischief; and in their uncle's absence they so teased and +tormented poor Miess, taking advantage of her amiable disposition, that +she was forced at length to keep out of their way. About a week before +Charles came home she had kittens, which she carefully hid behind a +heavy book-case in the library. + +"The morning of his return he had the cat in his lap petting and +caressing her as usual, and then went out for an hour. As soon as he was +gone, pussy brought her kittens one by one from their hiding-place and +laid them on the rug in the corner of the room where she had nursed and +tended all her young families before. Now she must have reasoned in this +way: 'My good, kind master has come home, and those dreadful boys who +have pinched my ears and tied things to my tail, and teased and +frightened me almost to death, will be made to behave themselves. All +danger to me and to my babies is over. Why must the pretty dears be +hidden away in that musty place? Of course master wants to see them, and +they are well worth looking at. The thing for me to do is to bring them +out of that dark hole and put them where I always have put my kittens +before.'" + +"Wise old Miess!" said Mollie. "Mamma, please tell the girls how she +saved uncle's pet canary from a strange cat." + +"Yes, dear. Miess was so obedient and well trained that her master often +trusted her in the room while he gave the bird his airing, and Bobby +became so accustomed to the cat's presence that he hopped fearlessly +about the floor close to pussy's rug, and more than once lighted on her +back; but one day your uncle discovered Miess on the table with the bird +in her mouth. For an instant he thought her cat nature had got the upper +hand, and that Bobby's last moment had come; then he discovered a +strange cat in the room and knew that his good cat had saved the +canary's life. As soon as the intruder was driven out, Bobby fluttered +away safe and sound." + +"Wasn't that nice of Miess, Auntie?" said Susie. "I have thought of a +story for you to tell us this afternoon--the story of the barn-cat that +wanted so much to become a house-cat. Don't you remember that story you +used to tell us long ago?" + +"Oh, yes!" Mollie said; "her name was Furry-Purry, and she lived with +Granny Barebones, and there was Tom--Tom--some thing; what _was_ his +name? Tell us that, Aunt Ruth, do!" + +"Isn't it open to the objection you made to Mollie's choice a while ago, +Susie?" she asked. "I remember it went with 'The Three Bears' and 'Old +Mother Pig' and 'The Little Red Hen.'" + +"No, Auntie, I think not; it's different, somehow." + +"Very well, then, if you are sure you haven't outgrown it." + +"Is it a true story?" Nellie Dimock wanted to know. + +"It is made out of a true story, Nellie. A young cat which was born and +brought up in a barn became dissatisfied with her condition in life, and +made up her mind to change it. She chose the house of a friend of mine +for her future home, and presented herself every morning at the door, +asking in a very earnest and humble way to be taken in. When driven away +she went sadly and reluctantly, but in a few moments was back again +waiting patiently, quietly, hour after hour, day after day. If noticed +or spoken to, she gave a plaintive mew, looked cold and hungry, but +showed no signs of discouragement. She didn't once try to steal into the +house, as she might have done, but waited patiently for an invitation. + +"And when one morning she brought a mouse and laid it on the door-step, +and looking up, seemed to say: 'Kind lady, if you will take me for your +cat, see what I will do for you,' my friend could no longer refuse. The +door was opened, the long-wished-for invitation was given, and very +soon the little barn-cat became the pet and plaything of the family. She +proved a valuable family cat, and her descendants, to the fourth +generation, are living in my friend's family to-day. + +"Out of these materials I have dressed up the story of + +HOW FURRY-PURRY BECAME GOLD ELSIE. + +"The door of the great house stood open and Furry-Purry looked in. + +"Furry-Purry was a small yellow cat striped down the back with a darker +shade of the same color. Her paws, the lower part of her body, and the +spot on her breast were white. + +"This is what the little cat saw, looking through the open door into the +great house:-- + +"A pleasant room hung with pictures, the floor covered with a soft +carpet, where all kinds of bright-colored flowers seemed to be growing, +and, in the sunniest corner, lying in an arm-chair piled with cushions, +a large tabby cat. + +"Just then a gust of wind closed the door, and Furry-Purry ran round the +house to the barn and remained all day hidden in her hole under the +boards. + +"That night there was a storm, and several cats in the neighborhood +crept into the barn for safety. There was old Mrs. Barebones, a cat with +a bad cough, which was thought to be in a decline; Tom Skip-an'-jump, a +sprightly young fellow with a tenor voice which he was fond of using on +moonlight nights; and Robber Grim, a fierce, one-eyed creature--the pest +of the neighborhood--with a great head and neck and flabby, hanging +cheeks and bare spots on his tawny coat where the fur had been torn out +in his fierce battles. + +"The thunder roared overhead and the lightning, shining through the +cracks, played on the barn floor and showed the cats sitting gravely in +a circle. Only Tom Skip-an'-jump, who still kept his kittenish tricks, +went frisking after his tail and turning somersaults in the hay. +Presently he tumbled over Furry-Purry and bit her ear. + +"'Come, play!' said he: 'it's a jolly time for puss-in-the-corner.' + +"'Tom,' said Furry-Purry, 'I never shall play again. I am very unhappy. +I have seen Mrs. Tabitha Velvetpaw lying on a silk cushion, while I make +my bed in the hay. She walks on a lovely soft carpet, and I have only +this barn floor. O Tom, I want to be a house-cat.' + +"'A house-cat!' repeated Tom disdainfully. 'They sleep all day. They +get their tails pulled and their ears pinched by horrid monsters with +only two legs to walk on, and nights--beautiful moonlight nights when we +barn-cats are roaming the alleys and singing on the roofs and having a +good time generally--they are locked in cellars and garrets and made to +watch rat-holes. Oh, no! not for Tom.' + +"He was off with a whisk of his tail to the highest beam in the barn, +looking down on them with the greenest of green eyes, and singing,-- + + 'Some love the home + Of a lazy drone, + And a bed on a cushioned knee; + But in wild free ways + I will spend my days, + And at night on the roofs I'll be. + + Oh, 'tis my delight, + On a moonlight night'-- + +"'Don't listen to him, my dear,' said Mrs. Barebones, the consumptive +cat; 'he's a wild, thoughtless creature, quite inexperienced in the ways +of the world. Heed the counsels of one whose sands of life are almost +run and who, before she goes to the land of cats, would fain warn a +youthful friend and, if possible, avert her from her own sad fate. This +racking cough (ugh! ugh!) and this distressing _cat_-arrh, (snuff! +snuff!) with which you see me afflicted were brought on by the hardships +and exposure incident to the life of a barn-cat: midnight rambles, my +dear (ugh!), in frost and snow; days when not so much as a mouse's tail +has passed my hungry jaws, and winter nights when my coat was too thin +to keep out the cold. And all these sufferings, past and present, are in +consequence of my being a barn-cat.' + +"'Now, may the dogs get me, if I ever heard such a string of nonsense!' +said Robber Grim. 'Don't believe a word she says. She's an old granny. +She's got the fidgets. She wants a dose of catnip-tea. Don't believe Tom +Skip-an'-jump, either. What does _he_ know about war? He never was shot +at. Look at me! I'm Robber Grim! I'm an old one, I am! I've got good +blood in my veins. My great-grandfather was a catamount and his +grandmother was a tiger-cat. I've been in a hundred battles. I've had +one eye knocked out and an ear bit off. I left a piece of my tail in a +trap. I've been scalded with hot water and peppered all over with shot. +_I'll_ teach you how to get a living without being a house-cat. I hate +houses and the people who live in them, and I do them all the mischief +I can. I eat up their chickens and I suck their eggs. I climb in at the +pantry window and skim their milk. Once when the cook left the kitchen +door open I snatched the beefsteak from the gridiron and made off with +the family dinner. They hate me--they do. They've tried to kill me a +dozen times; but I'm Robber Grim, ha! ha! and I've got nine lives!' + +"At this instant there came a flash of lightning, followed by a peal of +thunder that shook the barn to its foundations, and every cat fled in +terror to its hole. + +"The next morning Mrs. Tabitha Velvetpaw took a stroll round the garden +and down the lane a little way, where the catnip grew. The ground was +wet after the shower, and she was daintily picking her way along, very +careful not to soil her beautiful feet, of which she was justly proud, +when suddenly there glided from behind a tree and stood directly in her +path a small yellow cat. + +"'Oh, my paws and whiskers!' exclaimed Mrs. Tabitha, surprised out of +her usual dignity. + +"'If you please,' said Furry-Purry,--for it was she,--'I have made bold +to come out and meet you to ask your advice. I am a poor little +barn-cat, and I was contented with my lot till I saw you yesterday in +your beautiful home; but now I feel that I was intended for a higher +sphere. Tell me--oh, tell me, Mrs. Velvetpaw, how I may become a +house-cat!' + +"'Well, did I ever!' said Mrs. Velvetpaw. 'The idea!' and she moved a +step or two away from poor Furry-Purry, her manner, as well as her +words, expressing astonishment and disdain. + +"'I know it seems presuming, Mrs. Velvetpaw, but'-- + +"'Presuming! I should say so. What is this generation of cats coming to, +when a low creature reared in a barn--a paw-paw (pauper) cat, as I may +say--dare lift her eyes to those so far above her?' + +"'I have heard my mother say "a cat may look at a king,"' said +Furry-Purry. + +"'Go away, you low-born creature! How dare you quote your mother to me? +Go away, this instant! I am ashamed to be seen talking with you! What if +my friend Mrs. Silvercoat or Major Mouser should happen to pass! Begone, +I say! scat!' + +"'O Mrs. Tabitha,' said the poor little cat, 'don't send me away! I +can't go back to that barn. Indeed, indeed, after spending this short +time in your company, I can never endure to live with Tom Skip-an'-jump +and Mrs. Barebones and that horrid Robber Grim. If you refuse to help me +I will go straight to Growler's kennel. When he has worried me to death, +won't you be sorry you drove me to such a fate? Dear, dear Mrs. +Velvetpaw, your face is kinder than your words. Oh, pity the sorrows of +a poor little cat!' + +"Now, Mrs. Tabitha was not at heart an ill-natured puss; and when she +saw Furry-Purry's imploring face, and listened to her eloquent appeal, +she was moved with compassion. + +"'Rather than see you go to the dogs,' said she, 'I will lend a paw to +help you. But what can I do, you silly thing?' + +"'Mrs. Velvetpaw, you have lived a long time in this neighborhood?' + +"'All my life, Yellow Cat.' + +"'And you know every body?' + +"'If you mean in the first rank of society--yes. Your Barebones, and +Hop-an'-jumps, and creatures of that vulgar herd, are quite out of my +_cat_egory.' + +"'Perhaps you know of some house-cat dead or gone away?' + +"'And if I do?' + +"'You might put me in her place, you know.' + +"'Yellow Cat,' said Mrs. Tabitha, severely. + +"'If you please, my name is Furry-Purry.' + +"'Well, Furry-Purry, then. Your presumption can only be pardoned in +consideration of your ignorance of the usages of society. House-cats, +you must know, hold their position in families by hereditary descent. +My place, for instance, was my mother's and my grandmother's before me. +We are prepared by birth and education for the position we occupy. Have +you considered how utterly unfitted you are for the life to which you +aspire? I am sorry to disappoint you, but I fear your hopes are vain. +There is, indeed, a vacancy in the brick house opposite. Cæsar--a +venerable cat--died last week. He was much admired for his gentlemanly +and dignified deportment. "Who shall come after the king?"' + +"'I, Mrs. Tabitha, I'-- + +"'You, indeed!' she interrupted, scornfully. + +"'Oh, yes, if you will but condescend to give me instructions. I am +quick to learn. The short time I have been so happy as to be in your +company I have gained much knowledge. I am sure I can imitate the +_mew_-sic of your voice. I know I can gently wave my tail, and touch my +left whisker with my paw as you do. When I leave you I shall spend every +moment till we meet again in practising your airs and graces, till I +make them all my own. Dear friend,--if you will let me call you +so,--help me to King Cæsar's place.' + +"There was much that was flattering to Mrs. Velvetpaw in this speech. + +"'Well,' said she, 'I will see what can be done. There, go home now, and +the first thing to be done is to make yourself perfectly clean. Wash +yourself twelve times in the day, from the end of your nose to the tip +of your tail. Take particular pains with your paws. A cat of refinement +is known by the delicacy and cleanliness of her feet. Farewell! After +three days, meet me here again.' + +"You can imagine how faithfully Furry-Purry followed these +directions--how with her sharp tongue she smoothed and stroked every +hair of her pretty coat, and washed her face again and again with her +wet paws. + +"'You are wretchedly thin!' Mrs. Tabitha said at their next meeting. +'That fault can only be remedied by a generous diet. You must look me +full in the face when I talk to you. Really, you have no need to be +ashamed of your eyes, for they are decidedly bright and handsome. When +you walk, don't bend your legs till your body almost touches the ground. +That gives you a wretchedly hang-cat appearance. Tread softly and +daintily, but with dignity and grace of carriage. There must be other +bad habits I have not mentioned.' + +"'I am afraid I spit sometimes.' + +"'Don't do that--it is considered vulgar. Don't bristle your tail. Don't +show your claws except to mice. Keep such control over yourself as never +to be surprised out of a dignified composure of manner.' + +"Just here, without the slightest warning, there rushed from the thicket +near them a large fierce-looking dog. Up went Mrs. Velvetpaw's back in +an arch. Every hair of her body stood on end. Sharp-pointed claws +protruded from each velvet foot, and, hissing and spitting, she tumbled +over Furry-Purry in her haste, and scrambled to the topmost branch of +the pear-tree. The little cat followed, imitating her guide in every +particular. As for the dog, which was in pursuit of game, he did not +even look at them; and when he was out of sight they came down from the +tree, Mrs. Tabitha descending with the dignified composure she had just +recommended to her young friend. She made no allusion to her hurried +ascent. + +"'To-morrow night,' said she, 'as soon as it is dark, meet me in the +backyard of the brick house.' + +"Half glad and half frightened, Furry-Purry walked by her side the next +evening, delighting in the soft green turf of the yard and the +sweet-smelling shrubs against which she ventured to rub herself as they +passed. Mrs. Tabitha led her round the house to a piazza draped with +clustering vines. + +"'Come here to-morrow,' said she. 'Walk boldly up the steps and seat +yourself in full view of that window. Look your prettiest--behave your +best. Assume a pensive expression of countenance, with your eyes +uplifted--so. If you are driven away, go directly, but return. Be +strong, be brave, be persevering. Now, my dear, I have done all I can +for you, and I wish you good luck,' + +"The next morning a little girl living in the brick house, whose name +was Winnie Gay, looked out of the dining-room window. + +"'Come quick, mamma!' she called; 'here's a cat on our piazza--a little +yellow cat, and she's looking right up at me. May I open the door?' + +"'No, indeed!' said Mrs. Gay; 'we want no strange cats here.' + +"'But she looks hungry, mamma. She has just opened her mouth at me +without making a bit of noise. Can't I give her a saucer of milk?' + +"'Come away from the window, Winnie, and don't notice her. You will only +encourage her to come again. There, pussy, run away home; we can't have +you here.' + +"'Now, mamma, you have frightened her. See how she keeps looking back. +I'm afraid you've hurt her feelings. Dear little pussy! I wish I might +call you back.' + +"Furry-Purry was not discouraged at this her first unsuccessful attempt. +The child's blue eyes beamed a welcome, and the lady's face was gentle +and kind. + +"'If I catch a mouse,' thought the cat, 'and bring it to them to show +what I can do, perhaps I shall gain their favor.' Then she put away all +the fine airs and graces Mrs. Velvetpaw had taught her, and became the +sly, supple, watchful creature nature had made her. By a hole in the +granary she crouched and waited with unwearied patience one, two, almost +three, hours. Then she gave a sudden spring, there was one sharp little +shriek from the victim, a snap of pussy's jaws, and her object was +accomplished. She appeared again on the piazza, and, laying a dead mouse +on the floor, crouched beside it in an attitude of perfect grace, and +looked beseechingly in Mrs. Gay's face. + +"'Well, you _are_ a pretty creature!' that lady said, 'with your soft +white paws and yellow coat,' + +"'May I have her for my cat, mamma?' Winnie said. 'I thought I never +should love another cat when dear old Cæsar died; but this little thing +is such a beauty that I love her already. May I have her for mine?' + +"But while Mrs. Gay hesitated, Furry-Purry, who could not hear what +they said, and who, to tell the truth, was in a great hurry to eat her +mouse, ran off with it to the barn. The next morning, however, she came +again, and Mr. Gay, who was waiting for his breakfast, was called to the +window. + +"'My cat has come again, papa, with another mouse--a monstrous one, +too.' + +"'That isn't a mouse,' Mr. Gay said, looking at the plump, silver-gray +creature Furry-Purry carefully deposited on the piazza-floor. 'Bless me! +I believe it is that rascal of a mole that's gnawed my hyacinth and +tulip bulbs. I offered the gardener's boy two dollars if he would catch +the villain. To whom does that cat belong, Winnie? She's worth her +weight in gold.' + +"'I don't believe she belongs to anybody, papa; but I think she wants +to belong to us, for she keeps coming and coming. _May_ I have her for +mine? I am sure mamma will say yes if you are willing.' + +"'Why not?' said he. 'Run for a saucer of milk, and we will coax her +in.' + +"We who are acquainted with Furry-Purry's private history know how +little coaxing was needed. + +"As soon as the door was opened she walked in, and, laying the dead mole +at Mr. Gay's feet, rubbed herself against his leg, purred gently, looked +up into his face with her round bright eyes, and, in very expressive cat +language, claimed him for her master. When he stooped to caress her, and +praised and petted her for the good service she had rendered him, the +happy creature rolled over and over on the soft carpet in an ecstasy of +delight. + +"Then Winnie clapped her hands for joy. + +"'You are our own cat,' she said. 'You shall have sugar and cream to +eat. You shall lie on Cæsar's silk cushion; and because you are yellow, +and papa says you are worth your weight in gold, your name shall be Gold +Elsie,' + +"So Furry-Purry became a family cat. + +"The first time she met Mrs. Velvetpaw after this change in her life, +that excellent tabby looked at her with evident admiration. + +"'How handsome you have grown!' said she; 'your eyes are topaz, your +breast and paws are the softest velvet, your coat is spun gold. My dear, +you are the belle of cats,' + +"'Dear Mrs. Velvetpaw,' said Gold Elsie, 'my beauty and my prosperity I +owe in large measure to you. But for your wise counsels I should still +be a'-- + +"'Hush! don't speak the word. My dear, never again allude to your +origin. It is a profound secret. You are received in the best society. +Mrs. Silvercoat tells me it is reported that your master sought far and +wide to find a worthy successor to King Cæsar, and that he esteems +himself specially fortunate in that, after great labor and expense, he +procured _you_. The ignorance you sometimes exhibit of the customs of +genteel society is attributed to your foreign breeding.' + +"'Mrs. Tabitha, I feel at times a strong desire to visit my old friends +in the barn once more.' + +"'Let me entreat you, my dear Miss Elsie, never again to think of it.' + +"'But there is poor Mrs. Barebones almost gone with a consumption. I +should like to show her some kindness.' + +"'Her sufferings are ended. She has passed to the land of cats,' + +"'Poor Mrs. Barebones! and Robber Grim? Do you happen to have heard any +thing of him?' + +"Silently Mrs. Tabitha beckoned her to follow, and, leading the way to +the orchard, pointed to a sour-apple tree, where Gold Elsie beheld a +ghastly sight. By a cord tied tightly about his neck, his jaws +distended, his one eye starting from its socket, hung Robber +Grim--stiff, motionless, dead. + +"They hurried away, and presently Gold Elsie timidly inquired after her +former playmate, Tom Skip-an'-jump. + +"'Don't, my dear!' said Mrs. Velvetpaw; 'really, I can not submit to be +farther _cat_echized. If you are truly grateful to me, Elsie, for the +service I have rendered you, and wish to do me credit in the high +position to which I have raised you, you must, you certainly must, break +every tie that binds you to your former life.' + +"'I will, Mrs. Tabitha, I will,' said the little cat; and never again in +Mrs. Velvetpaw's presence did she mention Tom Skip-an'-jump's name," + +"And didn't she ever see him again?" Nellie Dimock wanted to know. "I am +sure there was no harm in Tom." + +"Well, but you know she couldn't go with _that set_ any more after she +had got into good society," said Mollie Elliot. + +"Mollie has caught Mrs. Velvetpaw's exact tone," said Florence Austin, +at which all the girls laughed. + +"Well, I don't care," Mollie answered; "she was a nice little cat, and +deserved all her good fortune." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +TOMMY TOMPKINS' YELLOW DOG. + + +"I have a letter to read to you this afternoon, girls," said Miss Ruth; +"also the story of a yellow dog. The letter is from a friend of mine who +spends her summers in a quiet village in Maine, in a fine old mansion +overlooking green fields and a beautiful lake with hills sloping down to +it on every side. Here is the letter she wrote me last June:-- + +"'We have come back again to our summer home--to the old house, the +broad piazza, the high-backed chairs, and the blue china. The clump of +cinnamon roses across the way is one mass of spicy bloom, and soon its +fragrance will be mingled with that of new-mown hay. There is nothing +new about the place but Don Quixote, the great handsome English mastiff. +Do you know the mastiff--his lion-like shape, his smooth, fawn-colored +coat, his black nose, and kind, intelligent eyes, their light-hazel +contrasting with the black markings around them? If you do, you must +pardon this description. + +"'I am very fond of Don, and he of me. He belongs to our cousin, whose +house is but one field removed from ours; but he is here much of the +time. He evidently feels that both houses are under his protection, and +passes his nights between the two. Often we hear his slow step as he +paces the piazza round and round like a sentinel. He is only fifteen +months old, and of course feels no older than a little dog, though he +weighs one hundred and thirty pounds, and measures six feet from nose to +tail. + +"'He can't understand why he isn't a lap-dog, and does climb our laps +after his fashion, putting up one hind leg and resting his weight upon +it with great satisfaction. We have good fun with him out of doors, +where his puppyhood quite gets the better of his dignity, and he runs in +circles and fetches mad bounds of pure glee. + +"'One day, lying in my hammock, with Don on the piazza at my feet, I put +his charms and virtues together in verses, and I send them to you as the +most succinct account I can give of my new pet. As I conned them over, +repeating them half-aloud, at the frequent mention of his name Don +raised his head with an intelligent and appreciative look. Here are the +verses. I call them + + +DOG-GEREL. + + 'Don! Don! beautiful Don! + Graceful and tall, with majestic mien, + Fawn-colored coat of the softest sheen, + The stateliest dog that the sun shines on, + Beautiful Don! + + Don! Don! frolicsome Don! + Chasing your tail at a game of tag, + Dancing a jig with a kitchen rag, + Rearing and tearing, and all for fun, + Frolicsome Don! + + Don! Don! affectionate Don! + Looking your love with soft kind eyes, + Climbing our laps, quite forgetting your size; + With kissing and coaxing you never are done, + Affectionate Don! + + Don! Don! chivalrous Don! + Stalking all night piazza and yard, + Sleepless and watchful, our sentinel guard, + Squire of dames is the name you have won, + Chivalrous Don! + + Don! Don! devotional Don! + When the Bible is opened you climb to your place, + And listen with solemn, immovable face, + Nor frolic nor coax till the chapter is done, + Devotional Don! + + Don! Don! wonderful Don! + Devotional, faithful, affectionate one, + If owning these virtues when only a pup, + What will you be when you are grown up? + Wonderful Don!' + +"And now by way of contrast," said Miss Ruth as she folded the letter, +"I have a story to tell you of a poor little forlorn, homely, +insignificant dog, of low birth and no breeding, which was picked up on +the street by a boy I know, and which made for himself friends and a +good home by seizing the first opportunity that offered to do his duty +and protect the property of those who had taken him in. I have no doubt +that Don Quixote, intelligent, faithful, kind, with not a drop of +plebeian blood in his noble body, will fulfill all the expectations of +his friends, and we shall hear of many a brave and gallant deed of his +performing; but when you have heard what Tommy Tompkins has to tell, I +think you will say that not even Don Quixote could have done himself +more credit under the circumstances than + + +TOMMY TOMPKINS' YELLOW DOG. + +"Tommy shall tell the story as he told it to me:-- + +"'Yes, marm, he's my dog. His name's Grip. My father paid five dollars +for that dog. You look as if you thought he wasn't worth it; but I +wouldn't take twice the money for him, not if you was to pay it over +this minute. I know he ain't a handsome dog. I don't think yellow is a +pretty color for a dog, do you? and I wish he had a little more of a +tail. Liz says he's cur-tailed (Liz thinks it's smart to make puns), but +he'll look a great deal better when his ear gets well and his hair grows +out and covers the bare spots--don't you think so? But father says, +"Handsome is that handsome does," and nobody can say but that our dog +did the handsome thing when he saved over two hundred dollars in money +and all mother's silver spoons and lots of other things from being +stolen--hey, Grip? We call him Grip 'cause he hung on to that fellow so +till the policeman got in to take him. + +"'What fellow? Why, the burglar, of course. Didn't you read about it in +the newspaper? There was a long piece published about it the day after +it happened, with headings in big letters: "The house No. 35 Wells +Avenue, residence of Thomas Tompkins, the well-known dealer in hardware, +cutlery, etc., was entered last night by burglars. Much valuable +property saved through the courage and pluck of a small dog belonging to +the family." They didn't get that part right, for he didn't belong to us +then. You just wait, and I'll read the whole piece to you. I've got it +somewhere in my pockets. You see, I cut it out of the paper to read to +the boys at school. + +"'You'd rather I told you about it? Well. Lie down, Grip! Be quiet! +can't you? He don't mean any thing by sniffing round your ankles in that +way; anyhow, he won't catch hold unless I tell him to; but you see, +ever since that night he wants to go for every strange man or woman that +comes near the place. Liz says "he's got burglars on the brain." + +"'I guess I'll begin at the beginning and tell you how I came by him. +One night after school I'd been down to the steamboat landing on an +errand for father, and along on River Street there was a crowd of +loafers round two dogs in a fight. This dog was one of 'em, and the +other was a bulldog twice his size. The bulldog's master was looking on, +without so much as trying to part 'em; but nobody was looking after the +yellow dog: he didn't seem to have any master. Well, I want to see fair +play in every thing. It makes me mad to see a fellow thrash a boy half +his size, or a big dog chew up a little one. So I steps up and says to +the bulldog's master, "Why don't you call off your dog?" but he only +swore at me and told me to mind my own business. + +"'Well, I know a trick or two about dogs, and I ran into a grocer's shop +close by and got two cents' worth of snuff, and I let that bulldog have +it all right in his face and eyes. Of course he had to let go to sneeze; +and I grabbed the yellow dog and ran. It was great fun. I could hear +that dog sneezing and coughing, and his master yelling to me, but I +never once held up or looked behind me till I was half-way up Brooks +Street. + +"'Then I set the yellow dog down on the sidewalk and looked him over. +My! he's a beauty now to what he was then, for he's clean and well-fed +and respectable looking; but then he was nothing but skin and bone, and +covered all over with mud and dirt, and one ear was torn and one eye +swelled shut, and he limped when he walked, and--well, never mind, old +Grip! you was all right inside, wasn't you? + +"'Well, I never dreaded any thing more in all my life than taking that +dog home. Mother hates dogs. She never would have one in the house, +though I've always wanted a dog of my own. I knew Liz would call him a +horrid little monster, and Fred would poke fun at me--and, oh, dear! I'd +rather have gone to the dentist's or taken a Saturday-night scrub than +go into that dining-room with Grip at my heels. + +"'But it had to be done. They were all at supper, and mother took it +just as I was afraid she would. If she only would have waited and let +me tell how I came by the dog, I thought maybe she would have felt sorry +for the poor thing; but she was in such a hurry to get his muddy feet +off the dining-room carpet that she wouldn't listen to a single word I +said, but kept saying, "Turn him out! turn him out!" till I found it was +no use, and I was just going to do as she said when father looked up +from his supper, and says he: "Let the boy tell his story, mother. Where +did you get the dog, Tommy?" "'We were all surprised, for father hardly +ever interfered with mother about us children--he's so taken up with +business, you know, he hasn't any time left for the family. But I was +glad enough to tell him how I came by the dog; and he laughed, and said +he didn't see any objection to my keeping him over night. I might give +him some supper and tie him up in the shed-chamber, and in the morning +he'd have him taken round to Police-station C, where, if he wasn't +claimed in four days, he'd be taken care of. + +"'I knew well enough how they'd take care of him at Station C. They'd +shoot him--that's what they do to stray dogs without any friends. But +anyhow, I could keep him over night, for mother would think it was all +right, now father had said so. So I took him to the shed-chamber and +gave him a good supper,--how he did eat!--and I found an old mat for him +to lie on, and got a basin of warm water and some soap, and washed him +as clean as I could and rubbed him dry, and made him warm and +comfortable: and he licking my hands and face and wagging his stump of +a tail and thanking me for it as plain as though he could talk. + +"'But oh, how he hated to be tied up! Fact is, he made such a fuss I +stayed out there with him till past my bed-time; and when at last I had +to go I left him howling and tugging at the string. Well, I went to +sleep, and, after a while, I woke up, and that dog was at it still. I +could hear him howl just as plain, though the shed-chamber was at the +back of the house, ever so far from my room. I knew mother hadn't come +upstairs, for the gas was burning in the halls, as she always turned it +off the last thing; and I thought to myself: "If she hears the dog when +she comes up, maybe she'll put him out, and I never shall see him +again." And before I knew what I was about I was running through the +hall and the trunk-room, and so out into the shed. It was pitch dark +out there, but I found my way to Grip easy enough by the noise he made +when he saw me; and it didn't take long to untie the string and catch +him up and run back with him to my room. I knew he would be as still as +a mouse in there with me. You were lonesome out there in the shed, +weren't you, Grip? + +"'What would mother say? Well, you see, I meant to keep awake till she +came upstairs and tell her all about it; but I was so tired I dropped +asleep in a minute, and the first thing I knew I was dreaming that I was +running up Brooks Street with Grip in my arms, and the bull-dog close +after us, and just as he was going to spring mother screamed, and +somebody kept saying, "'St, boy! 'st, boy! stick to him, good dog! +stick to him!" And then I woke up, and mother really was screaming, and +'twas Fred who was saying, "Stick to him! stick to him!" And the gas was +lit in the hall, and there was a great noise and hubbub out there, and I +rushed out, and there was a man on the floor and the yellow dog had him +by the throat. Father stood in the door-way with his pistol cocked, and +he said in a quiet kind of way (just as father always speaks when he +means business): "If you stir you are a dead man!" But I should like to +know how he could stir with that grip on his throat! + +"'Then there came a banging and ringing at our front door, and Fred ran +to open it, and in rushed our policeman--I mean the one that takes our +street on his beat. He had heard the noise outside, you see, and, for a +wonder, was on hand when he was wanted; and he just went for that fellow +on the floor and clapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists as quick as +you could turn your hand over; and when he got a look at him he says: +"Oh, it's you, Bill Long, is it? We've been wanting you for some time at +the lodge (that was his name for the police-station). Well, get up and +come along!" + +"'But I called the dog off. + +"'We didn't one of us go to bed again that night. Father and Fred looked +through the house, and father said it was the neatest piece of work in +the burglary line he ever saw done--real professionals, they were. There +was two of 'em. They'd taken plenty of time. The forks and the spoons +and the two hundred dollars in money was all done up in neat packages, +and they'd been through father's desk and the secretary drawers; and +they'd had a lunch of cold chicken and mince-pie, and left the marks of +their greasy hands on the best damask napkins Bridget had ironed that +day and left to air by the kitchen range. And then, you see, while one +stayed below to keep watch, the other went up to finish the job; and he +would have finished it, too, and both would have got away with all the +things if it hadn't have been for that dog. Look at him! will you? I +believe he understands every word I say as well as you do. + +"'Well, right at the door of father's room, Grip took him. How did he +lay the fellow on his back? We suppose he was creeping into the room on +his hands and knees,--they often do, father says,--and the dog made a +rush at him in front and gripped him in the throat, and the weight of +the dog threw him backward; and once down, Grip kept him there--see? + +"'Next morning at breakfast father said: "Tommy, how came the dog in the +upper hall last night? I told you to tie him up in the shed-chamber." +Then I had to own up, and tell how I went late in the evening and +brought him to my room because he howled so. I said I was real sorry, +and father said he would try to forgive me, seeing it all turned out +well, and if Grip hadn't been there we should have lost so much money. +And says I: "Father, don't you mean to take him round to Station C this +morning?" "No, I don't," says father. Then mother said she didn't know +but she'd about as soon lose the silver as to keep such a dog as that +in the house, and Fred said if I must have a dog, why didn't father get +me a black-and-tan terrier--"or a lovely pug," says Liz; and between 'em +they got me so stirred up I didn't know what to do. I said I didn't want +a black-and-tan, and I'd throw a pug out of the window! And if nobody +wanted to keep Grip, we'd go off together somewhere and earn our living, +and I guessed the next time burglars got into the house and carried off +all the money and things because we weren't there to stop 'em, they'd be +sorry they 'd treated us so. Then I looked out of the window and winked +hard to keep from crying. Wasn't I a silly? + +"'For they were only teasing me, and every one of them wanted to keep +Grip. Well, that's all. No, it isn't quite all either; for one morning +a man came to the house and wanted to see father--horrid man with a red +face and a squint in one eye. I remembered him right away. He was one of +the crowd looking on at the dog-fight down in River Street. He said he'd +lost a dog, a very valuable dog, and he'd heard we'd got him. Father +asked what kind of a dog, and he said yellow, and went on describing our +Grip exactly, till I couldn't hold in another minute for fear father +would let him have the dog. So I got round behind father's chair and +whispered: "Buy him, father! buy him!" + +"'Fred called me a great goony, and said if I'd kept still father could +have got the dog for half what he paid for him. Just because Fred is +sixteen he thinks he knows every thing, and he's always lording it over +me. He says I'll never make a business man--I ain't sharp enough. But I +think five dollars is cheap enough for a dog that can tackle a burglar +and scare off tramps and pedlars--don't you?'" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +ONE DAY IN A MODEL CITY. + + +"I will tell you, to-day," said Miss Ruth, after the members of her +Society were quietly settled at their work, "about a race of little +people who lived thousands and thousands of years ago. When the great +trees were growing, out of which the coal we use was made, this race +inhabited the earth as they do now in great numbers. We know this +because their bodies are found perfectly preserved in pieces of coal and +amber. Amber, you know, is a kind of gum that drops from certain trees +and hardens, becoming very transparent and of a pretty yellow color. It +is supposed that the little creatures found imbedded in it came to +their death in running up the trunks of these trees, their feet sticking +in the soft gum, and drop by drop trickling down on them till they were +fast imprisoned in a beautiful transparent tomb. + +"I remember seeing once at a museum a small black ant preserved in +amber, and he looked so natural and lifelike, so like the ants we see +running about to-day, that it was hard to realize that he came to his +death so long, so very long ago; in fact, before this earth of ours was +ready for the creation of man. What strange sights those little +bead-eyes of his must have seen! + +"When our ancestors were rude barbarians, living in caves and in holes +they dug in the ground, the little people dwelt in cities built with +wonderful skill and ingenuity; and while our forefathers were leading a +rude, selfish life,--herding together, it is true, but with no organized +government or fixed principles of industry and good order, living each +one for himself, the strong oppressing the weak,--the little folks were +ruled by a strict civil and military code. They lived together as +brethren, having all things in common--were temperate, cleanly, +industrious, civilized. + +"Well, there are plenty of their descendants living all about us to-day, +and I want you to become better acquainted with them, for they are very +wise and cunning in their ways. Whenever you cross a meadow, or even +when you are walking on the public road, unless you take heed to your +steps, the chances are that you set your foot more than once on a little +heap of loose sand that we call an ant-hill. The next time you discover +the accident--I am sure you will not do it on purpose--wait a few +moments and see what will happen. What you have done is to block up the +main entrance to an underground city, sending a quantity of loose earth +down the avenue, which the inhabitants must at great labor remove. + +"Let us hope none of the little people were at that instant either +leaving or entering the city by that gate, for if so, they were either +killed outright or badly hurt. Soon you will see one and another citizen +pushing his way through the _dĂ©bris_, running wildly and excitedly +about, as though greatly frightened and distressed at the state of +things. Then more carefully surveying the ruins, apparently consulting +together as to what is best to be done, until, a plan of action having +been devised and settled upon, if you wait long enough, you will see a +band of workers in an orderly, systematic manner begin to repair the +damage. All this happens every time you tread on an ant-hill. If a +passing animal breaks down the embankment,--a horse or a cow,--of course +the injury done is much greater. In such a case every worker in the city +is put to hard labor till the streets are cleared, the houses rebuilt, +and all traces of the disaster removed. + +"I am sure you will be interested to know what goes on from morning till +night in one of these ant-cities, and I have written out on purpose to +read to you this afternoon an account of one day's proceedings. I call +my paper + + +LIFE IN AN ANT-HILL; OR, ONE DAY IN A MODEL CITY. + +"At sunrise the doors and gates were opened, and every body was awake +and stirring, from the queen in her palace to the servants who brought +in the meals and kept things tidy about the houses; and then, in +accordance with a good old custom handed down from generation to +generation, the first thing every body did on getting out of bed was to +take a bath. Such a washing and scrubbing and sponging off and rubbing +down as went on in every house, you can imagine. It made no difference +what kind of work one was going about,--plastering, brick-laying, or +digging of ditches,--like a sensible fellow, he went fresh and clean to +it every day. + +"Of course the queen-mother and the little princes and princesses, with +a palace full of servants to wait on them, had all these offices of the +toilet performed for them; but what do you think of common working +folks going about from house to house to help each other wash up for the +day? Fancy having a neighbor step in bright and early to wash your face +and hands for you, or give you a sponge-bath, or a nice dry rub! + +"After the wash came milking-time. Now, all the cows were pastured +outside the city, and the servants who had the care of them hurried off +as fast as they could, because the milk was needed for breakfast, +especially for the babies. A beautiful road led to the milking-ground, +broad and level, and so clean and well kept that not a stick or stone or +rut or mud-hole was to be found in it from beginning to end. And this +was true of all the streets and avenues, lanes and alleys, about the +city. + +"I don't know how they managed to keep them in such good +condition--whether they appointed street commissioners or a committee on +highways; but I wish those who have the care of the roads in Greenmeadow +would take a lesson from them, so that two little girls I know needn't +be kept from church so many Sundays in the spring because the mud is +deep at the crossings. + +"But I must tell you about the cows. There were a great many of them +quietly feeding in their pleasant pasture, and they were of several +different kinds. I don't know by what names their masters called them, +but I do know these gentle creatures were to them just what the pretty +Alderneys and Durhams are to us, and that they were treated with all the +kindness and consideration the wise farmer gives to his domestic +animals. There was one kind, a little white cow with queer crooked horns +and quite blind. These they made pets of, not putting them out to +pasture with the rest of the herd, but allowing them to walk the streets +and go in and out of the houses at their pleasure, treating them much as +we treat our cats and dogs. + +"While the milking was going on, every cow was stroked and patted and +gently caressed, and the good little creatures responded to this +treatment by giving down their milk without a kick or a single toss of +the horns. Such nice milk as it was--as sweet and as rich as honey! and +the babies who fed on it got as fat as little pigs. + +"By the time breakfast was over, the sun was well up, and all in the +city went about the day's business. There was much building going on, +for the place was densely populated and was growing rapidly. Great +blocks were rising, story upon story, every part going on at the same +time, with halls and galleries and closets and winding staircases, all +connected and leading into each other, after a curious and wonderful +fashion. Of course it took a great many workmen to construct these +buildings--carpenters, masons, bricklayers, plasterers, besides +architects and engineers; for the houses were all built on scientific +principles, and there were under-ground passages to be built that +required great skill and practical knowledge in their construction. + +"The mortar and bricks were made outside the city gates, and all day +gangs of workers journeyed back and forth to bring in supplies. They +were hurrying, bustling, busy, but in good order and at perfect +understanding with each other. If one stopped to exchange greetings with +an acquaintance, to hear a bit of gossip perhaps, or to tell the latest +news, he would pick up his load in a great hurry and start off at a +round trot, as though he meant to make up for lost time. More than one +overburdened worker was eased of a part of his load, some good-natured +comrade adding it to his own. Thousands of bricks and as many loads of +mortar were brought into the city by these industrious people every day, +and their work was done quietly, thoroughly, and with wonderful +quickness and precision. + +"All this while there was plenty of indoor work going on; and the +queen's body-guard, the babies' nurses, the attendants on the princes +and princesses, the waiters and tenders, the sweepers and cleaners--all +were as busy as you please. It was a pretty sight to see the nurses +bring the babies out-of-doors for a sun-bath. The plump little +things--some of them wrapped in mantles of white or yellow silk, others +with only their skins to cover them--were laid down in soft spots on the +grass, where they were watched with the tenderest care by their +foster-mothers. If they were hungry, they had but to open their mouths +and there was plenty of food ready for them. If so much as a breath of +wind stirred the grass, or a little cloud obscured the sun, every nurse +snatched a baby and scampered back with it to the nursery, lest it +should take cold. + +"At noon the queen, attended by her body-guard, made a royal progress +through the city. She was of a portly presence, had pretty silky hair, +and was dressed plainly in dark velvet. The little princesses wore +ruffles and silk mantillas, of all the colors of the rainbow; but the +queen-mother had far more important business to attend to than the +adornment of her person, and in her self-devotion to her commonwealth +had long ago, of her own free will, laid aside flounces and furbelows. +What a good motherly body she was! and how devoted her subjects were to +her! Every-where she went she was followed by an admiring crowd. No home +was too humble for her to enter, and under each roof she was received +with the liveliest demonstrations of loyalty and delight. The happy +people thronged about her. They skipped, they danced, they embraced +each other in their joy. At times it was hard to restrain them within +proper bounds of respect to the royal person; but the guard well +understood their duties. They watched her every step, shielding and +protecting her with respectful devotion. They formed a barrier about her +when she rested, offered her refreshment at her first symptom of +weariness, and presently conducted her in regal state back to the +palace, hastening her progress at the last, that she might be spared the +sight of a sad little cavalcade just then approaching the gate. + +"There had been an accident to the workers employed in excavating an +under-ground road. A portion of the earth-works had caved in, and two +unfortunates had been buried in the ruins. Their companions, after hours +of arduous and indefatigable labor, had succeeded in recovering the +bodies, and were bringing them home for burial; while a third +victim--still living, but grievously crushed and wounded--was borne +tenderly along, with frequent stoppages by the way as his weakness +required. A crowd of sympathizing neighbors and friends went out to meet +the wonderful procession. Strong, willing arms relieved the weary +bearers of their burden, and the sufferer was conveyed to his home, +where his poor body was cleansed, and a healing ointment of wonderful +efficacy and power applied to his wounds. Meanwhile the corpses were +decently disposed outside the gates, awaiting burial; graves were +prepared in the cemetery, and at sunset the funeral took place. + +"But the day was not to end with this sad ceremony; for at twilight a +sentinel ran in with the glad news that two well-beloved citizens, sent +on an embassy to a distant country, and who had remained so long away +that they had been given up for dead, were returning: in fact, were at +that moment coming up the avenue to the gate. Then was there great +rejoicing, the whole city turning out to welcome them; and the poor +travelers, footsore and weary, and ready but now to lie down and die by +the road-side, so spent were they by the perils and hardships they had +undergone, suddenly found themselves within sight of home, surrounded by +friends, companions, brothers, who embraced them rapturously, praising +them for their fortitude and bravery, pitying their present weakness, +caressing, cheering, comforting them. So they were brought in triumph +back to their beloved city, where a banquet was prepared in honor of +their return. + +"So general and engrossing was the interest felt in this event, that a +public calamity had well-nigh followed. The attendants on the princes +and princesses (usually most vigilant and faithful), in the excitement +of the occasion, forgot their charge, and the young folks instantly +seized the opportunity to rush out of the city by a side gate; and when +they were discovered were half-way across the meadow, and making for the +wood beyond. In this wood (very dark and dreary) great danger, possibly +death, would have overtaken them; but the silly things, impatient of the +wholesome restraint in which, by order of the government, they were held +till they should arrive at years of discretion, thought only of gaining +their freedom, and were pushing on at a great pace, frisking and +frolicking together as they went. They were, however, seen in time to +avert the catastrophe, speedily brought back to duty, and given +decidedly, though respectfully, to understand that, though scions of a +royal race, they were still to consider themselves under tutors and +governors. + +"Then all was quiet. The gates were closed, the good little people laid +themselves down to sleep, the sentinels began their watch, and night +settled down upon the peaceful city. Presently the moon rose, lighting +its single shapely dome, the deserted road lately trod-den by so many +busy feet, and the dewy meadow where the cattle were resting. + +"And now I wish we might say goodnight to the simple, kindly people +whose occupations we have followed for a day, leaving them in the +assurance that many such days were to follow, and that they were long to +enjoy the peace and prosperity they so richly deserved. How pleasant to +think of them building their houses, tending their flocks, taking care +of the little ones, waiting upon their good queen, in the practice of +all those virtues that make a community happy and prosperous! But, alas! +this very day the chieftains of a neighboring tribe had met and planned +an assault upon this quiet city that was to result in great loss of +property and life, and of that which to them was far more precious than +either. + +"There was not the shadow of an excuse for the invasion. The hill +people--a fierce, brave tribe, trained under a military government, and +accustomed to fighting from their youth--had no quarrel with the +citizens of the plain, who had no mind to fight with their neighbors or +to interfere with any one's rights. But the hill people were +slave-holders, and, whenever their establishments wanted replenishing, +they sent out an army to attack some neighboring city; and if they +gained the victory (as they were pretty sure to do, for they were a +fierce, brave race), they would rush into every house in the city and +carry off all the babies they could find, to be brought up as slaves. + +"And this is what they had planned to do to the pretty city lying asleep +in the moonlight on a July evening. + +"They started about noon--a large body of infantry, making a fine show; +for they wore polished armor as black as jet, that shone in the sun, and +every one of them carried a murderous weapon. The advance guard was +made up of the biggest and bravest, while the veterans, and the young +soldiers who lacked experience, brought up the rear. + +"They had a long wearisome march across a rocky plain and up a steep +hill. Then there was a river to cross, and on the other side a stretch +of desert land, where the hot sun beat upon their heads, and where it +must have been hard to keep up the rapid pace at which they marched. But +they pressed on, and woe to him who stumbled and fell! for not a soldier +was allowed to stop an instant to help his fallen comrade. The whole +army swept on and over him, and there was no straggling from the close +ranks or resting for one instant till the day's journey was +accomplished. + +"The last stage of the journey was through a dreary wood. Here they +were exposed to many unseen dangers. Beasts of prey sprang out upon and +devoured them. A big bird swooped down and carried aloft some poor +wretch whose fate it was to fill the hungry maw of a baby bird. And many +an unfortunate, getting entangled in a soft gray curtain of silk that +hung across the path, struggled vainly to extricate himself, till the +hairy monster which had woven the snare crept out of his den and cracked +his bones and sucked the last drop of his blood. + +"It was night when, weary and dusty, the army reached the borders of the +wood. But they forgot both their fatigue and their losses by the way +when they saw before them in the middle of a green meadow, its dome +glittering in the light of the setting sun, the pretty, prosperous city +they had braved all these dangers to rob. + +"They rested that night, but were on the march soon after sunrise. A few +rushed forward to surprise the sentinels on guard, while the main body +of the army advanced more slowly, in solid phalanx, their brave +coats-of-mail catching the early rays of the sun. + +"Meanwhile the peaceful inhabitants, all unconscious of coming disaster, +pursued their usual occupations--waiting on the queen-mother, milking +the kine, building houses, cleaning the streets. Then came the alarm: +'The foe is at the gate!' and you should have seen of what brave stuff +the little folks were made; how each one left his occupation or dropped +his implement of labor, and from palace, hall, and hut, ran out to +defend the beloved city. Only the queen's body-guard remained and a few +of the nurses left in charge of the babies. + +"And it was wonderful to mark how their courage gave them strength. +Their assailants were of a taller, stronger race than they; but the +little folks had the advantage in numbers, were quiet and light in their +movements, and possessed a double portion of the bravery good patriots +feel in the defence of the commonwealth. + +"They threw themselves face to face and limb to limb upon their +assailants. With their living bodies they raised a wall across the track +of the army, and, as they came once and again, and yet again, they drove +them back. Hundreds were slain at every onslaught, but hundreds +instantly filled their places. There were plenty of single combats. One +would throw himself upon his antagonist and cling there till he was cut +in pieces and fell to the ground, and another and another would spring +to take his place to meet the same fate. Dozens fought together--heads, +legs, and bodies intertwining in an indistinguishable mass, each held in +a savage grip that only loosened in death. A dozen devoted themselves to +certain death for the chance of killing a single antagonist. Surely such +desperate bravery, such generous heroism, deserved to gain a victory! + +"But there was a sudden rush, a break in the ranks, and, lo! the little +people were running back to the city,--back in all haste,--if, by any +possibility, they might save from the victor's clutch the treasures they +prized most. But what availed their efforts? The enemy was close behind +them, forcing their way through the main entrance and the side gates, +till the whole army was pouring into the devoted city. + +"Can you imagine the scene that followed? The queen-mother and the young +princes and princesses were left undisturbed in their apartments, but +into every other house in the city, the rude soldiers rushed, searching +for the poor babies. Many of them their nurses had hidden away, hoping +that in the confusion their hiding-places would not be discovered; but +the cunning fellows--old hands some of them at the business--seemed to +know just where to look. Hundreds and hundreds of little ones were +captured that day. The faithful attendants clasped and clung to them, +suffering themselves to be torn in pieces before giving them up, but the +sacrifice was in vain. + +"The moon shone down that night upon a ghastly scene. The dead and +dying strewed the ground, and the avenues leading to the city were +choked with the slain. Hundreds of homes were made desolate, that only +the night before were full of peaceful content. + +"Meanwhile, the conquering army, laden with spoils, after another +difficult and toilsome journey had reached their home. The captive +babies were consigned to the care of slaves, procured long ago in a +similar way, and who, apparently contented and happy, for they knew no +other life, devoted all their energies to the service of their captors. + +"Well, it is an old story. Ever since the world began the strong have +oppressed the weak,--and ants or men, for greed or gold, will do their +neighbors wrong." + +"Well," said Mollie, as Miss Ruth laid down the last sheet of her +manuscript, "if you hadn't told us beforehand that it was ants you were +going to read about I should certainly have thought they were people. +Don't they act for all the world just like folks? and who would ever +think such little creatures could be so wise!" + +"What I want to know," said Susie, "is, If the ant-cities are +underground, how can any one see what goes on in them?" + +"That is easily managed," Miss Ruth answered. + +"A nest is taken up with a quantity of the earth that surrounds it, then +it is cut down from the top--as you would halve a loaf of bread--and the +divided parts are placed in glass cases made purposely to receive them. +Of course, the little people are greatly disturbed for a time, and no +wonder; but they soon grow accustomed to the new surroundings and go on +with their every-day employments as if nothing had happened. The sides +of the case make a fine firm wall for their city; they are furnished +with plenty of food and building material, and soon they can be seen +busy at work clearing their streets, building houses, feeding the +babies, and quite contented and happy in their glass city. If, after +months of separation, an ant from one half of the divided nest should be +put into the other he would be recognized at once and welcomed with joy; +but if a stranger were introduced he would be attacked and probably +killed." + +"We had a great time with the ants at our house last summer," said Eliza +Jones: "little mites of red things, you know, and they _would_ get into +the cake-chest and the sugar-bucket, and bothered ma so she had to keep +all the sweet things on a table with its legs in basins of water. They +couldn't get over that, you see." + +"Why not?" Mollie asked. "Can't they swim?" + +"Ours couldn't; lots of them fell in the water and were drowned." + +"Ants are usually quite helpless in the water," Miss Ruth said, "though +a French writer who has made the little folks a study, tells a story of +six soldier ants who rescued their companions from drowning. He put his +sugar-basin in a vessel of water, and several adventurous ants climbed +to the ceiling and dropped into it. Four missed their aim and fell +outside the bowl in the water. Their companions tried in vain to rescue +them, then went away and presently returned accompanied by six +grenadiers, stout fellows, who immediately swam to their relief, seized +them with their pincers and brought them to land. Three were apparently +dead, but the faithful fellows licked and rubbed them quite dry, rolling +them over and over, stretching themselves on them, and in a truly +skillful and scientific manner sought to bring back life to their +benumbed bodies. Under this treatment three came to life, while one only +partly restored was carefully borne away. 'I have seen it' is Du Pont de +Nervours's comment on what he thinks may be considered a marvelous +story, though it seems no more wonderful to me than many well-attested +facts in the lives of the little people." + +"It's all wonderful," Susie said. "It seems as though they must think +and reason and plan just as we do. Don't you think so, Auntie?" + +"Indeed I do, Susie. One who has long studied their ways ranks them next +to man in the scale of intelligence, and says the brain of an ant--no +larger perhaps than a fine grain of sand--must be the most wonderful +particle of matter in the world." + +"But they can't talk, Auntie?" + +"I am not so sure of that. Their voices may be too fine and high-pitched +for our great ears to hear. I fancy there is a deal of conversation +carried on in the grass and the bushes and the trees, that we know +nothing about." + +"How funny! What did you mean, Auntie, when you said the queen laid off +all her flounces and furbelows." + +"I was rather fancifully describing her wings, dear, which she takes off +herself when she enters the nest, having no further use for them. There +are three kinds of ants in every nest: perfect males and females, and +the workers. There are many different races of ants, from the great +white ant of Africa--a terror to the natives, though in some respects +his good friend--down to the little red-and-yellow meadow ants so common +among us. The ants I have told you about, the Rufians and the Fuscans, +are natives of America, and are found in New England. The big black ant +so common here, sometimes called the jet ant, is a carpenter and a +wood-carver. His great jaws bore through the hardest wood, and his +pretty galleries and winding staircases penetrate through the beams and +rafters of many an old mansion. Not long ago I accidentally killed a +carpenter ant, and in a few minutes a comrade appeared who slowly, and +apparently with great labor and fatigue, bore away the body. I felt as +though I were looking on at a funeral. + +"I wish I had time to tell you about the agricultural ant of Texas, and +the umbrella ants of Florida, who cut bits of leaf from the orange-trees +and march home with them in procession, holding each leaf in an upright +position. Fancy how odd they must look! But we have talked long enough +for this time about the little people, and I am sure you all agree with +King Solomon that they are 'exceeding wise.'" + +"I never will step on an ant-hill again if I can possibly help it," said +Susie. "It's too bad to make those hard-working folks so much trouble. + +"And I mean to put my ear close down to the ground," said Nellie Dimock, +"and listen and listen, so as to hear the ants talk to each other." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE STORY OF OLD STAR. + + +"Say, Sam!" said Roy Tyler, as the two boys were driving old Brindle +home from pasture the next evening, "don't you wish she'd tell us some +stories about horses? I'm tired of hearing about cats and ants." + +"Well, I don't know," Sammy answered; "'twas funny about old Robber +Grim. There's just such an old cat round our barn, catchin' chickens and +suckin' eggs. I've fired more rocks at that feller--hit him once in the +hind leg an' he went off limpin'." + +"Well, I want a horse story, and I know she'd just as soon tell one as +not, if somebody would only ask her. Those girls will be wantin' +another cat story if we don't start something else. Girls always do like +cats," said Roy, a little scornfully. "Say, Sam, you ask her, will you?" + +"Why don't you ask her yourself?" + +"Oh, I don't know. I tried to yesterday, but somehow I couldn't get it +out." + +"Well, I'll tell you what I will do," said good-natured Sammy. "You come +round to-night after I get my chores done up, and we'll go together and +have it over with." + +"All right; I'll come," said Roy. + +They found Miss Ruth alone, for it was Thursday night and the minister's +family were at the prayer-meeting. The September evening was chilly, and +she was sitting before an open fire. + +"You do the talking," Roy whispered at the door, and accordingly Sammy, +after fidgeting in his seat a little, opened the subject. + +"Roy wants me to ask you," he began, and then stopped at a punch in the +side from Roy's knuckles, and began again: "Me and Roy would like--if it +wouldn't be too much trouble, and you'd just as soon as not--to have you +tell us a horse story next time." Then in a loud whisper aside to Roy: +"You _did_ ask me! You know you did." + +"Well, you needn't put it all on me, if I did," Roy answered, in the +same tone. + +Miss Ruth appeared not to notice this by-play. + +"A horse story," she said pleasantly; "yes, why not?" + +"You see," Sammy continued, "we like to hear about cats well enough, and +that ant battle was first-rate--I'd like to have seen it, I know; but +Roy, he says the girls might be writin' notes askin' you to tell more +cat stories and--and--well"-- + +"Yes, I see," she said; "too much of a good thing. Well, I will tell no +more cat stories, and it shall be all horse next Wednesday. Will that +suit you, Sammy? And Roy, do you like horses very much?" + +"Yes, 'm," said Roy, bashfully. + +"He says," said Sammy, rather enjoying the office of spokesman, "when he +grows up he means to have a fast trotter. I'd like to own a good horse +myself," continued Sam. + +"I know a boy about your age," said Miss Ruth, "whose father gave him, +for a birthday present, a Canadian pony; a funny looking little beast, +not much larger than a big dog, but strong enough to carry double +Herbert's weight." + +"Like the Shetland ponies at the show?" + +"Yes; but larger, and not so costly. He is a thick-set, shaggy fellow, +always looking as if he were not half-groomed, with his coat all rough +and tumbled, his legs covered with thick hair, his mane hanging on both +sides of his neck, and his forelock always getting into his bright +little eyes." + +"What color?" said Roy. + +"Dark brown; not handsome, but so affectionate and intelligent that you +would love him dearly. He is as frolicsome as a kitten, and I laughed +and laughed again to see him racing round the yard, hardly able to see +for the shag of hair tumbling over his eyes, playing queer tricks and +making uncouth gambols, more like a big puppy than a small horse. To be +sure he has a will of his own, and has more than once--just for +fun--thrown his young master over his head; but he always stands stock +still till the boy is on his back again, and as Herbert says: 'It is +only a little way to fall from his back to the ground.'" + +"How fast will he go?" Roy asked. + +"Fast enough for a boy to ride. From five to seven miles an hour, +perhaps, and keep it up all day, if need be, for the Canadian horses +have great strength and endurance. The last time I saw Herbert he told +me a pretty story about Elf King." + +"Is that his name?" + +"Yes; isn't it a pretty name? Elf for fairy, you know, and King for the +head of the fairies. But perhaps I am keeping you, boys. Is there any +thing you ought to be doing at home?" + +"No, no!" both answered together, and Sammy answered that he did up all +his chores before he came away. + +"Very well; then I will tell you about Elf King's visit to the +blacksmith." + +"Instead of next Wednesday?" + +"Oh, dear, no! I have a long story for next Wednesday. This is very +short, and doesn't count; is just a little private entertainment thrown +in on our own account." + +Roy, who had all this time sat uncomfortably on the edge of his chair, +settled back, and Sammy made use of his favorite expression:-- + +"All right!" + +"When Elf King came into Herbert's possession he had never been shod; +but very soon he was taken to the village blacksmith and four funny +little shoes fitted to his feet, which, when he was accustomed to, he +liked very much. + +"One day the blacksmith saw the pony trotting up to his shop without a +halter. He supposed the little thing had strayed from home, and drove +him off, and when he refused to go, threw stones at him to make him run +away. But in a few moments back he came again. When the blacksmith went +out a second time to drive him off he noticed his feet and saw that one +shoe was missing. So he made a shoe, the pony standing by, quietly +waiting. When the new shoe was fitted Elf King pawed two or three times +to see if it felt comfortable, gave a pleased little neigh, as much as +to say, 'Yes, that's all right; thank you!' and started for home on a +brisk trot. + +"Think how surprised and pleased Herbert was when he went to the stable +to ride Elf King to the blacksmith's, to find that the sharp little +pony had taken the business into his own hands." + +"I tell you," said Roy, "that's a horse worth having. What do you +suppose that boy would take for him?" + +"More money than you could raise in a hurry," said Sammy. "Miss Ruth, if +you had a horse now that jibbed, would you lick him?" + +"That jibbed," she repeated doubtfully. + +"Why, yes; stopped in the road, you know; wouldn't go." + +"Oh, yes; now I understand. No, indeed, Sammy! If I had a horse +that--jibbed, I should be very patient with him and try to cure him of +the bad habit by kindness. I should know that beating would make him +worse." + +"Well, that's what I think, and the other day pa and I were huskin' corn +in the barn, and there was a horse jibbed on our hill, and the driver +got down and licked him with the butt end of his whip, and kicked him +with his great cowhide boots, and I asked pa if I might take out a +measure of oats and see if I couldn't coax that horse to take his load +up the hill--you see pa owned a jibber once and I knew how he used to +manage him. And pa said I might, only I'd better look out or the fellow +would use me as he was usin' the horse. But I wasn't afraid, for he was +half-drunk, and I knew I could clip it faster'n he could. + +"Well, sir, I went out there and I stood around a while, and says I, +'What'll you bet I can't get your horse to the top of the hill?' And he +said he wouldn't bet a red cent. 'Well,' says I,'will you let me try +just for fun?' and he said, 'Yes, I might try all day if I wanted to.' +And I got him to stand one side, where the horse couldn't see him, and I +went up to the horse's head and stroked his nose and gave him a handful +of oats, just a little taste, you know, and when he was kind of calmed +down I went a ways ahead holdin' out the measure of oats, and if that +horse didn't follow me up that hill just as quiet as an old sheep, and +the man he stood by and looked streaked, I tell you!" + +Sammy told his story with considerable animation and some forcible +gestures. + +"That was well done," said Miss Ruth, "and I hope the cruel fellow +profited by the lesson you gave him. I don't think I'm naturally +vindictive, but when I see a man beating a horse I find myself wishing +I was strong enough to snatch the whip from him and lay it well about +his own shoulders. But come, boys, the fire is down to coals--just right +for popping corn. Sammy, you know the way to the kitchen. Ask Lovina for +the corn-popper and a dish, and, Roy, you'll find a paper bag full of +corn in the cupboard yonder. Quick, now, and we'll have the dish piled +by the time Susie and Mollie are back from meeting." + +"Haven't we had a gay old time," said Roy, on the way home, "and ain't +you glad I put you up to coming, Sam Ray?" And Sammy admitted that he +was. + + * * * * * + +"Now, girls and boys," said Miss Ruth, on the next Wednesday afternoon, +"I am going to take you on a long journey,--in fancy, I mean,--over the +hills and plains and valleys, to the country of the Far West, with its +rolling prairies and big fields of wheat and corn. You shall be set down +in a green meadow, with a stream running through it, shallow and clear +at this time of year, but a little later, when the September rains have +filled it, rushing along full of deep, muddy water. + +"Under a big oak in about the middle of the pasture you will find an old +horse feeding. He is fat and sleepy looking, and has a kind face, and a +white spot on his forehead. This is Old Star, Farmer Horton's +family-horse. You may pat his neck and stroke his nose and feed him a +cookie or a bit of gingerbread,--I am afraid the old fellow hasn't teeth +enough left to chew an apple,--and then you may sit near him on the +grass, and while I read aloud to you, fancy that he is talking, and, if +you have plenty of imagination, you will get + + +THE STORY OF OLD STAR, TOLD BY HIMSELF. + +"I hope nobody thinks I am turned out in this pasture because I am too +old to work. Horses pass here every day drawing heavy loads, older by +half a dozen years than I am, poor broken-down hacks too, most of them, +while I--well, if it wasn't for a little stiffness in the joints and a +giving out of wind, now and then, I can't see but what I'm as well able +to travel as I ever was. + +"The fact is, I never was put to hard work. There were always horses +enough besides me on the place to do the farm work and the teaming--Tom +and Jerry and the colt, you know; not Filly's colt: he died, poor +thing, before he was a year old, of that disease with a long name that +carried off so many horses all over the country: but a great shambling +big-boned beast old master swapped a yoke of steers for, over to Skipton +Mills. We called him Goliath, he was so tall: strong as an elephant, +too: a powerful hand at a horse-rake and mowing-machine. Well, well, how +time flies, to be sure! He's been dead and gone these five years, and +Tom and Jerry, they were used up long ago--there's a deal of hard work +to be done on a farm of this size, I can tell you; and as to Filly, she +came to a sad end, for she got mired down in the low pasture, and had to +be hauled out with ropes, poor critter, and died of the wet and the +cold. + +"Well, as I was saying, I never was put to hard work. I was born and +raised on the place, and I do suppose--though I say it, who +shouldn't--that I was an uncommon fine--looking colt, dark chestnut in +color, and not a white hair on me except this spot in my forehead that +gave me my name. When I was three months old, master made a present of +me to his oldest boy on his sixteenth birthday, and every half-hour +Master Fred could spare from his work, he used to spend in dressing down +and feeding me and teaching me cunning tricks. I could take an apple or +a lump of sugar from his pocket, walk down the slope behind the barn on +two legs, with my forefeet on his shoulders, and shake hands, old master +used to say, 'just like a Christian.' + +"Master Fred set great store by me, as well he might. He's traveled +hundreds of miles on my back over the prairies, and we've been out +together many a dark night when he'd drop the lines on my neck and say, +"Well, Star, go ahead if you know the way, for not one inch can I see +before my nose." That was after he learned by experience that I knew +better than he did where to go, and when to stop going. For he lost his +temper and called me hard names one night, when I stopped short in the +middle of the road and wouldn't budge an inch for voice or whip, with +the wind blowing a gale, and the rain coming down in bucketsful. But +when a flash of lightning showed the bridge before us clean washed away, +and only a few feet between us and the steep bank of the river, Master +Fred changed his tune. Afraid! not I; but I'm willing to own I _was_ a +little scared the day we got into the water down by Cook's Cove, for +you see I was hitched to the buggy and the lines got tangled about my +legs, and there were chunks of ice and lots of driftwood floating about, +and the current sucking me down; but master had got to shore and stood +on the bank calling, "This way, Star, this way!" and when I heard his +voice I--well, I don't know how I managed to do it, but I turned square +round and swam upstream with the buggy behind me, and got safe and sound +to land. I've heard Master Fred say my back was covered with +river-grass, and I trembled all over with the fright and the hard pull. + +"But, dear me, all that happened long ago when master was courting old +Tim Bunce's daughter Martha, down Stony Creek Road. How that girl did +take to me! She used to say she knew the sound of my hoofs on the road, +of a still night, when we were a mile away; and she'd say over a little +rhyme she'd got hold of somehow:-- + + 'Star, Star, good and bright, + I wish you may and I wish you might + Bring somebody to me I want to see to-night.' + +"If she said that twice, looking straight down the road, she told us we +were sure to come. She was a plump rosy-cheeked girl when Master Fred +brought her to be mistress here, though you mightn't think it to see her +now, what with the cooking and the dairy-work and raising a big family +of children. But if you want to know what mistress was like twenty years +ago, you've only to look at our Ada. + +"Now, there's a girl for you, as good as she is pretty, and getting to +be a woman grown; though I remember, as though it happened yesterday, +her mother's coming out one spring day to where I was nibbling grass in +the door-yard, with her baby in her arms, and holding up the little +thing to me, and saying, 'This is Ada, Star,--you must be good friends +with Ada,' Friends! I should say so. Before that child was a year old, +she used to cry to be held on my back for a ride, and when she was +getting better of the scarlet fever, she kept saying, 'Me 'ant to tee +ole 'Tar,' till, to pacify her, they led me to the open window of the +room where she lay, and she reached her mite of a hand from the bed to +stroke my nose and give me the lump of sugar she had saved for me under +her pillow. + +"Bless the child! And it was just so with all the rest, Tim and Martha +and Fred and Jenny and baby May--there was a new baby in that house +every year. Those young ones would crawl over me, and sit on me, when I +was lying down in the stable; ride me, three or four at a time, without +bridle or saddle, and cling to my neck and tail when there was no room +left on my back. They shared their apples and gingerbread with me, and +brought me goodies on a plate sometimes so that I might eat my dinner, +they said, 'like the rest of the folks,' I fetched them to and from +school, and trotted every day to the post-office and the Corners to do +the family errands; and when our Ada was old enough to be trusted to +drive, the whole lot of them would pile into the carryall, and away we +would go for a long ride, through the lanes and the shady woods that +border the pond, stopping a dozen times for the girls to clamber out and +pick the wild posies and for the boys to skip stones or wade in the +water. For _I_ was in no hurry to go on. There was plenty of tender +grass to be cropped by the roadside, and the young leaves of the maples +and white birch were sweet and juicy. + +"'Take good care of them, Star,' mistress used to say, standing in the +door-way to see us off; 'you have a precious load, but we trust you, +kind, faithful old friend,' + +"And so she might. I knew I must just creep down the hills with those +children behind me, and never stop for a drink at Rocky Brook, though I +were ever so thirsty, because of the sharp pitch down to the +watering-trough. And though from having been scared nearly to death, +when I was a colt, by a wheelbarrow in the road, I always _have_ to shy +a little when I see one, our Ada will tell you, if you ask her, that in +the circumstances, I behaved very well. + +"_She_ behaved well. She always chose the well-traveled roads, and gave +me plenty of room to turn. Once, I remember, they all wanted to take a +short cut by way of an old corduroy road; and though, if master had been +driving, I should have made no objection, and, as like as not, with a +little jolting and pitching, we should have got safe over, I didn't feel +like taking the responsibility, with all those young ones along, of +going that way; so I tried to make our Ada understand the state of my +mind, and after a while she did; for she said: 'Well, Star, if you don't +want to draw us over those logs, I'm not going to make you,' Now, wasn't +that sensible? + +"Well, if I was proud and happy to be trusted with master's family on +week-days, think how I must have felt of a Sunday morning in the summer +time, with mistress dressed in her silk gown, and our Ada in muslin and +pink ribbons, and the boys in their best clothes, and master riding +along-side on Tom or Jerry, all going to meeting together. I liked +hearing the bells ring, and I liked being hitched under the maple-trees, +with all the neighbors' horses to keep me company. We generally dozed +while the folks were indoors, and woke up brisk and lively, and started +for home in procession. + +"But, dear! dear! there came a time when, with five horses on the farm, +not one could be had to give the children a ride or to do a stroke of +work, when master had to foot it to the Corners, and the two steers, Old +Poke and Eyebright, dragged mistress and the children to meeting in the +ox-cart. + +"For we were all down with the epizoötic, coughing and sneezing enough +to take our heads off, and so sick and low, some of us, that we couldn't +stand in our stalls, and a man with a red face, Master Fred had over +from Skipton Mills, pouring nasty stuff down our throats, and making us +swallow big black balls of medicine that hurt as they went down--as if +we hadn't enough to suffer before! But our Jenny came to the stable with +a piece of pork-rind, and a bandage she'd made out of her little +red-flannel petticoat, and she wanted Master Fred to put it on my neck; +for, says she: 'That's what ma put on me when I had the sore +throat,'--the blessed child! + +"Well, we all pulled through except Filly's colt. He keeled over one +morning, poor fellow! and was dragged out and buried under the oaks in +the high pasture. But for some reason, I didn't pick up as quick as the +others. The cough held on, and I was pestered for breath, and I didn't +get back my strength; and what I ate didn't seem to fatten me up much, +for Master Fred says one day, laughing, 'Well, Old Star, we've saved +your skin and bones, and that's about all!' However, I got round again, +only my legs had a bad habit of giving way under me, without the least +bit of warning. + +"Our Ada did all she could to keep me up, holding a tight rein, and +saying, 'Steady, Star! steady!' when she saw any signs of stumbling. But +trying to keep from it seemed to make me do it all the more, and down I +would come on my poor knees and spill those children out of the wagon, +like blackberries from a full basket. + +"One day, after this had happened, master told our Ada she was not to +drive me any more, and before I had got over feeling bad about that, +there came some thing a great deal worse; for I was standing by the pump +in the backyard one day, and master and mistress were in the porch, and +I heard him tell her he had had an offer from Jones the milkman, to buy +me. 'Twould be an easy place, and he'd promised to treat me well, and +he'd about made up his mind to take up with it; for he couldn't afford +to keep a horse on the place that--well, I don't care to repeat the rest +of the speech. 'Twas rather hard on me, but I haven't laid it up against +master. Fact is, he had a deal to worry him about that time, for he was +disappointed in the wheat crop, and the heavy rains had damaged his +corn, and he was feeling mighty poor. + +"But mistress was up in arms in a minute. 'What, sell Star!' says she, +'our good, faithful Star, who's been in the family ever since you were a +boy! and to Ki Jones to peddle milk round Skipton Mills and Hull +Station! O pa!' says mistress, says she, 'have we got down so low as +that? Why 't would break our Ada's heart, and mine too, to see Star +hitched to a milk-cart. Rather than have you do that, says she, 'I'll go +in rags, and keep the children on mush and molasses;' and she put her +apron to her eyes. + +"'Well, well, don't fret!' says master,--and I thought he looked kind o' +ashamed,--'I haven't sold him yet I've a notion to turn him out to +grass a while, and see what that'll do for him,' So the next day he put +me in this pasture. + +"You see that plank bridge yonder, over the creek? That's where our Ada +fell into the water. Master has put up a railing, and made all safe +since the accident happened. 'T was a risky place always, though the +children have crossed it hundreds of times, and none of them ever +tumbled over before. + +"But I hadn't been here a week, when one sunshiny afternoon our Ada came +through the pasture, on her way to visit the sick Simmonses--there's +always some of that tribe down with the chills. She came running up to +me--her little basket, full of goodies, on her arm,--stopped to talk a +minute and feed me an apple, and then passed along, while I went on +nibbling grass, till I heard a scream and a splash, and knew, all in a +minute, she must have fallen off the plank bridge into the water. Dear! +dear! what was to be done? I ran to the fence, and looked up and down +the road. Some men were burning brush at the far end of the next field. +I galloped toward them, and back again to the creek, and whinnied and +snorted, and tried my best to make them understand that they were +needed; but they didn't appear to notice, and I just made up my mind, +that if any thing was done to save our Ada from drowning, I was the one +to do it. + +"I made my way through the alder-bushes down by the bank, to a place +where the current sets close in shore. At first I couldn't see any +thing, then all at once, there floated on the muddy water close to me, +the little red shawl she wore, then a hand and arm, and her white face +and brown hair all streaming. I caught at her clothes, and though Ada is +a stout girl of her age, and the wet things added a deal to her weight, +I lifted her well out of the water. I remember thinking, 'If only my +poor legs don't give out, I shall do very well,' And they didn't give +out, for when help came--it seems those men in the field _had_ noticed +me, and came to see what was the matter--they found me all in a lather +of sweat, and my eyes starting out of their sockets, but with my feet +braced against a rock, keeping our Ada's head and shoulders well above +water. + +"They got her home as quick as they could, and put her to bed between +hot blankets, and the next day she was none the worse for her ducking, +though she carried the print of my teeth in her tender flesh for many a +day; for how was I to know where the child's clothes left off and her +side began. + +"Of course they made a great fuss over me. Mistress came running to meet +me, and put both arms around my neck, and said: 'O Star, you have saved +our darling's life!' and the little ones hugged and kissed me, and the +boys took turns rubbing me down; and I stood knee deep in my stall that +night in fresh straw, and besides my measure of oats, had a warm mash, +three cookies, and half a pumpkin-pie for my supper. + +"But master only patted my neck, and said: 'Well done, Old Star!' Master +Fred and I always did understand one another. + +"There hasn't been any thing more said about selling me to Ki Jones. In +the winter I have a stall at the south side of the stable, where I get +the sun at my window all day, and in summer I live in this pasture, with +shady trees, and cool water, and grass and clover-tops in plenty. I have +nothing to do the live-long day, but to eat and drink and enjoy myself; +but I do hope folks passing along the road don't think I'm turned out in +this field because I'm too old to work." + +"Good-by, Old Star!" said Mollie, as her aunt laid down the paper. "We +are much obliged for your nice story, and we hope you'll live ever so +many years. I wouldn't hint for the world that you aren't as smart as +you used to be." + +"Isn't he rather a self-conceited old horse?" said Nellie Dimock. + +"Well, yes; but that is natural. I suppose he has been more or less +spoiled and petted all his life." + +"When he told about going to meeting," Fannie Eldridge said, "it +reminded me of a story mamma tells, of an old horse up in Granby, that +went to church one Sunday all by himself." + +"How droll! How did it happen, Fannie?" + +"Why, he belonged to two old ladies who went to church always, and +exactly at such a time every Sunday morning Dobbin was hitched to the +chaise and brought round to the front door and Miss Betsey and Miss +Sally got in and drove to church. But one Sunday something hindered +them, and Dobbin waited and waited till the bell stopped ringing and +all the other horses which attended church had gone by; and at last he +got clear out of patience, and started along without them. Mamma says +the people laughed to see him trot up to the church-door and down to the +sheds and walk straight into his own place, and when service was over +back himself out and trot home again." + +"What did Miss Betsey and Miss Sally do?" + +"Oh, they had to stay at home. When they came out they saw the old +chaise ever so far off, going toward the church, and they felt pretty +sure old Dobbin was going to meeting on his own account. That is a true +story Miss Ruth, every word of it--mamma says so." + +"Our old Ned cheated us all last summer," said Florence Austin, "by +pretending to be lame. He really was made lame, at first, one day when +mamma was driving, by getting a stone in his foot, and she turned +directly and walked him all the way back to the stable. But when William +had taken out the stone, he seemed to be all right, and the next +afternoon mamma and Alice and I started for a drive. We got about a mile +out of town, when all at once Ned began to limp. Mamma and Alice got out +of the phaeton, and looked his feet all over, for they thought may be he +had picked up another stone; but they couldn't see the least thing out +of the way, only that he limped dreadfully as if it half-killed him to +go. Well, there was nothing to be done but to give up our drive; for we +couldn't bear to ride after a lame horse!" + +"I can't either!" Mollie interjected. + +"Well, he had been lately shod, and our coachman thought that perhaps a +nail from one of the shoes pricked his foot, so he started to take him +to the blacksmith's. But don't you think, as soon as Ned knew that +William was driving, he started off at a brisk trot and wasn't the least +bit lame I but the next time mamma took him out, he began to limp +directly, and kept looking round as much as to say: 'How can you be so +cruel as to make me go, when you must see every step I take hurts me?' +But when mamma came home with him again, William said: 'It's chatin' you +he is, marm.'" + +"And what did your mother do?" + +"Well, as soon as she made up her mind that he was shamming, she took no +notice of his little trick, but touched him up with the whip, and made +him go right along. He knew directly that she had found him out. Oh, he +is _such_ a knowing horse! The other day Alice was leading him through +the big gate, to give him a mouthful of grass in the door-yard. Alice +likes to lead him about. When he stepped on her gown, and she held it up +to him all torn, and scolded him, she said: 'O Ned! aren't you ashamed +of yourself? how could you be so clumsy and awkward?' and she said he +dropped his head and looked so sorry and ashamed, as if he wanted to +say: 'Oh, I beg pardon! I didn't mean to do it,' that she really pitied +him, and answered as if he had spoken: 'Well, don't worry, Ned; it's of +no consequence,' Ned is such a pet. Papa got him in Canada, on purpose +for mamma and Alice to drive; and it was so funny when he first +came--he didn't understand a word of English, not even whoa. He belonged +to a Frenchman way up the country, and had never been in a large town, +and acted so queer--like a green countryman, you know, turning his head +and staring at all the sights. And it's lovely to see him play in the +snow. He was brought up in the midst of it, you know. When there's a +snow-storm he's wild to be out of the stable, and the deeper the drifts, +the better pleased he is. He plunges in and rolls over and over, and +rears and dances. Oh, it is too funny to see him! But I beg pardon, Miss +Ruth! I didn't mean to talk so long about Ned." + +"We are all glad to hear about him," she said, and Susie added that it +was very interesting. + +"My Uncle John owned a horse," said Roy Tyler, "that opened a gate and +a barn-door to get to the oat-bin, and he shut the barn-door after him +too. I guess you can't any of you tell how he did that!" + +"He jumped the gate, and shoved his nose in the crack of the door and +pried it open," said Sammy. + +"No, he didn't. That wouldn't be _opening_ the gate, would it?" Roy +retorted. "And how did he shut it after him?" + +"I think you had better tell us, Roy," said Miss Ruth. + +"Well, he reached over the fence, and lifted the latch with his teeth, +that's how he opened the gate; and he shut it by backing up against it +till it latched itself. Then he pulled out the wooden pin of the +barn-door, and it swung open by its own weight--see?" + +"Well, pa had a horse that slipped his halter and shoved up the cover +of the oat-bin, when he got hungry in the night and wanted a lunch," +said Sammy; "and I read about a horse the other day which turned the +water-tap when he wanted a drink, and pulled the stopper out of the pipe +over the oat-bin, just as he 'd seen the coachman do, so the oats would +come down, and"-- + +"But really now," Ruth Elliot, interrupted, "interesting and wonderful +as all this is, we must stop somewhere. I have another story to tell +you, about a minister's horse, but it can wait over till next week. Lay +aside your work, girls; it is past five o'clock." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +TUFTY AND THE SPARROWS. + + +Florence Austin came early to the Society the next Wednesday afternoon, +and found Miss Ruth on the piazza, + +"I am glad to see you, Florence," she said. "I was just wishing for a +helper. Mollie and Susie have gone on an errand, and I am alone in the +house, and here is a whole family in trouble that I can't relieve." + +"What is the matter?" said the little girl. + +"A baby bird has fallen out of the nest, and I am too lame to-day to +venture down the steps; and papa and mamma are in great distress, and +the babies in the nest half-starved, and can't have their dinner +because the old birds dare not leave poor chippy a moment lest some +stray cat should get him. See the little thing down there in the grass +just under the woodbine!" + +Florence descended the piazza-steps at two jumps, and was back with the +young bird in her hand. + +"Now where shall I put him, Miss Ruth?" + +Ruth Elliot pointed out the nest. It was in the thickest growth of the +woodbine, just over their heads; and when Florence had climbed in a +chair, she had her first look at a nest of young birds. The little city +girl was delighted. + +"How cunning!" she exclaimed. "Oh, how awfully cunning! four in +all--three of them with their mouths wide open. No wonder this little +fellow got pushed out. Here, you droll little specimen, crowd in +somewhere! He isn't hurt at all, for he seems as lively as any of them." + +As Florence jumped down from the chair, Susie and Mollie and the Jones +girls came up the walk. + +"What are you two doing?" Mollie called out. + +"Florence has just restored a lost baby to his distressed family," her +aunt answered. "Come into the house, girls, and let papa and mamma +Chippy get over their fright and look after the babies. Florence, I am +greatly obliged to you. I should have felt very sorry if harm had come +to the little one, for I have watched that nest ever since the old birds +began to build." + +The little girl replied politely that she was glad she had been of use. + +"I know what chippies' nests are made of," said Mollie: "fine roots and +fibers, and lined beautifully with soft fine hair," + +"Did you watch the birds while they were making it, Mollie?" + +"No; but one night after tea, when Auntie and Susie and I were playing +at choosing birds,--telling which bird we liked best and why, you +know,--papa came along and said: 'I choose the chirping sparrow for my +bird'; and when we laughed at him and called for his reasons (because +chippies are such insignificant things, you know, and no singers), he +told us he liked them because they were tame and friendly, and because +they built such neat, pretty nests; and he pulled an old nest he had +saved in pieces, and showed us how it was put together." + +"Yes," said Susie; "and the other reason he gave for liking them best +was, that they got up early and rang the rising-bell for all the other +birds. That was such a funny reason for papa to give, for we all know he +dearly loves his morning nap." + +"Really, now, do the chippies get up first in the morning?" said +Florence. + +"With the first peep of day," Miss Ruth answered. "This morning I heard +their cheerful twitter before a ray of light had penetrated to my room; +and a welcome sound it was, for it told me the long night was over. One +dear little fellow sang two or three strains before he succeeded in +waking any body; then a robin joined in, in a sleepy kind of way; then +two or three wrens, and then a cat-bird; and, last of all, my little +weather-bird, which, from the topmost branches of the elm-tree, warbled +out to me that it was a pleasant day. Oh, what a sweet concert they all +gave me before the sun rose!" + +"I never heard of a weather-bird, Aunt Ruth." + +"Your Uncle Charlie gave him that name, Susie, when we were children. +His true name is Warbling Verio; but we used to fancy the little fellow +announced what kind of day it would be. If clear he called out: +'Pleasant day!' three times over, with a pause between each sentence and +a long-drawn-out Yes at the close; or, if it rained, he said 'Rainy day' +or 'Windy day,' describing the weather, whatever it might be, always +with an emphatic _Yes_. + +"One day he talked to me, but it was not about the weather. Things had +gone wrong with me all the morning. I had spoken disrespectfully to my +grandmother, and had been so cross and impatient with baby Walter that +mother had taken him from me, though she could ill spare the time to +tend him. Then I ran through the garden to a little patch of woods +behind the house, and sat on an old log, in a very bad humor. + +"Presently, high above my head in the branches of the walnut-tree, the +weather-bird began his monotonous strain. I paid no attention to him at +first, I was so taken up with my own disagreeable thoughts, till it came +to me all at once that he was not telling me it was a pleasant day, +though the sun was shining gloriously and a lovely breeze rustled the +green leaves. What was it the little bird was saying over and over +again, as plain as plain could be? 'NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY +GIRL! Y-E-S.' + +"I rubbed my eyes and pinched my arm, to make sure I was awake; for I +thought I must have dreamed it. But no, there it was again, sweet, sad, +reproachful: 'NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! Y-E-S,' + +"I jumped up in a rage, and called it a horrid thing; and when it +wouldn't stop, but kept on reproaching me with my evil behavior, I could +bear it no longer, but put my fingers in my ears and ran back to the +house and up to my own room, where I cried with anger and shame. But +solitude and reflection soon brought me to a better state of mind; and, +long before the day was over, I had confessed my fault and was forgiven. +But though I wanted very much to see a new water-wheel Charlie set up +that afternoon in the brook, I dared not go through the wood to get to +it, lest that small bird should still be calling, 'Naughty girl! Y-e-s.' + +"Charlie grumbled the next morning when I wakened him out of a sound +sleep by shouting gayly from my little bed in the next room that his +weather-bird was calling, 'Pleasant day!' 'Why, what _should_ he call,' +he wanted to know, 'with the sun shining in at both windows?' + +"I never told my brother how the bird had given voice to my accusing +conscience, nor has the lesson ever been repeated; for from that day to +this the Warbling Verio has made no more personal remarks to me." + +"There's a bird down in Maine" said Ann Eliza Jones, "they call the +Yankee bird, 'cause he keeps saying, 'All day +whittling--whittling--whittling.'" + +"Yes; and the quails there always tell the farmers when they must hurry +and get in their hay," said her sister. "When it's going to rain they +sing out: 'More wet! more wet!' and 'No more wet!' when it clears off." + +"Aunt Ruth," said Mollie, "please tell us about the funny little bantam +rooster who used to call to his wife every morning: 'Do--come +out--n-o-w!'" + +"Very well; but we are getting so much interested in this bird-talk that +we are making rather slow progress with our work. Suppose we all see how +much we can accomplish in the next ten minutes." + +Upon this Mollie caught up the block lying in her lap, Florence +re-threaded her needle, Nellie Dimock hunted up her thimble, which had +rolled under the table, and industry was the order of the day. + +And while they worked, Miss Ruth told the story of + + +THE WIDOW BANTAM. + +"She belonged to our next-door neighbor, and we called her the Widow +because her mate--a fine plucky little bantam rooster--was one day slain +while doing battle with the great red chanticleer who ruled the +hen-yard. + +"I took pity on the little hen in her loneliness, and singled her out +from the flock for special attention. She very soon knew my voice, would +come at my call, and used to slip through a gap in the fence and pay me +a visit every day. If the kitchen door were open she walked in without +ceremony; if closed, she flew to the window, tapped on the glass with +her bill, flapped her wings, and gave us clearly to understand that she +wished to be admitted. Once inside, she set up a shrill cackling till I +attended to her wants, and scolded me at the top of her voice if I kept +her long waiting. When she had eaten more cracked corn and Indian meal +than you would think so small a body could contain, she walked about in +a slow, contented way, and was ready for all the petting we chose to +give her. + +"She was a pretty creature, with a speckled coat and a comb the color of +red coral: very small, but lively and vigorous, and exhibiting in all +her movements both grace and stateliness. She would nestle in my lap, +take a ride on my shoulder, and walk the length of my arm to peck at a +bit of cake in my hand, regarding me all the while with a queer +sidelong glance, and croaking out her satisfaction and content. When she +was ready to go she walked to the kitchen door, and asked in a very +shrill voice to be let out. She continued these visits till late in the +fall, when she was shut up with the rest of our neighbor's flock for the +winter. + +"One bitter cold day in January we heard a faint cackle outside, and, +opening the kitchen door, found our poor widow in a sorry plight. One +foot was frozen, her feathers were all rough and dirty, her wings +drooping, her bright comb changed to a dull red. How she escaped from +the hen-house, surmounted the high fence, and hobbled or flew to our +door, we did not know; but there she was, half-dead with hunger and +cold. + +"We did what we could for her. I bathed and bandaged the swollen foot, +and made a warm bed for her in a box in the shed, from which she did not +offer to stir for many days. I fed her with bits of bread soaked in warm +milk, and Charlie said, nursed and tended her as if she had been a sick +baby. She was very gentle and patient, poor thing! and allowed me to +handle her as I pleased, always welcomed my coming with a cheerful +little cackle, and, as she got stronger, trotted after me about the shed +and kitchen like a pet kitten. + +"In the spring, when she was quite well again, I restored her to her +rightful owner. Perhaps she had grown weary of her solitary life, for +she seemed delighted to rejoin her old companions; but every day she +made us a visit, and at night came regularly to roost in the shed. + +"One morning we heard two voices instead of one outside our window, and +behold! Mrs. Bantam had taken another mate--a fine handsome fellow, so +graceful in form and brilliant in plumage that we at once pronounced him +a fit companion to our favorite hen. They were evidently on the best of +terms, croaking and cackling to each other, and exchanging sage opinions +about us as we watched them from the open door. I am sure she must have +told him all about her long illness the previous winter, and pointed me +out as her nurse, for he nodded and croaked and cast sidelong looks of +friendly regard in my direction. + +"But when Mrs. Bantam came into the kitchen for her luncheon she could +not induce Captain Bantam to follow. In vain she coaxed and cackled, +running in and out a dozen times to convince him there was nothing to +fear. He would not believe her nor budge one inch over the door-sill. +She lost patience at last, and rated him soundly; but as neither coaxing +nor scolding availed, and she was eating her meal with a poor relish +inside, while he waited unhappily without, we settled the difficulty by +putting the dish on the door-step, where they ate together in perfect +content. + +"But a more serious trouble came at bed-time, for Mrs. Bantam expected +to roost as usual in the shed, while the Captain preferred the old +apple-tree where the rest of the flock spent their nights. The funny +little couple held an animated discussion about it which lasted far into +the twilight--and neither would yield. The Captain was very polite and +conciliatory. He evidently had no mind to quarrel: but neither would he +give up the point. He occasionally suspended the argument by a stroll +into the garden, where, by vigorous scratching, he would produce a +choice morsel, to which he called her attention by an insinuating 'Have +a worm, dear?' She never failed to accept the offering, gulping it down +with great satisfaction, but was too old a bird to be caught by so +shallow a trick, for she would immediately return to her place by the +shed window, and resume her discourse. When she had talked herself +sleepy she ended the contest for that night by flying through the window +and settling herself comfortably in the old place, while the Captain +took his solitary way across the garden and over the fence to the +apple-tree. + +Every night for a week this scene occurred under the shed window; then, +by mutual consent, they seemed to agree to go their several ways without +further dispute. About sunset the Captain might be seen politely +escorting his mate to her chosen lodging-house, and, after seeing her +safely disposed of for the night, quietly betaking himself to his roost +in the apple-tree. + +"He was at her window early every morning crowing lustily. Charlie and I +were sure he said: 'Do--come--out--now! Do--come--out--n-o-w!' and were +vexed with the little hen for keeping him waiting so long. But his +patience never failed; and, when at last she flew down and joined him, a +prouder, happier bantam rooster never strutted about the place. All day +long he kept close at her side, providing her with the choicest tidbits +the garden afforded, and watching her with unselfish delight while she +swallowed each dainty morsel. In the middle of the day they rested under +the currant-bushes, crooning sleepily to each other or taking a quiet +nap. + +"One day we missed them both, and for three weeks saw them only at +intervals, Mrs. Bantam always coming alone, eating a hurried meal, and +stealing away as quickly as possible; while the Captain wandered about +rather dejectedly, we thought, in the society of the other hens. + +"But one bright morning we heard Mrs. Bantam clucking and calling with +all her old vigor; and there she was at the kitchen-door, the prettiest +and proudest of little mothers, with three tiny chicks not much larger +than the baby chippies you saw in the nest, Florence, but wonderfully +active and vigorous for their size. We named them Bob and Dick and +Jenny, and, as they grew older, were never tired of watching their +comical doings. Their mother, too, afforded us great amusement, while we +found much in her conduct to admire and praise. She was a fussy, +consequential little body, but unselfishly devoted, and ready to brave +any danger that threatened her brood. Charlie and and I learned more +than one useful lesson from the bantam hen and her young family. + +"One of these lessons we put into verse, which, if I can remember, I +will repeat to you. We called it + + +CHICKEN DICK THE BRAGGER. + + 'Scratch! scratch! + In the garden-patch, + Goes good Mother Henny; + Cluck! cluck! + Good luck! Good luck! + Come, Bob and Dick and Jenny! + + A worm! a worm! + See him squirm! + Who comes first to catch it! + Quick! quick! + Chicken Dick, + You are the chick to snatch it! + + "Peep! peep! + While you creep, + My long legs have won it! + Cuck-a-doo! + I've beat you! + Don't you wish you'd done it?" + + Dick! Dick! + That foolish trick + Of bragging lost your dinner; + For while to crow + You let it go, + Bob snatched it up--the sinner! + + Bob! Bob! + 'T was wrong to rob + Your silly little brother, + And in the bush + To fight and push, + And peck at one another. + + But Bobby beat, + And ate the treat.-- + Dear children, though you're winners, + Be modest all; + For pride must fall, + And braggers lose their dinners.' + +"And now I will tell you an adventure of young Dick's, in which a habit +he had of crowing on all occasions proved very useful to him. He grew to +be a fine handsome fellow, and was sold to a family who lived on the +meadow-bank. + +"There was a big freshet the next autumn, the water covering the meadows +on both sides of the river, and creeping into cellars and yards and +houses. It came unexpectedly, early one morning, into the enclosure +where Dick, with his half-dozen hens, was confined, and all flew for +refuge to the roof of the neighboring pig-pen. But the incoming flood +soon washed away the supports of the frail building, and it floated +slowly out into the current to join company with the wrecks of +wood-piles and rail fences, the spoils from gardens and orchards, in the +shape of big yellow pumpkins and rosy apples, bobbing about in the +foaming muddy stream, and all the other queer odds and ends a freshet +gathers in its course. + +"From his commanding position, Dick surveyed the scene, and thought it a +fitting occasion to raise his voice. He stretched himself to the full +height of his few inches, flapped his wings, and crowed--not once or +twice, but continually. Over the waste of waters came his shrill +'Cock-a-doodle-doo!' All the cocks along the shore answered his call; +all the turkeys gobbled, and the geese cackled. His vessel struck the +heavy timber of a broken bridge, and lurched and dipped, threatening +every moment to go to pieces. The waves splashed and drenched them, and +the swift current carried them faster and faster down to the sea. It was +all Dick and his little company could do to keep their footing, and +still the plucky little fellow stood and crowed. + +"A neighbor who was out in his boat gathering drift-wood, recognizing +Dick's peculiar voice, went to the rescue, and, taking this strange +craft in tow, brought the little company, with their gallant leader, +drenched and draggled but still crowing lustily, safe to land. + +"And that is all I can tell you about Dick, for it is five o'clock, and +time to put up our work." + +"I like every kind of bird," said Florence Austin at the next meeting of +the Society, "except the English sparrows. They are a perfect nuisance!" + +"Why, what harm do they do?" Nellie asked. + +"Harm!" said Florence; "you don't know any thing about it here in the +country. We had to cut down a beautiful wisteria-vine that climbed over +one side of our house because the sparrows would build their nests in +it, and made such a dreadful noise in the morning that nobody on that +side of the house could sleep. And they drive away all the other birds. +We used to have robins hopping over our lawn, and dear little +yellow-birds used to build their nests in the pear-trees; but since the +sparrows have got so thick, they have stopped coming. My father says the +English sparrow is the most impudent bird that ever was hatched. He +actually saw one snatch away a worm a robin had just dug up. I believe I +hate sparrows!" + +"I don't," said Nellie. "I have fed them all winter. They came to the +dining-room window every morning, and waited for their breakfast; and a +funny little woodpecker, blind of one eye, came with them sometimes." + +"They do lots of good in our gardens," said Mollie, "digging up grubs +and beetles. Papa told us so." + +"There's nobody in this world so bad," said Susie, sagely, "but that you +can find something good to say about them." At which kindly speech Aunt +Ruth smiled approval. + +"I think," she said, "this will be a good time to tell you a story +about an English sparrow and a canary-bird I will call it + + +TUFTY AND THE SPARROW. + +"One morning in April a young canary-bird whose name was Tufty escaped +through an open window carelessly left open while he was out of his +cage, and suddenly found himself, for the first time in his life, in the +open air. He alighted first on an apple-tree in the yard, and then made +a grand flight half-way to the top of the elm-tree. + +"The sun was bright and the air so still that the light snow which had +fallen in the night yet clung to the branches and twigs of the tree, and +Tufty examined it with interest, thinking it pretty but rather cold as +he poked it about with his bill, and tucked first one little foot, and +then the other, under him to keep it warm. Presently he heard an odd +little noise below him, and, looking down, saw on the trunk of the tree +a bird about his own size, with wings and back of a steel-gray color, a +white breast with a dash of dull red on it, and a long bill, with which +he was making the noise Tufty had heard by tapping on the tree. + +"'Good-morning!' said Tufty, who was of a friendly and social +disposition, and was beginning to feel the need of company. + +"'Morning!' said the woodpecker, very crisp and shorthand not so much as +looking up to see who had spoken to him. + +"If you had heard this talk you would have said Tufty called out: 'Peep! +peep!' and the woodpecker--but that's because you don't understand +bird-language. + +"'What are you doing down there?' said Tufty, continuing the +conversation. + +"'Getting my breakfast,' said the woodpecker. + +"'Why, I had mine a long time ago!' said Tufty. + +"He didn't in the least understand how that knocking on the tree was to +bring Mr. Longbill's morning meal; but he was afraid to ask any more +questions, the other had been so short with him. + +"Just then he heard a hoarse voice overhead saying, 'Come along! come +along!' and, looking up, saw a monstrous black creature sailing above +the tops of the trees. It was only a crow on his way to the swamp, and +he was trying to hurry up his mate, that always would lag behind in that +corn-field where there wasn't so much as a grain left; but Tufty, which +by this time you must have discovered was a very ignorant bird, thought +the black monster was calling _him_, and piped back feebly: 'I can't! I +can't!' and was all of a tremble till Mr. Crow was quite out of sight. + +"He sat quiet, looking a little pensive, for the fact was, he was +beginning to feel lonely, when there flew past him a flock of brown +birds chirping and chattering away at a brisk rate. 'Now for it!' +thought Tufty, 'here's plenty of good company;' and he spread his wings +and flew after them as fast as he could. But he could not keep up with +them, but, panting and weary, alighted on the roof of a house to rest. +And here he saw such a pretty sight; for on a sunny roof just below him +were two snow-white pigeons. One was walking about in a very +consequential way, his tail-feathers spread in the shape of a fan, and +turning his graceful neck from side to side in quite a bewitching +fashion. Just as Tufty alighted, the pretty dove began to call: 'Come, +dear, come! Do, dear, do!' in such a sweet, soft, plaintive voice, as if +his heart would certainly break if his dear _didn't_ come, that Tufty, +who in his silly little pate never once doubted that it was he the +lovely white bird was pining for, felt sorry to disappoint him, and +piped back: 'Oh, if you please, I should like to ever so much! but you +see I must catch up with those brown birds over there;' and, finding his +wind had come back to him, he flew away. The pigeon, which had not even +seen him, and had much more important business to attend to than to +coax an insignificant little yellow-bird, went on displaying all his +beauties, and crooning softly, 'Do, dear! do! do! do!' + +"Tufty had no trouble in finding the brown birds, for long before he +came to the roof of the barn where they had alighted he heard their loud +voices in angry dispute; and they made such an uproar, and seemed so +fractious and ill-tempered, that Tufty felt afraid to join them, but +lingered on a tree near by. + +"Presently one of them flew over to him. She was a young thing--quite +fresh and trim-looking for a sparrow. + +"'Good-morning!' she said, hopping close to him and looking him all over +with her bright little eyes, + +"'Good-morning!' said Tufty, as brisk as you please. + +"'Now, I wonder where you come from and what you call yourself,' said +the sparrow. 'I never saw a yellow-bird like you before. How pretty the +feathers grow on your head!' and she gave a friendly nip to Tufty's +top-knot. + +"Tufty thought she was getting rather familiar on so short an +acquaintance, but he answered her politely, told her his name, and that +he came from the house where he had always lived, and was out to take an +airing. + +"'I want to know!' said the sparrow. 'Well, my name is Brownie. Captain +Bobtail's Brownie, they call me, because Brownie is such a common name +in our family. It's pleasant out-of-doors, isn't it? Oh, never mind the +fuss over there!'--for Tufty's attention was constantly diverted to the +scene of the quarrel--'they are always at it, scolding and fighting. +Come, let's you and I have a good time!' + +"'What is the fuss about?' said Tufty. + +"'A nest,' said Brownie, contemptuously. 'Ridiculous, isn't it? Snow on +the ground, and not time to build this two weeks; but you see, _he_ +wants to keep the little house on top of the pole lest some other bird +should claim it, and _she_ wants to build in the crotch of the +evergreen, and the neighbors are all there taking sides. She has the +right of it--the tree is much the prettier place; but dear me! she might +just as well give up first as last, for he's sure to have his +way--husbands are such tyrants!' said Captain Bobtail's Brownie, with a +coquettish turn of her head; 'but come, now, what shall we do?' + +"'I'm too cold to do any thing,' said Tufty, dolefully. + +"The sun was hidden by a cloud and a cold wind was blowing, and the +house-bird, accustomed to a stove-heated room, was shivering. + +"'Take a good fly,' said Brownie; 'that will warm you,' + +"'But I'm hungry,' piped Tufty. + +"'All right!' said Brownie. 'I know a place where there's a free lunch +set out every day for all the birds that will come--bread-crumbs, seeds, +and lovely cracked corn. Come along! you'll feel better after dinner,' + +"So they flew, and they flew, and Brownie was as kind as possible, and +stopped for a rest whenever Tufty was tired, and chatted so agreeably +and pleasantly, that before they reached their journey's end Tufty had +quite fallen in love with her. Then, too, the sun was shining again, +and the brisk exercise of flying had set the little bird's blood in +motion, so that he was warm again, but oh, so hungry! + +"They came at last to a brown cottage with a broad piazza, and it was on +the roof of this piazza that a feast for the birds was every day spread. +But as they flew round the house Tufty became very much excited. + +"'Stop, Brownie!' he cried; 'let me look at this place! Surely I've been +here before. That red curtain, that flower-stand in the window, +that--Oh! oh! there's my own little house! Why, Captain Bobtail's +Brownie, you've brought me home!' + +"Now, all this time Tufty's mistress had been in great trouble. As soon +as she discovered her loss she ran out-of-doors, holding up the empty +cage and calling loudly on her little bird to return. But he was high up +in the elm-tree watching the woodpecker, and, if he heard her call, paid +no attention to it. Very soon he flew after the sparrows, and she lost +sight of him. Not a mouthful of breakfast could the poor child eat. + +"'I shall never see my poor little Tufty again, mamma!' she said. 'I saw +him flying straight for the swamp, and he never can find his way back!' +and she cried as if her heart would break. + +"In the middle of the forenoon her brother Jack called to her from the +foot of the stairs:-- + +"'What will you give me, Kittie,' he said, 'if I will tell you where +Tufty is?' + +"'O Jack! do you know? Have you seen him? Where? where?' cried the +little girl, coming downstairs in a great hurry. + +"'Be quiet!' said Jack. 'Now, don't get excited; your bird is all right, +though I'm sorry to say he's in rather low company,' And he led her to +the dining-room window that looked into the garden, and there, sure +enough, was Tufty on a lilac-bush. Brownie was there too. She was +hopping about and talking in a most earnest and excited manner. It was +easy to see that she was using all her powers of persuasion to coax +Tufty not to go back to his old home, but to help her build a little +house out-of-doors, where they could set up housekeeping together. + +"Kittie knew just what to do. She ran for the cage and for a sprig of +dried pepper-grass (of all the good things she gave her bird to eat, he +liked pepper-grass best), and, standing in the open door-way, called: +'Tufty! Tufty!' He gave a start, a little flutter of his wings, and +then, with one glad cry of recognition, and without so much as a parting +look at poor Brownie, flew straight for the door, and alighted on the +top of his cage. + +"'How strangely things come about, mamma?' Kittie said that evening as +they talked over this little incident. 'Jack has laughed at me all +winter for feeding the sparrows, and called them hateful, quarrelsome +things, and said I should get nicely paid next summer when they drove +away all the pretty song-birds that come about the house. And now, don't +you see, mamma, one of the sparrows I have fed all winter--I knew her +right away by a funny little dent in her breast--has done me such good +service? Why, I am paid a hundred thousand times over for all I have +ever done for the sparrows.'" + +"And what became of poor Brownie?" Nellie asked. "I almost hoped Tufty +would stay out with her, she was such a good little sparrow." + +"She lingered about the garden for a while, making a plaintive little +noise; but when the family of Brownies came to dinner she ate her +allowance, and flew away with them, apparently in good spirits. But +Tufty moped for a day or two, and, as long as he lived, showed great +excitement at the sight of a flock of sparrows; and it is my private +opinion that, if a second opportunity had been given him, Kittie Grant's +Tufty would have gone off for good and all with Captain Bobtail's +Brownie." + +Susie Elliot walked part of the way home with Florence Austin, and the +two little girls, who were fast becoming intimate friends, talked over +the events of the afternoon. + +"How much your auntie knows about animals and birds!" said Florence; +"she seems almost as fond of them as if they were people." + +"Yes," Susie answered; "she was always fond of pets, papa says; and, +ever since she has been ill, she has spent a great deal of time watching +them and studying their ways. I think it makes her forget the pain," + +"Is it the pain that keeps her awake at night, Susie? You know she said +this afternoon she was glad to hear the chippy-birds, because then she +knew the long night was over; and she looked so white, and couldn't get +down those three little easy steps to pick up the baby-bird. But she +walks about the garden sometimes with a crutch, doesn't she?" + +"Oh, yes! and she's better than when she first came here to live, only +she never can be well, you know. Today is one of her poor days; but she +used to be so ill that she was hardly ever free from pain. You never +would have known it, though, she was always so cheerful and doing +something to give us good times." + +"Can't she ever be made well, Susie? There's doctors in town, you know, +who cure _every thing_," said the little girl. + +Susie shook her head. + +"Papa says she has an incurable disease;" and then seriously--"I think +if Jesus were here he would put his hands on auntie and make her well." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +PARSON LORRIMER'S WHITE HORSE. + + +"And now for the story of the minister's horse," Mollie Elliot said, +when Miss Ruth's company of workers had assembled on the next Wednesday +afternoon. "I suppose he was an awfully good horse, which set an example +to all the other horses in the parish to follow. Say, Auntie, wasn't +he?" + +"When my grandmother was a little girl," Ruth Elliot began, "she lived +with her father and mother in a small country town among the New +Hampshire hills: and of all the stories she told in her old age about +the quiet simple life of the people of Hilltown, the one her +grandchildren liked best to hear was + + +THE STORY OF PARSON LORRIMER'S WHITE HORSE. + +"Parson Lorrimer had lived thirty years in Hilltown before he owned a +horse. He began to preach in the big white meeting-house when he was a +young man, and, as neither he nor his people wanted a change, when he +was sixty years old he was preaching there still. It was a scattered +parish, with farm-houses perched on the hill-sides and nestled in the +valleys; and the minister, in doing his work, had trudged over every +mile of it a great many times. He made nothing of walking five miles to +a meeting on a December evening, with the thermometer below zero, or of +climbing the hills in a driving snow-storm to visit a sick parishioner. +He was a tall, spare man, healthy and vigorous, with iron-gray hair, a +strong kind face, and a smile in his brown eyes that made every baby in +Hilltown stretch out its arms to him to be taken. + +"Not a chick or child had Parson Lorrimer of his own. He had never +married, but lived in the old parsonage, a stately mansion, with rooms +enough in it to accommodate a big family, with only an elderly widow and +her grown-up son to minister to his wants and to keep him company. His +study was at the back of the house, and looked out upon the garden and +orchard, so that the smell of his pinks and roses came to him as he +wrote, and the same robins, year by year, built their nests within reach +of his hand in the branches of the crooked old apple-tree that shaded +his window. + +"The minister was fond of caring for living creatures, both small and +great, and every domestic animal about the place knew it. The cat +jumped fearlessly to his knee, sure of a welcome. The cow lowed after +him if he showed himself at the window. The little chicks fluttered to +his shoulder when he appeared in the door-yard, and the old sow with her +litter of pigs kept close at his heels as he paced the orchard, +pondering next Sunday's sermon. + +"He remembered them all. There was always a handful of grain for the +chickens in the pocket of his study-gown, a ripe pumpkin in the shed for +Sukey; and the good man would laugh like a school-boy, as the funny +little baby-pigs rolled and tumbled over each other for the apples he +tossed them. A great, good, gentle man, learned and wise in theology and +knowledge of the Scriptures, with tastes and habits as simple as a +child. + +"But I must hurry on with my story, or you will think I am telling you +more about the parson than his horse. The good man realized, one day, +that he was not as young as he used to be, and that climbing Harrison +Hill on a July afternoon and walking five miles in a drizzling rain +after a preaching service were not so easy to do as he had found them a +dozen years before. So he wisely concluded to call in the aid of four +strong legs in carrying on his work, and that is how he came to buy a +horse. + +"The people of Hilltown heartily approved of this plan, and several were +anxious to help him. + +"Deacon Cowles had a four-year-old colt, raised on the farm, 'a real +clever steady-goin' creetur, that he guessed he could spare--might be +turned in for pew-rent;' and Si Olcott didn't care if he traded off his +gray mare on the same conditions. She was about used up for farm-work, +but had considerable go in her yet--could jog round with the parson for +ten years to come. + +"The minister received these offers with politeness, and promised to +think of them; and then one day after a brief absence from home, set +every body in the parish talking, by driving into town seated in an open +wagon, shining with fresh paint and varnish, and drawn by a horse the +like of which had never been seen in Hilltown before. + +"He was of a large and powerful build, and most comely and graceful in +proportion, with a small head, slender legs, and flowing mane and tail. +In color, he was milk-white, while his nose and the inside of his +pointed ears were of a delicate pink. He held his head high, stepping +proudly and glancing from side to side in a nervous, excited way; but he +had a kind eye, and the watching neighbors saw him take an apple from +the hand of his new master, after they turned in at the parsonage gate. +In answer to all questions, the parson said he had purchased the horse +at Winterport, of a seafaring man, that he was eight years old, and his +name was Peter. But to neither man nor woman in Hilltown did he ever +tell the sum he paid in yellow gold and good bank-notes for the white +horse, + +"A few days after the purchase, Parson Lorrimer attended a funeral, and +when the service at the house was ended, and he had shaken hands all +round with the mourners, and exchanged greetings with neighbors and +friends, he stepped out to the side-yard, where he had fastened his +horse, and drove round the house to take his place before the hearse; +for in Hilltown it was the custom for the minister to lead the +procession to the burying-ground. + +"It was Peter's first appearance in an official capacity, and he stepped +with sufficient dignity into the street, where a long line of wagons and +chaises, led off by the mourners' coach and the big black hearse, waited +the signal to start, while in the door-yard and along the sidewalk were +ranged the foot-passengers; for at a funeral in Hilltown everybody went +to the grave. + +"A passing breeze caught a piece of paper lying in the road, and +flirted it close to Peter's eyes. He gave a tremendous leap sideways, +and it was a marvel no one was struck by his flying heels, then +gathering himself together he ran. How he did run! The good folks +scattered right and left with amazing quickness, considering their +habits of life; for in the slow little town, every body took things fair +and easy, and the white horse dashed past the string of wagons, the +mourners' equipage, and the tall black hearse. There was a cloud of +dust, a rattling of wheels, a clatter of hoofs, and Peter and the parson +were far down the road. The people gazed after their departing spiritual +guide in speechless astonishment. The mourners' heads were thrust far +out of the coach windows. Even the sleepy farm-horses pricked up their +ears: while old Bill, the sexton's clumsy big-footed beast, which for +fifteen years had carried the dead folks of Hilltown to their graves, +and had never before been known, on these solemn occasions to depart +from his slow walk, made a most astonishing departure; for, taking his +driver unawares, he suddenly started after the flying white steed, +breaking into a lumbering gallop, that set plumes nodding, curtains +flapping, and glasses rattling, and made the huge unwieldly vehicle +lurch and bob about in a way to threaten a shocking catastrophe. + +"A vigorous twitch of the lines, and a loud 'Whoa, now, Bill! Whoa, I +tell ye!' soon brought the sexton's beast to a stand-still. I am sure he +must have shared his master's surprise at such unseeming conduct, who +wondered 'What in time had got into the blamed crittur!' But neither +voice nor rein checked Peter's speed. On he flew, down the hill past the +post-office, the meeting-house, and the tavern. It was a straight road, +and his driver kept him to it. Fortunately there were no collisions, and +at the last long ascent his pace slackened and he turned of his own +accord in at the parsonage gate. + +"At the village store and the tavern that evening, Peter's evil behavior +was talked about. + +"'He's a sp'iled horse,' Jonathan Goslee, the minister's hired man, +said, 'though you can't make parson think so. He's dead sure to run +ag'in. A horse knows when he's got the upper hand, jest as well as a +child, and he'll watch his chance to try it over ag'in, you see if he +don't.' + +"But the next time Peter shied and tried to run, it was the minister +who got the upper hand; and when the short excitement was over, and the +horse quiet and subdued, he was driven back to within a few paces of the +object of his fright. A neighbor was called to stand at his head, while +his master took down the flaming yellow placard that had caused all the +trouble, and slowly and cautiously brought it to him, that he might see, +smell, and touch it, talking soothingly to him and petting and caressing +him. When he had become accustomed to its appearance, and had learned by +experience that it was harmless, it was nailed to the tree again and +Peter passed it the second time without trouble. + +"'If I'd owned the horse,' the minister's helper said, when he told this +story, 'I s'pose I should have _licked_ him by,--but I guess, in the +long run, parson's way was best.' + +"This was one of many lessons Peter received to correct his only serious +fault. He was willing and swift, intelligent and kind, but so nervous +and timid, and made so frantic by his fear of any unknown object, that +he was constantly putting the minister's life and limbs in jeopardy. But +he had a wise, patient teacher, and he was apt to learn. + +"My grandmother was fond of telling some of the means adopted to bring +about the cure;--how one day after Peter had shied at sight of a +wheelbarrow, the parson trundled the obnoxious object about the yard for +half an hour in view of the stable window, then emptied a measure of +oats in it, and opened the stable door; how the horse trotted round and +round, drawing each time a little nearer, then came close, snorted and +wheeled,--his master standing by encouraging him by hand and +voice,--until, unable longer to resist the tempting bait, he put his +pink nose to the pile and ate first timidly, then with confidence. After +that, the old lady said, Peter felt a particular regard for wheelbarrows +in general, hoping in each one he happened to pass to find another +toothsome meal. + +"He suffered at first agonies of terror at sight of the long line of +waving, flapping garments he had to pass every Monday in his passage +from the big gate to the stable; but, through the minister's devices, +grew so familiar with their appearance, that he took an early +opportunity of making their closer acquaintance, and mouthed the +parson's ruffled shirt, and took a bite of the Widow Goslee's dimity +short-gown. + +"And so the kindly work went on. Peter gained trust and confidence every +day, learning little by little that his master was his friend, that +under his guidance no harm came to him, no impossible task was given to +him; until at length confidence cast out fear, and the white horse +became as docile and obedient as he had always been willing and strong. + +"These qualities, on one occasion, stood him in good stead; for the +parsonage barn and stable one night burned to the ground. Peter's stall +was bright with the red light of the fire, and the flames crackled +overhead in the barn-loft when the parson led out his favorite, +trembling in every limb, his eyes wild with terror, but perfectly +obedient to his master's hand. It was as if he had said: 'I must go, +even through this dreadful fire, if master leads the way.' + +"There was a Fourth of July celebration in the next parish, and Parson +Lorrimer was invited to deliver the oration. He rode over on horseback, +took the saddle from Peter's back, and turned him loose in a pasture +where other of the guests' horses were grazing. A platform was erected +on the green, with seats for the band, the invited guests, and the +speaker of the day; while the people gathered from both parishes were +standing about in groups waiting for the exercises to commence. Flags +were flying, bells ringing, and a field-piece, that had seen service in +the War of the Revolution, at intervals belched out a salute in honor of +the day. The band was playing a lively tune, when suddenly there was a +stir and a dividing to the right and left of the crowd gathered about +the stand, and through the lane thus formed came the minister's white +horse. + +"He trotted leisurely up, stopped before the platform, and made a bow, +then began to dance, keeping time to the music, and going round and +round in a space quickly cleared for him by the lookers-on. I don't know +whether it was a waltz the band was playing, or if horses were taught to +waltz so long ago; but whatever kind of dance it was,--gallopade, +quickstep, or cotillion,--Peter, in his horse-fashion, danced it well. +Faster and faster played the music, and round and round went the pony. +The people laughed and shouted, and Peter made his farewell bow and +trotted soberly out of the ring, in the midst of a great shout of +applause. + +"How did Parson Lorrimer feel? Of all that amused and wondering crowd, +not one was more taken by surprise than he--both at this exhibition of +Peter's accomplishments and at the tale it told of his early days; for +it was impossible to doubt that at some time in his life he had been a +trained horse in a circus. From the field near by he had recognized the +familiar strains that used to call him to his task, and had leaped the +fence and made his way to where the crowd was gathered, to play his +pretty part on the village green, before the sober citizens of +Centerville and Hilltown, as he had played it hundreds of times before, +under the canvas, to the motley crowd drawn together by the attractions +of the ring. + +"Of course the minister felt sorry and ashamed when he learned, in this +public way, of the low company Peter had kept in his youth. Whenever a +traveling circus had stopped at Winterport, Parson Lorrimer had not +failed to warn his young people from the pulpit to keep their feet from +straying to this place of sinful amusement. But mingled with his +chagrin, I think he must have felt a little pride in the ownership of +the beautiful creature, so intelligent to remember, and so supple of +limb to perform, the unaccustomed task. + +"He took pains to narrate more fully than he had thought necessary +before, how he had come in possession of the animal. He had gone, he +said, on business to Winterport, and on the wharf, early one morning, +had met a man in the dress of a sailor leading the white horse. In +answer to inquiries, the stranger said he had taken the horse In payment +of a debt, and was about to ship him on board a trading-vessel then +lying in the dock, bound to the East Indies. Would he sell, the minister +asked, on this side of the water? Yes, if he could get his price. While +they talked, Parson Lorrimer caressed the horse, who responded in so +friendly a way that the minister, who had lost his heart at first sight +to the beautiful creature, then and there made the purchase, waiting +only till the banks were open to pay over the money. He had asked few +questions; had known, he said, by Peter's eyes that he was kind, and by +certain unmistakable marks about him that he came of good stock. Of the +stranger, he had seen nothing from that day, and could not even remember +his name. + +"'I always knew,' Jonathan Goslee said, 'that the critter had tricks +and ways different from common horses, I've catched him at 'em +sometimes. One day I found him with his bran-tub bottom upwards, amusin' +himself tryin' to stand with all four legs on it at once. And he'll +clear marm's clothes-line at a leap as easy as you'd jump over a pair of +bars. But I never happened to catch him practisin' his +dancin'-lesson--must have done it, though, on the sly, or he couldn't +have footed it so lively that day over to Centerville. Well, sometimes I +think--and then ag'in I don't know. If that there sailor feller stole +the horse he sold in such a hurry to parson, why didn't the owner make a +hue and cry about it, and follow him up? 'Twould have been easy enough +to track the beast to Hilltown. And then ag'in, if 'twas all fair and +square, and he took the horse for a debt, why didn't he sell him to a +show company for a fancy price, instead of shippin' him off to the Indys +in one of them rotten old tubs, that as like as not would go under +before she'd made half the voyage. But there, we never shall get to the +bottom facts in the case, any more than we shall ever know how much +money parson paid down for that horse,' + +"And they never did. + +"My grandmother remembered Parson Lorrimer as an old man, tall and +straight, with flowing white hair, a placid face, and kind, dim eyes +that gradually grew dimmer, till their light faded to darkness. For the +last four years of his life he was totally blind, She remembered how he +used to mount the pulpit-stairs, one hand resting upon the shoulder of +his colleague, and, standing in the old place, with lifted face and +closed eyes, carry on the service, repeating chapter and hymns from +memory, his voice tremulous, but still sweet and penetrating. + +"She remembered going to visit the old man in his study. It was +summer-time, and he sat in his arm-chair at the open window, and on the +grass-plat outside--so near that his head almost touched his master's +shoulder--the old white horse was standing; for they had grown old +together, and together were enjoying a peaceful and contented old age. +Every bright day for hours Peter stood at the window, and in the +winter-time, when he was shut in his stable, the old man never failed to +visit him. + +"But one November afternoon, Parson Lorrimer being weary laid himself +down upon his bed, where presently the sleep came to him God giveth to +his beloved. + +"The evening after his funeral a member of the household passing the +study-door was startled at seeing in the pale moonlight a long, ghostly +white face peering in at the window. + +"It was only Peter, that had slipped his halter and wandered round to +the old place looking for his master. He allowed them to lead him back +to his stable, but every time the door was opened he whinnied and turned +his head. As the days passed and the step he waited for came no more, +hope changed to patient grief. His food often remained untasted; he +refused to go out into the sunshine; and so, gradually wasting and +without much bodily suffering, he one day laid himself down and his life +slipped quietly away. + +"He was buried outside the grave-yard, at the top of the hill, as near +as might be to the granite head-stone that recorded the virtues of 'Ye +most faithful Servant and Man of God Silus Timothy Lorrimer Who for 52 +Yrs did Minister to This Ch and Congregation in Spiritual Things. + + 'The faithful Memory of The Just + Shall Flourish When they turn To Dust.' + +"Peter has no head-stone to mark his grave, but his memory is green in +Hilltown. The old folks love to tell of his beauty, his intelligence, +and his life-long devotion to his master; and there is a tradition +handed down and repeated half-seriously, half in jest, that when +Gabriel blows his trumpet on the resurrection morning, and the dead in +Hilltown grave-yard awake, Parson Lorrimer will lead his flock to the +judgment riding on a white horse." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE QUILTING. + + +The patchwork quilt was finished. The pieces of calico Miss Ruth from +week to week had measured and cut and basted together, with due regard +to contrast and harmony of colors, were transformed into piles of +gay-colored blocks; the blocks multiplied and extended themselves into +strips, and the strips basted together had kept sixteen little hands +"sewing the long seam" for three Wednesday afternoons. And now it was +finished, and the quilting had begun. + +Miss Ruth had decided, after a consultation with the minister's wife, +that the girls might do this most important and difficult part of the +business. She wanted the gift to be theirs from beginning to end--that, +having furnished all the material, they should do all the work. How +pleased and proud they were to be thus trusted, you can imagine, while +the satisfaction they took in the result of the summer's labor repaid +their leader a hundred-fold for her share in the enterprise. + +Never was a quilt so admired and praised. Of all the odds and ends the +girls had brought in, Ruth Elliot had rejected nothing, not even the +polka-dotted orange print in which Mrs. Jones delighted to array her +baby or the gorgeous green-and-red gingham of Nellie Dimock's new apron. + +It took two long afternoons of close work for the girls (not one of whom +had ever quilted before) to accomplish this task; but they did it +bravely and cheerfully. There were pricked fingers and tired arms and +cramped feet, and the big dictionary that raised Nellie Dimock to a +level with her taller companions must have proved any thing but an easy +seat; but no one complained. + +Let us look in upon the Patchwork Quilt Society toward the close of this +last afternoon. + +"I was sewing on this very block," Mollie Elliot is saying, leaning back +in her chair to survey her work, "when Aunt Ruth was telling us how +Captain Bobtail's Brownie brought Tufty home. + +"That pink-and-gray block over there in the corner," said Fannie +Eldridge, pointing with her needle, "was the first one I sewed on. I +made awful work with it, too; for when Dinah Diamond set herself on +fire with the kerosene lamp I forgot what I was about, and took ever so +many long puckery stitches that had to be picked out," + +"If I should sleep under that bed-quilt," said Sammy Ray (Sammy and Roy +had been invited to attend this last meeting of the Society), "what do +you suppose I should dream about?" + +No one could imagine. + +"A white horse and a yellow dog," the boy said, "'cause I liked those +stories best." + +"Yes," said Mollie; "and of course Nellie Dimock would dream about cats, +wouldn't you, Nell? and Roy Tyler about moths and butterflies, and +Florence Austin about birds, and I--well, I should dream of all the +beasts and the birds Aunt Ruth has told us about, all jumbled up +together." + +"I shall always remember one thing," Nellie Dimock said, "when I think +about our quilt." + +"What is that, Nellie?" + +"Not to step on an ant-hill if I can possibly help it, because it blocks +up the street, and the little people have to work so hard to cart away +the dirt." + +"I ain't half so afraid of worms as I used to be," Eliza Ann Jones +announced, "since I've found out what funny things they can do; and next +summer I'm going to make some butterflies out of fennel-worms," + +"Roy says," Sammy began, and stopped; for Roy was making forcible +objections to the disclosure. + +"Well, what does Roy say?" Miss Ruth asked, knowing nothing of the kicks +administered under the table. + +"He won't let me tell," said Sammy. + +"He's always telling what I say," said Roy. "Why don't he speak for +himself?" + +"Well, I never!" said Sammy. "I thought you was too bashful to speak, +and so I'd do it for you." + +"What was it, Roy?" + +"Why, I said, when I owned a horse, if he should happen to shy, you +know, I'd cure him of it just as that minister cured Peter." + +Here there was a pushing back of chairs and a stir and commotion, for +the last stitch was set to the quilting. Then the binding was put on, +and the quilt was finished; but the September afternoon was finished +too, and Lovina Tibbs lighted the lamps in the dining-room before she +rang the bell for tea. + +Lovina had exerted herself in her special department to make this last +meeting of the Society a festive occasion. She gave to the visitors +what she called "a company supper"--biscuits deliciously sweet and +light, cold chicken, plum-preserves, sponge-cake, and for a central dish +a platter containing little frosted cakes, with the letters "P.Q.S." +traced on each in red sugar-sand. + +When the feast was over, one last-admiring look given to "our quilt" and +the girls and boys had all gone home, Susie and Mollie sat with their +mother in Miss Ruth's room. + +"Auntie," said Susie, who for some moments had been gazing thoughtfully +in the fire, "I have been thinking how nice it would be if, when our +quilt goes to the home missionary, all the interesting stories you have +told us while we were sewing on it could go too. Then the children in +the family would think so much more of it--don't you see? I wish there +was some way for a great many more boys and girls to hear those +stories." + +"Why, that's just what Florence Austin was saying this afternoon," said +Mollie. "She said she wished all those stories could be printed in a +book." + +"You hear the suggestion, Ruth," Mrs. Elliot said. + +But Ruth smiled and shook her head, + +"They are such simple little stories," said she. + +"For simple little people to read--'for of such is the kingdom of +heaven.' Think, Ruth, if, instead of one Eliza Jones 'making butterflies +out of fennel-worms' next summer, and in that way getting at some +wonderful facts far more effectively than any book could teach her, +there should be a dozen, aria perhaps as many boys resolving, like Roy, +to use kindness and patience instead of cruelty and force in their +dealings with a dumb beast. But you know all this without my preaching. +Ten times one make ten, little sister." + +"If I thought my stones would do good," she said. + +"Come, I have a proposition to make," said the minister's wife. "You +shall write out the stories--you already have some of them in +manuscript--and I will fill in with the doings of the Patchwork Quilt +Society. Do you agree?" + +And that is how this book was written. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +The Girl Chum's Series + +ALL AMERICAN AUTHORS. +ALL COPYRIGHT STORIES. + +A carefully selected series of books for +girls, written by popular authors. These +are charming stories for young girls, well +told and full of interest. Their simplicity, +tenderness, healthy, interesting motives, +vigorous action, and character painting will +please all girl readers. + +HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING. +PRICE, 60 CENTS. + +BENHURST, CLUB, THE. By Howe Benning. + +BERTHA'S SUMMER BOARDERS. By Linnie S. Harris. + +BILLOW PRAIRIE. A Story of Life in the Great West. By Joy Allison. + +DUXBERRY DOINGS. A New England Story. By Caroline B. Le Row. + +FUSSBUDGET'S FOLKS. A Story For Young Girls. By Anna F. Burnham. + +HAPPY DISCIPLINE, A. By Elizabeth Cummings. + +JOLLY TEN, THE; and Their Year of Stories. By Agnes Carr Sage. + +KATIE ROBERTSON. A Girl's Story of Factory Life. By M.E. Winslow. + +LONELY HILL. A Story For Girls. By M.L. Thornton-Wilder. + +MAJORIBANKS. A Girl's Story. By Elvirton Wright. + +MISS CHARITY'S HOUSE. By Howe Benning. + +MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS. A Story For Young Girls. By Mary Spring Corning. + +MISS MALCOLM'S TEN. A Story For Girls. By Margaret E. Winslow. + +ONE GIRL'S WAY OUT. By Howe Benning. + +PEN'S VENTURE. By Elvirton Wright. + +RUTH PRENTICE. A Story For Girls. By Marion Thorne. + +THREE YEARS AT GLENWOOD. A Story of School Life. By M. E. Winslow. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York + + * * * * * + +The Girl Comrade's Series + +ALL AMERICAN AUTHORS. ALL COPYRIGHT STORIES. + +A carefully selected series of books for girls, written by popular +authors. These are charming stories for young girls, well told and full +of interest. Their simplicity, tenderness, healthy, interesting motives, +vigorous action, and character painting will please all girl readers. + +HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING. PRICE, 60 CENTS. + +A BACHELOR MAID AND HER BROTHER. By I.T. Thurston. + +ALL ABOARD, A Story For Girls. By Fanny E. Newberry. + +ALMOST A GENIUS. A Story For Girls. By Adelaide L. Rouse. + +ANNICE WYNKOOP, Artist. Story of a Country Girl. By Adelaide L. Rouse. + +BUBBLES. A Girl's Story. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +COMRADES. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +DEANE GIRLS, THE. A Home Story. By Adelaide L. Rouse. + +HELEN BEATON, COLLEGE WOMAN. By Adelaide L. Rouse. + +JOYCE'S INVESTMENTS. A Story For Girls. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +MELLICENT RAYMOND. A Story For Girls. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +MISS ASHTON'S NEW PUPIL. A School Girl's Story. By Mrs. S.S. Robbins. + +NOT FOR PROFIT. A Story For Girls. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +ODD ONE, THE. A Story For Girls. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +SARA, A PRINCESS. A Story For Girls. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York + + * * * * * + +THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS SERIES + +By CAROLYN JUDSON BURNETT + +Handsome Cloth Binding + +_Splendid Stories of the Adventures of a Group of Charming Girls_ + +THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS' VACATION ADVENTURES; or, Shirley Willing +to the Rescue. + +THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS' CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS; or, A Four Weeks' +Tour with the Glee Club. + +THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS; or, Shirley Willing on a +Mission of Peace. + +THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS ON THE WATER; or, Exciting Adventures on a +Summer's Cruise Through the Panama Canal + + * * * * * + +THE MILDRED SERIES + +By MARTHA FINLEY + +Handsome Cloth Binding + +_A Companion Series to the Famous "Elsie" Books by the Same Author_ + +MILDRED KEITH + +MILDRED AT ROSELANDS + +MILDRED AND ELSIE + +MILDRED'S MARRIED LIFE + +MILDRED AT HOME + +MILDRED'S BOYS AND GIRLS + +MILDRED'S NEW DAUGHTER + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York. + + * * * * * + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRL SERIES + +By HILDEGARD G. FREY. The only series of stories for Camp Fire Girls +endorsed by the officials of the Camp Fire Girls' Organization. Handsome +Cloth Binding. Price, 60 Cents per Volume. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The Winnebagos go Camping. + +This lively Camp Fire group and their Guardian go back to Nature in a +camp in the wilds of Maine and pile up more adventures in one summer +than they have had in all their previous vacations put together. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL; or, The Wohelo Weavers. + +How these seven live wire girls strive to infuse into their school life +the spirit of Work, Health and Love and yet manage to get into more than +their share of mischief, is told in this story. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT ONOWAY HOUSE; or, The Magic Garden. + +Migwan is determined to go to college, and not being strong enough to +work indoors earns the money by raising fruits and vegetables. The +Winnebagos all turn a hand to help the cause along and the "goingson" at +Onoway House that summer make the foundation shake with laughter. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS GO MOTORING; or, Along the Road That Leads the +Way. In which the Winnebagos take a thousand mile auto trip. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS LARKS AND PRANKS; or, The House of the Open Door. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The Trail of the Seven +Cedars. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD; or, Glorify Work. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over the Top with the +Winnebagos. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or, The Christmas Adventure at +Carver House. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN; or, Down Paddles. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York + + * * * * * + +The AMY E. BLANCHARD Series + +Miss Blanchard has won an enviable reputation as a writer of short +stories for girls. Her books are thoroughly wholesome in every way and +her style is full of charm. The titles described below will be splendid +additions to every girl's library. Handsomely bound in cloth, full +library size. Illustrated by L.J. Bridgman. Price, 60 cents per volume, +postpaid. + +THE GLAD LADY. A spirited account of a remarkably pleasant vacation +spent in an unfrequented part of northern Spain. This summer, which +promised at the outset to be very quiet, proved to be exactly the +opposite. Event follows event in rapid succession and the story ends +with the culmination of at least two happy romances. The story +throughout is interwoven with vivid descriptions of real places and +people of which the general public knows very little. These add greatly +to the reader's interest. + +WIT'S END. Instilled with life, color and individuality, this story of +true love cannot fail to attract and hold to its happy end the reader's +eager attention. The word pictures are masterly; while the poise of +narrative and description is marvellously preserved. + +A JOURNEY OF JOY. A charming story of the travels and adventures of +two young American girls, and an elderly companion in Europe, It is not +only well told, but the amount of information contained will make it a +very valuable addition to the library of any girl who anticipates +making-a similar trip. Their many pleasant experiences end in the +culmination of two happy romances, all told in the happiest vein. + +TALBOT'S ANGLES. A charming romance of Southern life. Talbot's Angles +is a beautiful old estate located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The +death of the owner and the ensuing legal troubles render it necessary +for our heroine, the present owner, to leave the place which has been in +her family for hundreds of years and endeavor to earn her own living. +Another claimant for the property appearing on the scene complicates +matters still more. The untangling of this mixed-up condition of affairs +makes an extremely interesting story. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent prepaid on receipt of price by the +publishers + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York + + * * * * * + +The Boy Allies +(Registered in the United States Patent Office) +With the Navy + +By ENSIGN ROBERT L. DRAKE + +Handsome Cloth Binding, Price 60 Cents per Volume + +Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, young American lads, meet each other +in an unusual way soon after the declaration of war. Circumstances place +them on board the British cruiser "The Sylph" and from there on, they +share adventures with the sailors of the Allies. Ensign Robert L. Drake, +the author, is an experienced naval officer, and he describes admirably +the many exciting adventures of the two boys. + +THE BOY ALLIES ON THE NORTH SEA PATROL; or, Striking the First Blow at +the German Fleet. + +THE BOY ALLIES UNDER TWO FLAGS; or, Sweeping the Enemy from the Seas. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE FLYING SQUADRON; or, The Naval Raiders of the +Great War. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE TERROR OF THE SEA; or, The Last Shot of +Submarine D-16. + +THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE SEA; or, The Vanishing Submarine. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALTIC; or, Through Fields of Ice to Aid the +Czar. + +THE BOY ALLIES AT JUTLAND; or, The Greatest Naval Battle of History. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH UNCLE SAM'S CRUISERS; or, Convoying the American +Army Across the Atlantic. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE SUBMARINE D-32; or, The Fall of the Russian +Empire. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE VICTORIOUS FLEETS; or, The Fall of the German +Navy. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d St., New York + + * * * * * + +The Boy Allies With +(Registered in the United States Patent Office) +the Army + +By CLAIR W. HAYES + +Handsome Cloth Binding, Price 60 Cents per Volume + +In this series we follow the fortunes of two American lads unable to +leave Europe after war is declared. They meet the soldiers of the +Allies, and decide to cast their lot with them. Their experiences and +escapes are many, and furnish plenty of the good, healthy action that +every boy loves. + +THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE; or, Through Lines of Steel. + +THE BOY ALLIES ON THE FIRING LINE; or, Twelve Days Battle Along the +Marne. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS; or, A Wild Dash Over the +Carpathians. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN THE TRENCHES; or, Midst Shot and Shell Along the +Aisne. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN GREAT PERIL; or, With the Italian Army in the Alps. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN; or, The Struggle to Save a +Nation. + +THE BOY ALLIES ON THE SOMME; or, Courage and Bravery Rewarded. + +THE BOY ALLIES AT VERDUN; or, Saving France from the Enemy. + +THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES; or, Leading the American +Troops to the Firing Line. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH HAIG IN FLANDERS; or, The Fighting Canadians of +Vimy Ridge. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH PERSHING IN FRANCE; or Over the Top at Chateau +Thierry. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE GREAT ADVANCE; or, Driving the Enemy Through +France and Belgium. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH MARSHAL FOCH; or, The Closing Days of the Great +World War. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d St., New York + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Miss Elliot's Girls, by Mrs Mary Spring Corning + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14610 *** diff --git a/14610-h/14610-h.htm b/14610-h/14610-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..988f383 --- /dev/null +++ b/14610-h/14610-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4603 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Miss Elliot's Girls, by Mrs. Mary Spring Corning. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .poem span.i20 {display: block; margin-left: 20em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14610 ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" +alt="Cover Illustration" +title="Cover Illustration" /> +</div> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" +alt=""What's the matter?" said Charlie. "A great, horrid +green worm," said I." +title=""What's the matter?" said Charlie. "A great, horrid +green worm," said I." /> +</div> +<h3>"What's the matter?" said Charlie. "A great, horrid +green worm," said I.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS</h1> +<h3>STORIES OF</h3> +<h3>BEASTS, BIRDS, AND BUTTERFLIES</h3> + +<h2>By MRS. MARY SPRING CORNING</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/002.jpg" +alt="" +title="" /> +</div> + + +<h5>A.L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS</h5> +<h5>NEW YORK</h5> + +<h5>COPYRIGHT 1886, BY</h5> +<h5>CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY.</h5> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS</h1> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> + <a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI.</b></a><br /> + </p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" /><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5" />CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h2>GREENY, BLACKY, AND SLY-BOOTS.</h2> + + +<p>Sammy Ray was running by the parsonage one day when Miss Ruth called to +him. She was sitting in the vine-shaded porch, and there was a crutch +leaning against her chair.</p> + +<p>"Sammy," she said, "isn't there a field of tobacco near where you live?"</p> + +<p>"Yes'm; two of 'em."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow morning look among the tobacco plants and find me a large +green worm. Have you ever seen a tobacco worm?"</p> + +<p>Sammy grinned.</p> + +<p>"I've killed more'n a hundred of<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" /> 'em this summer," he said. "Pat Heeley +hires me to smash all I can find, 'cause they eat the tobacco."</p> + +<p>"Well, bring one carefully to me on the leaf where he is feeding; the +largest one you can find."</p> + +<p>Before breakfast the next morning Ruth Elliot had her first sight of a +tobacco worm.</p> + +<p>"Take care!" said Sammy, "or he'll spit tobacco juice on you. See that +horn on his tail? When you want to kill him, you jest catch hold this +way, and"—</p> + +<p>"But I don't want to kill him," she said. "I want to keep him in this +nice little house I have got ready for him, and give him all the tobacco +he can eat. Will you bring me a fresh leaf every, morning?"</p> + +<p>While she was speaking she had put <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" />the worm in a box with a cover of +pink netting. On his way home Sammy met Roy Tyler, and told him (as a +secret) that the lame lady at the minister's house kept worms, and would +pay two cents a head for tobacco worms. "Anyway," said Sammy, "that's +what she paid me."</p> + +<p>If there was money to be got in the tobacco-worm business, Roy wanted a +share in it; and before night he brought to Miss Ruth, in an old tin +basin, eight worms of various sizes, from a tiny baby worm just hatched, +to a great, ugly creature, jet black, and spotted and barred with +yellow. The black worm Miss Ruth consented to keep, and Roy, lifting him +by his horn, dropped him on the green worm's back.</p> + +<p>"Now you have a Blacky and a Greeny," the boy said; and by these names +they were called.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" />Roy and Sammy came together the next morning, and watched the worms at +their breakfast.</p> + +<p>"How they eat!" said Sammy; "they make their great jaws go like a couple +of old tobacco-chewers."</p> + +<p>"Yes; and if they lived on bread and butter 't would cost a lot to feed +'em, wouldn't it?" said Roy.</p> + +<p>"Look at my woodbine worm, boys," Miss Ruth said, as she lifted the +cover of another box. "Isn't he a beauty? See the delicate green, shaded +to white, on his back, and that row of spots down his sides looking like +buttons! I call him Sly-boots, because he has a trick of hiding under +the leaves. He used to have a horn on his tail like the tobacco worms."</p> + +<p>"Where that spot is, that looks like an eye?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" />Yes; and one day he ate nothing and hid himself away, and looked so +strangely that I thought he was going to die; but the next morning he +appeared in this beautiful new coat."</p> + +<p>"How funny! Say, what is he going to turn into?"</p> + +<p>But Miss Ruth was busy house-cleaning. First she turned out her tenants. +They were at breakfast; but they took their food with them, and did not +mind. Then she tipped their house upside down, and brushed out every +stick and stem and bit of leaf, spread thick brown paper on the floor, +and put back Greeny and Blacky snug and comfortable.</p> + +<p>The next time Sammy and Roy met at the parsonage, three flower-pots of +moist sand stood in a row under the bench.</p> + +<p>"Winter quarters," Miss Ruth explained when she saw the boys looking <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" />at +them; "and it's about time for my tenants to move in. Greeny and Blacky +have stopped eating, and Sly-boots is turning pale."</p> + +<p>"A worm turn pale!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed; look at him."</p> + +<p>It was quite true; the green on his back had changed to gray-white, and +his pretty spots were fading.</p> + +<p>"He looks awfully; is he going to die?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—and no. Come this afternoon and see what will happen."</p> + +<p>But when they came, Blacky and Sly-boots were not to be seen. Their +summer residence, empty and uncovered, stood out in the sun, and two of +the flower-pots were covered with netting.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't keep them, boys," Miss Ruth said; "they were in such haste +to be gone. Only Greeny is above ground."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" />Greeny was in his flower-pot. He was creeping slowly round and round, +now and then stretching his long neck over the edge, but not trying to +get out. Soon he began to burrow. Straight down, head first, he went +into the ground. Now he was half under, now three quarters, now only the +end of his tail and the tip of his horn could be seen. When he was quite +gone, Sammy drew a long breath and Roy said, "I swanny!"</p> + +<p>"How long will he have to stay down there?"</p> + +<p>"All winter, Roy."</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow!"</p> + +<p>"Happy fellow! <i>I</i> say. Why, he has done being a worm. His creeping days +are over. He has only to lie snug and quiet under the ground a while; +then wake and come up to the sunshine some bright morning with a new +body <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" />and a pair of lovely wings to spread and fly away with."</p> + +<p>"Why, it's like—it's like"—</p> + +<p>"What is it like, Sammy?"</p> + +<p>"Ain't it like <i>folks</i>, Miss Ruth?" Grandma sings:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'I'll take my wings and fly away<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In the morning,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Yes," she said; "it <i>is</i> like folks." Then glancing at her crutch, +repeated, smiling: "In the morning."</p> + +<p>When the woodbine in the porch had turned red, and the maples in the +door-yard yellow, the flower-pots were removed to the warm cellar, and +one winter evening Sammy Ray wrote Greeny's epitaph:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"A poor green worm, here I lie;<br /></span> +<span>But by-and-by<br /></span> +<span>I shall fly,<br /></span> +<span>Ever so high,<br /></span> +<span>Into the sky."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" />He came often in the spring to ask if any thing had happened, and one +day Miss Ruth took from a box and laid in his hand a shining brown +chrysalis, with a curved handle.</p> + +<p>"What a funny little brown jug!" said Sammy.</p> + +<p>"Greeny is inside; close your hand gently and see if you feel him."</p> + +<p>"How cold!" said the boy; and then: "Oh! oh! he <i>is</i> alive, for he +kicks!"</p> + +<p>In June Greeny and Blacky came out of their shells, but no one saw them +do it, for it was in the night; but Sly-boots was more obliging. One +morning Miss Ruth heard a rustling, and lo! what looked like a great +bug, with long, slender legs, was climbing to the top of the box. Soon +he hung by his feet to the netting, rested motionless a while, and then +slowly, slowly unfolded his <a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" />wings to the sun. They were brown and white +and pink, beautifully shaded, and his body was covered with rings of +brown satin. Blacky and Greeny were not so handsome. They had +orange-spotted bodies, great wings of sober gray, and carried long +flexible tubes curled like a watch-spring, that could be stretched out +to suck honey from the flowers.</p> + +<p>At sunset Miss Ruth sent for the boys. She placed the uncovered box +where the moths waited with folded wings, in the open window. Up from +the garden came a soft breeze sweet with the breath of the roses and +petunias. There was a stir, a rustle, a waving of dusky wings, and the +box was empty.</p> + +<p>So Greeny and Blacky and Sly-boots "took their wings and flew away," and +the boys saw them no more.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" /><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" />CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h2>THE PATCHWORK QUILT SOCIETY.</h2> + + +<p>The minister's wife came home from a meeting of the sewing society one +afternoon quite discouraged.</p> + +<p>"Only nine ladies present!" she said, "and very little accomplished; and +the barrel promised to that poor missionary out West, before cold +weather—I really don't see how it is to be done."</p> + +<p>"What work have you on hand?" Miss Ruth inquired.</p> + +<p>"We have just made a beginning," Mrs. Elliot answered with a sigh. +"There's half a dozen fine shirts to make, and a pile of sheets and +pillowcases, dresses and aprons for four little girls, table-cloths and +towels to hem, <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" />and I know not what else. We always have sent a +bed-quilt, but this barrel must go without it. It's a pity, too, for +they need bedding."</p> + +<p>"Why, so it is," said Miss Ruth. "Susie,"—to a little girl sitting +close beside her,—"why can't some of you girls get together one +afternoon in the week and make a patchwork quilt to send in the barrel?"</p> + +<p>Susie put her head on one side and considered.</p> + +<p>"Where could we meet, Aunt Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Here in my room, Susie, if mamma has no objection."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," Mrs. Elliot said; "but are you well enough to undertake +it, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, Mary; I shall really enjoy it."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" />And would you cut out the blocks for us, and show us how to keep them +from getting all <i>skewonical</i>, like the cradle-quilt I made for Amelia +Adeline?"</p> + +<p>Amelia Adeline was Susie's doll.</p> + +<p>"Yes; and I could tell you stories while you were working. How would +that do?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it would be splendid!" said the little girl. "There comes Mollie, +I guess, by the noise. Won't she be glad? Say, Mollie!—why, what a +looking object!"</p> + +<p>This exclamation was called forth by the appearance of the little girl, +who had been heard running at full speed the length of the piazza, and +now presented herself at the door of Miss Ruth's room, her face flushed, +her hair in the wildest confusion, and the skirt <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" />of her calico frock +quite detached from the waist, hanging over her arm.</p> + +<p>"Wasn't it lucky that the gathers ripped?" she cried, holding up the +unlucky fragment. "If they hadn't, mamma, I should be hanging, head +down, from the five-barred gate in the lower pasture, and no body to +help me but the cows. You see, I set out to jump, and my skirt got +caught in a nail on the post."</p> + +<p>"O Mollie!" said her mother, "what made you climb the five-barred gate?"</p> + +<p>"'Cause she's a big tom-boy," said Lovina Tibbs, who had come from the +kitchen to call the family to supper. "Ain't yer 'shamed of yerself, +Mary Elliot?—a great girl like you, most ten years old, walkin' top o' +rail fences and climbin' apple-trees in the low pastur'!"</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not!" said Mollie, promptly.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" />Hush, Mollie," said Mrs. Elliot. "Lovina, that will do. Wash your face +and hands, Mollie, and make yourself decent to come to supper."</p> + +<p>An hour later, seated in the hammock, the girls discussed their aunt's +plan.</p> + +<p>"We'll have the Jones girls," said Susie, "and Grace Tyler, and Nellie +Dimock, she's such a dear little thing; and I suppose we must ask Fan +Eldridge, because she lives next door, though I dread to have her come, +she gets mad so easy; but mamma wouldn't like to have us leave her out; +and then, let's see—oh! we'll ask Florence Austin, the new girl, you +know."</p> + +<p>"Would you?" said Mollie, doubtfully. "We don't know her very well, and +she dresses so fine and is kind of <i>citified</i>, you know. Ar'n't you +afraid she'll spoil the fun?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" />No," said Susie, decidedly. "Mamma said we were to be good to her +because she's a stranger; and I think she's nice, too—not a bit proud, +though her father is so rich."</p> + +<p>"Well," Mollie assented, who, though thirteen months older than her +sister, generally yielded to Susie's better judgment; "let her come, +then. That makes six besides us, and Aunt Ruth said half a dozen would +be plenty. Sue, I think it's going to be real jolly, don't you?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" /><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" />CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h2>THE STORY OF DINAH DIAMOND.</h2> + + +<p>Miss Ruth Elliot was the minister's sister. And two years before, when +she came to live in the parsonage, an addition of two rooms was built +for her on the ground floor because she was an invalid, and lame, and +could not climb the stairs.</p> + +<p>They were pretty rooms, with soft carpets, pictures on the walls, and in +the winter time the sun shining in all day at the south window and the +glass door. In summer with this door wide open and the piazza cool and +shady with woodbine and clematis, you would have agreed with the little +girls who made up Ruth Elliot's sewing circle, that first<a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" /> Wednesday +afternoon, that they were "just lovely!"</p> + +<p>All were there—the Jones' twins, Ann Eliza and Eliza Ann, tall girls as +like each other as two peas and growing so fast one could always see +where their gowns were let down; Grace Tyler with curly black hair and +rosy cheeks; Nellie Dimock, a little dumpling of a girl with big blue +eyes and a funny turned up nose; Fannie Eldridge, looking so sweet and +smiling, you would not suspect she could be guilty of the fault Susie +had charged her with; and Florence Austin, whose father had lately +purchased a house in Green Meadow, and with his family had come to live +in the country. Last of all, the minister's two little daughters, whom +you have already met.</p> + +<p>Ruth Elliot was sitting at a table covered with piles of bright calico +pieces cut <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" />and basted for sewing, and when each girl had received a +block with all necessary directions for making it, needles were +threaded, thimbles adjusted, and the Patchwork Quilt Society was in full +session.</p> + +<p>"Now, Aunt Ruth," said Susie, "you promised to tell us a story, you +know."</p> + +<p>"Yes; tell us about Dinah Diamond, please," said Mollie.</p> + +<p>"You and Susie have heard that story before, Mollie."</p> + +<p>"That does not make a bit of difference, Auntie. The stories we like +best we have heard over and over again. Besides, the other girls haven't +heard it. Come, Aunt Ruth, please begin."</p> + +<p>And so, while all sat industriously at work, Ruth Elliot related to the +little girls</p> + +<p><b><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" />THE TRUE STORY OF DINAH DIAMOND.</b></p> + +<p>"When I was a little girl," she began, "I had a present from a neighbor +of a black kitten. I carried her home in my apron, a little ball of +black fur, with bright blue eyes that turned yellow as she got bigger, +and a white spot on her breast shaped like a diamond. I remember she +spit and clawed at me all the way home, and made frantic efforts to +escape, and for a day or two was quite homesick and miserable; but she +soon grew accustomed to her surroundings, and was so sprightly and +playful that she became the pet of the house.</p> + +<p>"The first remarkable thing she did, was to set herself on fire with a +kerosene lamp. We were sitting at supper one evening, when we heard a +crash in the sitting-room, and rushing in, found the cloth that had +covered the center table <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" />and a blazing lamp on the floor. It was the +work of an instant for my father to raise a window, wrap the lamp in the +table-cloth, and throw both into the street. This left the room in +darkness, and I don't think the cause of the accident occured to any of +us, till there rushed from under the sofa a little ball of fire that +flew round and round the room at a most astonishing pace.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, my kitten! my kitten!' I screamed. 'She's burning to death! Catch +her! Catch her! Put her out! Throw cold water on her! Oh, my poor, poor +Dinah!' and I began a wild chase in the darkness, weeping and wailing as +I ran. The entire family joined in the pursuit. We tumbled over chairs +and footstools. We ran into each other, and I remember my brother +Charlie and I bumped our heads together with a dread<a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" />ful crash, but I +think neither of us felt any pain. They called out to each other in the +most excited tones: 'Head her off there! Corner her! You've got her! No, +you haven't! There she goes! Catch her! Catch her!' while I kept up a +wailing accompaniment, 'Oh, my poor, precious Dinah! my burned up Dinah +Diamond,' etc.</p> + +<p>"Well, my mother caught her at last in her apron and rolled her in the +hearth rug till every vestige of fire was extinguished and then laid her +in my lap.</p> + +<p>"Don't laugh, Mollie," said tenderhearted Nellie Dimock—"please don't +laugh. I think it was dreadful. O Miss Ruth, was the poor little thing +dead?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, Nellie; and, wonderful to relate, she was very little hurt. +We supposed her fine thick coat kept the fire <a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" />from reaching her body, +for we could discover no burns. Her tongue was blistered where she had +lapped the flame, and in her wild flight she had lamed one of her paws. +Of course her beauty was gone, and for a few weeks she was that +deplorable looking object—a singed cat. But oh, what tears of joy I +shed over her, and how I dosed her with catnip tea, and bathed her paw +with arnica, and nursed and petted her till she was quite well again! My +little brother Walter ("That was my papa, you know," Mollie whispered to +her neighbor), who was only three years old, would stand by me while I +was tending her, his chubby face twisted into a comical expression of +sympathy, and say in pitying tones: 'There! there! poo-ittle Dinah! I +know all about it. How oo must huffer' (suffer). The <a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" />dear little fellow +had burned his finger not long before and remembered the smart.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to say that the invalid received his expressions of sympathy +in a very ungracious manner, spitting at him notwithstanding her sore +tongue, and showing her claws in a threatening way if he tried to touch +her. As fond as I was of Dinah, I was soon obliged to admit that she had +an unamiable disposition."</p> + +<p>"Why, Miss Ruth, how funny!" said Ann Eliza Jones. "I didn't know there +was any difference in cats' dispositions."</p> + +<p>"Indeed there is," Miss Ruth answered: "quite as much as in the +dispositions of children, as any one will tell you who has raised a +family of kittens. Well, Dinah made a quick recovery, and when her new +coat was <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" />grown it was blacker and more silky than the old one. She was +a handsome cat, not large, but beautifully formed, with a bright, +intelligent face and great yellow eyes that changed color in different +lights. She was devoted to me, and would let no one else touch her if +she could help it, but allowed me to handle her as I pleased. I have +tucked her in my pocket many a time when I went of an errand, and once I +carried her to the prayer-meeting in my mother's muff. But she made a +serious disturbance in the midst of the service by giving chase to a +mouse, and I never repeated the experiment.</p> + +<p>"Dinah was a famous hunter, and kept our own and the neighbors' premises +clear of rats and mice, but never to my knowledge caught a chicken or a +bird. She had a curious fancy for catch<a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" />ing snakes, which she would kill +with one bite in the back of the neck and then drag in triumph to the +piazza or the kitchen, where she would keep guard over her prey and call +for me till I appeared. I could never quite make her understand why she +was not as deserving of praise as when she brought in a mole or a mouse; +and as long as she lived she hunted for snakes, though after a while she +stopped bringing them to the house. She made herself useful by chasing +the neighbors' hens from the garden, and grew to be such a tyrant that +she would not allow a dog or a cat to come about the place, but rushed +out and attacked them in such a savage fashion that after one or two +encounters they were glad to keep out of her way.</p> + +<p>"Once I saw her put a flock of turkeys to flight. The leader at first +re<a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" />solved to stand his ground. He swelled and strutted and gobbled +furiously, exactly as if he were saying, 'Come on, you miserable little +black object, you! I'll teach you to fight a fellow of my size. Come on! +Come on!' Dinah crouched low, and eyed her antagonist for a moment, then +she made a spring, and when he saw the 'black object' flying toward him, +every hair bristling, all eyes, and teeth, and claws, the old gobbler +was scared half out of his senses, and made off as fast as his long legs +would carry him, followed by his troop in the most admired disorder.</p> + +<p>"I was very proud of one feat of bravery Dinah accomplished. One of our +neighbors owned a large hunting dog and had frequently warned me that if +my cat ever had the presumption to attack his dog, Bruno would shake the +<a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" />breath out of her as easy as he could kill a rat. I was inwardly much +alarmed at this threat, but I put on a bold front, and assured Mr. Dixon +that Dinah Diamond always had come off best in a fight and I believed +she always would, and the result justified my boast.</p> + +<p>"It happened that Dinah had three little kittens hidden away in the +wood-shed chamber, and you can imagine under these circumstances, when +even the most timid animals are bold, how fierce such a cat as Dinah +would be. Unfortunately for Bruno he chose this time to rummage in the +wood-shed for bones. We did not know how the attack began, but suppose +Dinah spied him from above, and made a flying leap, lighting most +unexpectedly to him upon his back, for we heard one unearthly yell, and +out rushed Bruno with his un<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" />welcome burden, her tail erect, her eyes +two balls of fire, and every cruel claw, each one as sharp as a needle, +buried deep in the poor dog's flesh. How he did yelp!—ki! ki! ki! ki! +and how he ran, through the yard and the garden, clearing the fence at a +bound, and taking a bee-line for home! Half-way across the street, when +Dinah released her hold and slipped to the ground, he showed no +disposition to revenge his wrongs, but with drooping ears and tail +between his legs kept on his homeward way yelping as he ran. Nor did he +ever give my brave cat the opportunity to repeat the attack, for if he +chanced to come to the house in his master's company, he always waited +at a respectful distance outside the gate.</p> + +<p>"It would take too long to tell you all the wonderful things Dinah did, +but I <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" />am sure you all agree with me that she was a remarkable cat. She +came out in a new character when I was ill with an attack of fever. She +would not be kept from me. Again and again she was driven from the room +where I lay, but she would patiently watch her opportunity and steal in, +and when my mother found that she was perfectly quiet and that it +distressed me to have her shut out, she was allowed to remain. She would +lie for hours at the foot of my bed watching me, hardly taking time to +eat her meals, and giving up her dearly loved rambles out of doors to +stay in my darkened room. I have thought some times if I had died then +Dinah would have died too of grief at my loss. But I didn't die; and +when I was getting well we had the best of times, for I shared with her +all the dainty dishes prepared <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" />for me, and every day gave her my +undivided attention for hours. It was about this time that I composed +some verses in her praise, half-printing and half-writing them on a +sheet of foolscap paper. They ran thus:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Who is it that I love so well?<br /></span> +<span>I love her more than words can tell.<br /></span> +<span>And who of all cats is the belle?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">My Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Whose silky fur is dark as night?<br /></span> +<span>Whose diamond is so snowy white?<br /></span> +<span>Whose yellow eyes are big and bright?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Black Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Who broke the lamp, and in the gloom<br /></span> +<span>A ball of fire flew round the room,<br /></span> +<span>And just escaped an awful doom?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Poor Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Who, to defend her kittens twain,<br /></span> +<span>Flew at big dogs with might and main,<br /></span> +<span>And scratched them till they howled with pain?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Brave Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" /> +<span>Who at the table takes her seat<br /></span> +<span>With all the family to eat,<br /></span> +<span>And picks up every scrap of meat?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">My Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Who watched beside me every day,<br /></span> +<span>As on my feverish couch I lay,<br /></span> +<span>And whiled the tedious hours away?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Dear Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>And when thou art no longer here,<br /></span> +<span>Over thy grave I'll shed a tear,<br /></span> +<span>For thou to me wast very dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Black Dinah.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Did you really used to set a chair for her at the table and let her eat +with the folks?" Fanny Eldridge asked.</p> + +<p>"Well, Fannie, that statement must be taken with some allowance. +Occasionally when there was plenty of room she was allowed to sit by me, +and I assure you she behaved with perfect propriety. I kept a fork on +purpose for her, and <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" />when I held it out with a bit of meat on it she +would guide it to her mouth with one paw and eat it as daintily as +possible. I never knew her to drop a crumb on the carpet. Indeed, I know +several boys and girls whose table manners are not as good as Dinah +Diamond's."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you mean me, Auntie," said Mollie. "Mamma is always telling +me I eat too fast, and I know I scatter the bread about sometimes when +I'm in a hurry."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mollie," said Miss Ruth, laughing, "I was <i>not</i> thinking of you, +but if the coat fits, you may put it on."</p> + +<p>"What became of Dinah at last, Miss Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"She made a sad end, Fannie, for as she grew older her disposition got +worse instead of better, until she became so cross and disagreeable that +she hadn't <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" />a friend left but me. She would scratch and bite little +children if they attempted to touch her, and was so cruel to one of her +own kittens that we were raising to take her place—for she was too old +and infirm to be a good mouser—that we were afraid she would kill the +poor thing outright. One morning, after she had made an unusually savage +attack on her son Solomon, my mother said: 'We must have that cat +killed, and the sooner the better. It isn't safe to keep such an ugly +creature a day longer.' Dinah was apparently fast asleep on her cushion +in the corner of the kitchen lounge when these words were spoken. In a +few minutes she jumped down, walked slowly across the room and out at +the kitchen door, and we never saw her again."</p> + +<p>"Why, how queer! What became of her?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" />We never knew. We inquired in the neighborhood, and searched the barn +and the wood-shed, and in every place we could think of where she would +be likely to hide, but we could get no trace of her, and when weeks +passed and she did not return we concluded that she was dead."</p> + +<p>"You don't think—<i>do</i> you think, Miss Ruth, that she understood what +was said and knew if she stayed she would have to be killed?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> do," said Mollie, positively. "I'm sure of it!—and so the poor +thing went off and drowned herself, or, maybe, died of a broken heart."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Nellie Dimock, "poor Dinah Diamond!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Mollie!" said Susie Elliot. "Cats don't die of broken +hearts."</p> + +<p>"She had been ailing for some days,"<a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" /> Miss Ruth explained, "refusing her +food and looking forlorn and miserable, and I am inclined to think +instinct taught her that her end was near. You know wild animals creep +away into some solitary place to die, and Dinah had a drop or two of +wild-cat blood in her veins. I fancy she hid herself in some hole under +the barn and died there. It was a curious coincidence, that she should +have chosen that particular time, just after her doom was pronounced, to +take her departure. But what grieved me most was that, excepting myself, +every member of the family rejoiced that she was dead.</p> + +<p>"Poor Dinah Diamond! She was beautiful and clever, and constant and +brave, but she lived unloved and died unlamented because of her bad +temper."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" /><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" />CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h2>A SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY.</h2> + + +<p>"If I can't have the seat I want, I won't have any; and I think you are +real mean, Mollie Elliot! I ain't coming here any more."</p> + +<p>These were the words Miss Ruth heard spoken in loud angry tones as she +opened the door connecting her bedroom with the parlor, where the little +girls were assembled, and caught a glimpse of an energetic figure in +pink gingham running across the lawn that separated the minister's house +from his next door neighbor.</p> + +<p>"Now, Auntie," said Mollie, in answer to Miss Ruth's look of inquiry, "I +am not in the least to blame. I'll leave it <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" />to the girls if I am. Fan +Eldridge is so touchy! She came in a minute ago and Nellie Tyler +happened to be sitting by me, and Fan marched up to her and says, 'I'll +take my seat if you please'; and I said, 'It's no more your seat than it +is Nellie's,' We don't have any particular seats, you know we don't, +Auntie, but sit just as it happens. Well, she declared it was her seat +because she had had it the last two afternoons, and I told Nellie not to +give up to her because she acted so hateful about it, and then she went +off mad. I'm sure I don't care; if she chooses to stay away she can."</p> + +<p>"You don't quite mean that, Mollie," her aunt said gravely. "The +Patchwork Society can't afford to lose one of its members, certainly not +for so small a difference as the choice of a seat. We must have Fanny +back, if I give up my <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" />seat to her. But come into this room, girls. I +have something pretty to show you. Softly! or you will frighten him +away."</p> + +<p>There was a honeysuckle vine trained close to the window, in full bloom, +and darting in and out among the flowers, taking a sip now and then from +a honey-cup, or resting on a leaf or twig, was a large butterfly with +black-velvet wings and spots and bands of blue and red and yellow.</p> + +<p>"O you beauty!" said Miss Ruth. "Do you know, girls, of all the moths +and butterflies I have raised from the larvæ,—and I have had Painted +Ladies, and Luna Moths, and one lovely Cecropia which was the admiration +of all beholders,—my favorite has always been the Swallow-tailed? +Perhaps it was because he was my first love. I <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" />was no older than you, +Nellie, when, half curious and half disgusted, I held at arm's length on +a bit of fennel-stalk, and dropped in an old ribbon-box Aunt Susan +provided for the purpose, the great green worm that, after various +stages of insect life, turned into just such a beautiful creature as you +see flying about among the flowers. Since then I have raised dozens of +them."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how you could have any thing to do with worms," said Eliza +Jones. "I hate them—the horrid, squirming things!"</p> + +<p>"So did I, Eliza, till I studied into their ways and learned what +wonderful things they can do; and now, I assure you, I have a high +respect and admiration for them."</p> + +<p>"Will you tell us about it?" Florence asked. "I've always wanted to know +just how worms turned into butterflies,"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" />And I should like nothing better than to tell you," she answered. +"'Making butterflies,' as a dear little boy once defined my favorite +occupation, and telling those who are interested in such things how they +are made, is very delightful to me,"</p> + +<p>"Come, then, girls, hurry!" said Nellie: "the sooner we get to work the +sooner the story will begin. Good-by, Mr. Swallow-tail,—I wonder what +they call you so for,—we are going to hear all about you,"</p> + +<p>But when they returned to the other room they found Sammy Ray and Roy +Tyler on the piazza, close to the open door. Roy beckoned to his sister, +and they held a whispered conference during which the words, "You ask +her," energetically spoken by Roy, could be plainly heard by those +inside.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" />Nellie turned presently, half laughing, but a little embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"The boys want to know if they can't come in," she said. "I tell them +it's ridiculous for boys to attend a sewing society, but they won't go +away till I've asked."</p> + +<p>Here the boys stepped forward and took off their hats. Their faces shone +with the scrubbing with soap and water they had given them, and both had +on clean collars. Sammy dived in his trowsers pocket and brought out a +couple of big brass thimbles and some needles stuck in a bit of flannel.</p> + +<p>"We are willing to help sew," said the boy, and bravely stood his +ground, though all the girls laughed, and even Miss Ruth looked amused +at the sight of these huge implements.</p> + +<p>"If we let you in at all, boys," she <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" />said, "it must be as guests. What +do you say, girls? Suppose we put it to vote. As many of you as are in +favor of admitting Samuel Ray and Roy Tyler to the meeting of the +Patchwork Quilt Society, now in session, will please to signify it by +raising the right hand."</p> + +<p>Every hand was lifted.</p> + +<p>"It is a unanimous vote," she announced. "Walk in, boys. One more chair, +Susie. Now, then, are we ready?"</p> + +<p>But this was fated to be a day of interruptions, for while she was +speaking the door opened and in walked Lavina Tibbs, bearing a plate +piled high with something covered with a napkin.</p> + +<p>"Miss Elliot's compliments," she said, "and would the Bed-quilt Society +accept some gingerbread for luncheon?" She set the plate on the table, +removed <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" />the napkin with a flourish, and added on her own account:—</p> + +<p>"It's jest out of the oven, an' if it ain't good I don't know how to +make soft gingerbread, that's all!"</p> + +<p>Good? If you had inhaled its delicious odor, and seen its lovely brown +crust and golden interior, you would have longed (as did every boy and +girl in the room) to taste it directly; and, having tasted, you would +have eaten your share to the last crumb. Miss Ruth gave Susie a +whispered direction, and the little girl brought from a corner cupboard +a pile of pink-and-white china plates, and napkins with pink borders to +correspond. The plates had belonged to Miss Ruth's grandmother, and were +very valuable; but Ruth Elliot believed that nothing was too good to be +used, and that the feast would be more enjoy<a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" />able for being daintily +served. But when all were helped, she still appeared to think some thing +was wanting, and, after looking round the circle, her glance rested upon +Mollie. The little girl had been unusually quiet ever since her dispute +with Fannie, for she knew very well, though not a word of reproof had +been spoken, that her aunt was not pleased with her. She dropped her +eyes before Miss Ruth's gaze, and grew red in the face; then suddenly +jumping up, she said:—</p> + +<p>"I'll go and ask Fan Eldridge to come back, shall I, Auntie? and she may +have any seat she likes; I'm sure I don't care."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear," Miss Ruth said, in the tone Mollie loved best to hear, "and +be quick, do! or the gingerbread will be cold."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" />Fannie was standing idly at the window looking toward the parsonage, +already repenting of her hasty departure, when Mollie rushed in.</p> + +<p>"Come back, Fan, do! we all want you to," she said. "Mamma has sent in +some hot gingerbread, and Sam Ray and Roy Tyler are there, and auntie is +going to tell us about swallow-tailed butterflies, and she doesn't like +to begin without you. Come, now, do! and you may have my seat."</p> + +<p>The little girl needed no urging, but her mother interposed.</p> + +<p>"Fannie was greatly to blame," Mrs. Eldridge said. "She has told me all +about it, and I think she deserves to be punished by staying at home."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but please, Mrs. Eldridge," said Mollie, "let her off this time! It +was my fault as well as hers, for you see I provoked her by answering +back."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" />Say you are sorry, Fannie."</p> + +<p>"Yes, truly, mamma, I am," said Fannie, with tears in her eyes; "and +I'll take any seat, or I'll stand up all the afternoon, if you'll only +let me go, and I <i>will</i> try to break myself of getting angry so easy; +see if I don't!"</p> + +<p>On the strength of these promises Mrs. Eldridge gave her consent, and +the little girls crossed the lawn hand-in-hand, in loving companionship. +So harmony was restored in the Society, and all ate their gingerbread +with a relish. Sammy and Roy would have liked better to have munched +their share on the piazza-steps, without plate or napkin. Under the +circumstances, however, they behaved very well; for, though Roy took +rather large mouthfuls, and Sammy licked his fingers when he thought no +one was looking, these <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" />were small delinquencies, and you will be glad +to know that the girls were too well-bred to appear to notice. Mollie, +now fully restored to favor, was allowed to pass the finger-bowl, while +Susie collected the plates, distributed the work, and made every thing +snug and tidy in the room. Then Miss Ruth commenced the story of</p> + + +<p><b>THE SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY.</b></p> + +<p>"When I was ten years old, my brother Charlie and I spent a summer with +Aunt Susan, who lived in the old homestead some miles out of town.</p> + +<p>"One night after tea she sent us into the garden to gather some sprigs +of fennel for her to take to prayer-meeting—all the old ladies in +Vernon took dill or fennel to evening meeting. I had just put my hand to +the fennel-bush when I drew it back with a scream.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" />'What's the matter?' said Charlie.</p> + +<p>"'A great, horrid green worm,' said I. 'I almost touched it!'</p> + +<p>"'Here, let me smash him!' said Charlie; 'where is he?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, don't touch him!' I cried; 'he might bite you. Oh, dear, I hate +worms! I wonder what they were made for!'</p> + +<p>"'That kind was made to turn into butterflies,' said Tim Rhodes.</p> + +<p>"Tim was working Aunt Susan's garden on shares that summer, and had +heard all we said, for he was weeding the onion-bed close by.</p> + +<p>"'What, that fellow!' said Charlie; 'will he turn into a butterfly?' and +we both of us looked at the caterpillar. He was about as long and as +thick as my little finger, of a bright leafy green, with black-velvet +rings dotted with <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" />orange at even distances along his body. He lay at +full length on a fennel-stalk, and seemed to be asleep; but when Charlie +touched him with a little stick, instantly there shot out of his head a +pair of orange-colored horns, and the air was full of the pungent odor +of fennel.</p> + +<p>"'It smells like prayer-meeting,' said Charlie, and ran off to play; but +I wanted further information.</p> + +<p>"'Mr. Rhodes,' said I, 'how do you know this kind of worm makes +butterflies?'</p> + +<p>"'Because I've seen 'em do it, child. If you should put that fellow now +in a box with some holes in the top, so as he could breathe, and give +him plenty of fresh fennel to eat, in a week (or less time if he's full +grown) he'll wind himself up, and after a spell he'll hatch out <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" />a +butterfly—a pretty one, too, I tell you,'</p> + +<p>"'I mean to try it,' I said; and I ran to the house and Aunt Susan gave +me an old ribbon-box, and Mr. Rhodes punched a few holes in the cover +with his pocket-knife; and after a little hesitation I picked the +fennel-stalk with the worm on it, and laid it carefully in the box, +making sure that the cover was tight. The box was then taken to the +house and deposited on a bench in the porch, for Aunt Susan objected to +entertaining this new boarder indoors.</p> + +<p>"I gave my worm his breakfast the next morning before I had my own, and, +forgetting my aversion, sat by the open box and watched him eat, as his +strong jaws made clean work with leaf and stem.</p> + +<p>"'He isn't so ugly, after all, Charlie,'<a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" /> I said; 'he is almost handsome +for a worm, with all those bright colors on him,'</p> + +<p>"Then Charlie caught a little of my enthusiasm, and said <i>he</i> meant to +keep a worm too. So he searched the fennel-bush and found three, and +tumbled them unceremoniously into the box.</p> + +<p>"'Now they'll have good times together,' said he; 'that fellow was awful +lonesome shut up by himself,'</p> + +<p>"At Aunt Susan's suggestion I improved my worm-house by removing the top +of the box and stretching mosquito-netting across, fastening it securely +along the edges lest my prisoners should escape. And it was well I took +this precaution; for, though for several days they made no attempt to +get away, and seemed to do nothing but eat and sleep, one morning I +found my largest <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" />and handsomest worm in a very disturbed and restless +condition. He was making frantic efforts to escape. Up and down, round +and round, over and under his companions, who were still quietly +feeding, without a moment's pause, he was pushing his way. I watched him +till I was tired; but when I left him he was still on his travels.</p> + +<p>"In the afternoon, however, he had settled himself half-way up the side +of his house. His head was moving slowly from side to side, and a fine +white thread was coming out of his mouth. When I looked again he had +fastened himself to the box by the tip of his tail and by a loop of fine +silk passing round the upper part of his body. There he hung motionless +two, three, almost four, days. The green and orange and black faded +little by little, his body shrank to <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" />half its size, and he looked +withered, unsightly, dead. I thought he <i>was</i> dead; but Tim Rhodes (who +all along had shown a friendly interest in my pursuit) took a look at my +poor dead worm,' and pronounced him all right.</p> + +<p>"'Keep a watch on him this afternoon,' said Tim,' and you'll see +something queer,'</p> + +<p>"So we did; and Aunt Susan was summoned to the porch by the news that +'the worm had split in the back and was coming out of his skin.' By the +time she had got on her glasses and was ready to witness this wonderful +sight, it was over. A heap of dried skin lay in the bottom of the box, +and a pretty chrysalis of a delicate green color hung in place of the +worm.</p> + +<p>"'O Auntie!' said Charlie, 'you ought to have seen him twist and <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59" />squirm +and make the split in his back bigger and bigger till it burst open and +tumbled off, just as a boy wriggles out of a tight coat, you know!'</p> + +<p>"After this came three weeks of waiting, during which the green +chrysalis turned gray and hard and the other worms, one by one, went +through the same changes, until four gray chrysalis were fastened to the +sides of the box.</p> + +<p>"Every day I looked, but nothing happened, until it seemed to me, tired +of waiting, that nothing ever <i>would</i> happen. But one bright morning I +forgot all my weariness when I found, clinging to the netting, a +beautiful creature like the one we saw on the honeysuckle this +afternoon, with a slender black body and wings spotted with yellow and +scarlet and lovely blue. When I opened the box he didn't try to <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" />fly. He +was weak and trembling, and his wings were damp, but every moment they +grew larger and his colors brighter in the sunshine.</p> + +<p>"While Charlie and I stood watching him, we discussed, in our own way, a +problem that has puzzled wiser heads than ours—how three distinct +individuals (the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly) could be one +and the same creature, and how from a low-born worm that groveled and +crawled could be born this bright ethereal being—all light and beauty +and color—that seemed fitted only for the sky.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Susan listened to our talk a while and then repeated a text of +Scripture:—</p> + +<p>"'Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his +glorious body?'"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" />While we talked the butterfly grew stronger and more beautiful, until +at last, spreading his wings to their widest extent, he darted high into +the air and we lost him. But from the day I took the green worm from the +fennel-bush in Aunt Susan's garden I date my introduction to a +delightful study which I have followed all my life as I have found +opportunity. So you see it is no wonder I am fond of the swallow-tailed +butterfly; and I have another reason, for once on a time I tamed one so +that it sucked honey from my finger."</p> + +<p>"Auntie, you are joking!"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, no. It was a poor little waif which, mistaking chimney heat for +warm spring weather, hatched himself out of season, and whose life I +prolonged by providing him with food."</p> + +<p>"The dear little thing! Tell us about it, please."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" />Well, I had put away some chrysalids for the winter in a closet in my +sleeping-room, and one day my nurse—I was ill at the time—heard a +rustling in the box where they lay and brought it to me for +investigation; and, behold! when I opened it there was a full-grown +swallow-tail, who, waking too soon from his winter's nap, left the soft +bed of cotton where his companions lay sleeping side by side and, wide +awake and ready to fly, was impatiently waiting for some one to let him +out into the sunshine.</p> + +<p>"But the March sunshine was fitful and pale, and the cold wind would +have chilled him to death before night; so we resolved to keep him +indoors. We gave him the liberty of the room, and he fluttered about the +plants in the window, now and then taking a flight to the ceil<a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" />ing, +where, I am sorry to say, he bruised his delicate wings; but he seemed +to learn wisdom by experience, for after a while he contented himself +with a lower flight. Every day my bed was wheeled close to the window, +and I amused myself for hours watching my pretty visitor. He would +greedily suck a drop of honey, diluted with water, from the leaf of a +plant or from the end of my finger, and by sight or smell, perhaps by +both senses, soon learned where to go for his dinner.</p> + +<p>"And so he lived and thrived for a fortnight, and I had hopes of keeping +him till spring; but one cold night the furnace fire went out, and in +the morning my pretty swallow-tail lay dead on the window-sill. Wasn't +it a pity?</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Florence, "I like to hear about butterflies! Will you please +<a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" />tell us about some of the other kinds you have kept?"</p> + +<p>"Tell us about that big fellow you said every body made a fuss over. +Ce-ce—I can't remember what you called him."</p> + +<p>"Cecropia!" said Susie, promptly. "Yes, do, Auntie! if you are not +tired."</p> + +<p>If Ruth Elliot had been ever so weary I think she would have forgotten +it at sight of the interested faces of her audience; but in fact she was +not in the least tired, but was as pleased to tell as they were to +listen to the story of</p> + + +<p><b>THE CECROPIA MOTH.</b></p> + +<p>"One day in November," she said, "a man who used to do odd jobs about +the place for my father, and whom we always called Josh,—his name was +Joshua Wheeler,—left his work to bring to <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" />the house and put into my +hand a queer-looking pod-shaped package firmly fastened to a stout twig. +It was of a rusty gray color and looked as much like a thick wad of +dirty brown paper as any thing I can think of.</p> + +<p>"'I found this 'ere cur'us lookin' thing,' he said, 'under a walnut-tree +on the hill yonder, where I was rakin' up leaves—an', thinks I, there's +some kind of a crittur stored away inside, an' Miss Ruth she's crazy +arter bugs an' worms an' sich like varmints, an' mebbe she'd like to see +what comes out o' this 'ere; so I've fetched it along.'</p> + +<p>"You may be sure I thanked him heartily and gave him a sixpence besides, +which I am afraid went to buy tobacco. 'Law, Doctor, don't I know it?' +Josh used to reply when my father urged him to break off a habit that +was <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" />making a shaky old man of him at sixty; 'don't I know it's a +dretful bad habit; but then you see a body must have somethin' to be +a-chawin' on.'</p> + +<p>"But what was in the brown package? That was the question I puzzled my +brains over. I had never seen a cocoon in the least like it before, and +I had no book on entomology to help me. With the point of a needle I +carefully picked away the outer layer till I came to loose silken fibers +that evidently were the covering of an inside case. Whatever was there +was snugly tucked away in a little inner chamber with the key inside, +and I must wait with what patience I could command till he chose to open +the door.</p> + +<p>"I kept my precious cocoon all winter in a cold, dry place; but when +warm spring weather came it lay in state on my work-table, in a box +lined with cot<a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" />ton, where I could watch it all day long. Nothing +happened till one bright day in June I heard a faint scratching inside +the brown case. It grew louder and louder every moment. Evidently my +tenant was bestirring himself and, with intervals of rest, was scraping +and tearing away his silken wrappings. Presently an opening was made and +out of this were poked two bushy legs with claws that held fast by the +outside of his house, while the creature gradually pulled himself out.</p> + +<p>"First a head with horns; then a part of the body and two more legs; +then, with one tremendous effort, he was free!—an odd beast of no +particular color, looking exceedingly damp and disagreeable, with his +fat chunky body and short legs, like an exaggerated bumble-bee, only not +at all pretty. He was shaky <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" />on his legs and half tumbled from his box +to the window-sill, along which he walked trembling till he came to the +tassel of the shade, just within his reach. This he grabbed with all +four claws, his wings hanging down.</p> + +<p>"'It's nothing but a homely old brown bug!' said my brother Charlie, +whom I had called to see the sight.</p> + +<p>"'No,' I said, "'it isn't a bug. I'm sure I don't know what it is,'</p> + +<p>"I was ready to cry with disappointment and vexation, for I had expected +great things from my brown chrysalis.</p> + +<p>"The tassel was gently swaying with the weight of the clumsy creature, +and in the warm sunshine which was gradually drying body and wings faint +colors began to show—a dull red, a dash of white, a wavy band of gray, +with patches of soft brown that began to look downy like feathers. Every +moment these col<a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" />ors grew more distinct and took new shapes. None of +them were bright, but they were beautifully blended and the whole body +was of the texture of the finest velvet.</p> + +<p>"But the wings! How can I describe to you how those thick, crumpled, +unsightly appendages grew and grew, changing in color from a dingy black +to a dark brown, with bands of gray and red? how the great white patches +took distinct form, and some were dashed with red and bordered with +black, and others eye-shaped with crescents of pale blue? It must have +taken an hour for all this to come about—for the great wings to unfurl +to their widest extent and the cecropia moth to show himself in all his +beauty to our admiring gaze.</p> + +<p>"The whole family had gathered to see the show. My father lingered, hat +and riding-whip in hand, though he had <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" />a round of twenty miles to make +among his patients before night; and Aunt Susan, who was on a visit, +stood peering through her spectacles, too much absorbed to notice black +Dinah taking a nap in her work-basket and the kitten making sad havoc +with her knitting. Josh was called in from the wood-shed, and, with his +hat on the back of his head and hands deep in his pockets, gazed in +silence.</p> + +<p>"'Wal,' he said at length, 'if that don't beat all natur'! Look at the +size of that crittur, will you, and the hole he's jest crawled out of. +Why, he's as big as a full-grown bat, measures full seven inches across +from wing to wing. Wal, now, I'd gin consider'ble to know what's be'n +goin' on for a spell back in that leetle house where he's passed his +time; and I'll bet, Doctor, with all your larnin', <i>you</i> can't tell.'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" /><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" />CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h2>FURRY-PURRY BECOMING GOLD ELSIE.</h2> + + +<p>Miss Ruth found on her table the next Wednesday afternoon a note very +neatly and carefully written, which read as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>Miss RUTH,—Will you Please tell us Another Cat Story, becaus I + like them best. So does Fannie Eldridge she said So after You told + Worm stories.</p> + +<p> Miss Ruth I Have Named my Black Kitty After your Dinah Diamond, her + Last Name has to Be Spot Becaus her Spot is not a Diamond, this is + from your Friend.</p> + +<p> NELLIE DIMOCK.</p></blockquote> + +<p>"I hold in my hand," Miss Ruth said, when she had carefully perused this +<a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" />epistle, "a written request from two members of our Society for another +cat story. Susie and Mollie, have I any more cat stories worth telling?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, Auntie" said Mollie. "Don't you remember the pretty fairy +story you used to tell us about the good little girl who saved a cat +from being drowned by some bad boys, and carried her home? and she +turned out to be a fairy cat and gave that girl every thing she wished +for—cakes and candy, and a lovely pink silk frock packed in a nutshell +for her to wear to the party?"</p> + +<p>"O Mollie! that's too much of a baby story," said Susie. "Tell us about +the musical cat who played the piano by walking over the keys, and all +the people in the house thought it was a ghost."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Auntie; and the funny story <a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" />of the cat and the parrot—how the +parrot got stuck up to her knees in a pan of dough, and in her fright +said over every thing she had learned to say: 'Polly wants a cracker!' +'Oh, my goodness' sakes alive!' 'Get out, I say!' 'Here's a row!' 'Scat, +you beast!' and so on;—and how the cat got her out."</p> + +<p>"These are old stories, girls, and you have told them for me."</p> + +<p>"Our old cat Jane," said Eliza Ann Jones, "is a regular cheat. You see, +she <i>would</i> lie in grandma's chair. She used to jump in if grandma left +it only for a minute; and grandma wouldn't know she was there, and two +or three times sat right down on her. Why, it was just awful, and scared +poor grandma half to death. Well, ma whipped the old cat every time she +caught her in <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" />the chair, and we thought she was cured of the habit; but +one day ma came into the room and there was nobody there but Jane, and +she was stretched on the rug and seemed to be fast asleep; but grandma's +chair was rocking away all by itself. Ma wondered what made the chair +go, so she thought she'd watch. She left the door on a crack and peeped +through, and as soon as the cat thought she was alone she jumped into +the chair and settled herself for a nap; but when ma made a little +noise, as if somebody were coming out, she hopped out and stretched +herself on the rug and made believe she was fast asleep. 'Twas her +jumping out so quick that set the chair rocking. Now, wasn't that cute?"</p> + +<p>"I never knew till the other day," said Florence Austin, "that cats +scatter crumbs to attract the birds, and then <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" />watch for them and spring +out on the poor things when they are feeding."</p> + +<p>"What a shame! I wouldn't keep a cat who played such a cruel trick," +Mollie said.</p> + +<p>"My Dinah Spot doesn't catch birds or chickens," said Nellie Dimock; +"only mice."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Elliot had come in with a message to her sister while this talk +went on, and had lingered to hear Eliza's story of old Jane.</p> + +<p>"Girls," she said, "with your President's permission, I will tell you a +story about a cat. It is curious, because it proves that a cat remembers +and reasons much as a man or woman would in similar circumstances. Susie +and Mollie, I have told it to you before, but you will not mind hearing +it again.</p> + +<p>"When my brother Charles was a <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" />young man he kept a bachelor +establishment in the country, and with other pets owned a beautiful gray +cat he had; brought with him from Germany. She was very intelligent and +docile, a great favorite with her master, and was allowed many +privileges in the house. She came in and out through a small door cut in +the side of the house which she opened and closed for herself. A chair +was regularly placed for her at the table; she slept at the foot of my +brother's bed, and perched herself on his shoulder when he took a stroll +in the garden. She could distinguish the sound of his bell from any +other in the house, and was greatly disturbed if the servant delayed in +answering his call.</p> + +<p>"One summer my sister Helen and her two boys were staying with Charles, +and in the midst of the visit he was <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" />called away on business, and was +absent for several weeks. Now, Carl and Teddy were dear little fellows, +but full of mischief; and in their uncle's absence they so teased and +tormented poor Miess, taking advantage of her amiable disposition, that +she was forced at length to keep out of their way. About a week before +Charles came home she had kittens, which she carefully hid behind a +heavy book-case in the library.</p> + +<p>"The morning of his return he had the cat in his lap petting and +caressing her as usual, and then went out for an hour. As soon as he was +gone, pussy brought her kittens one by one from their hiding-place and +laid them on the rug in the corner of the room where she had nursed and +tended all her young families before. Now she must have reasoned in this +way: 'My good, kind <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" />master has come home, and those dreadful boys who +have pinched my ears and tied things to my tail, and teased and +frightened me almost to death, will be made to behave themselves. All +danger to me and to my babies is over. Why must the pretty dears be +hidden away in that musty place? Of course master wants to see them, and +they are well worth looking at. The thing for me to do is to bring them +out of that dark hole and put them where I always have put my kittens +before.'"</p> + +<p>"Wise old Miess!" said Mollie. "Mamma, please tell the girls how she +saved uncle's pet canary from a strange cat."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear. Miess was so obedient and well trained that her master often +trusted her in the room while he gave the bird his airing, and Bobby +became <a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" />so accustomed to the cat's presence that he hopped fearlessly +about the floor close to pussy's rug, and more than once lighted on her +back; but one day your uncle discovered Miess on the table with the bird +in her mouth. For an instant he thought her cat nature had got the upper +hand, and that Bobby's last moment had come; then he discovered a +strange cat in the room and knew that his good cat had saved the +canary's life. As soon as the intruder was driven out, Bobby fluttered +away safe and sound."</p> + +<p>"Wasn't that nice of Miess, Auntie?" said Susie. "I have thought of a +story for you to tell us this afternoon—the story of the barn-cat that +wanted so much to become a house-cat. Don't you remember that story you +used to tell us long ago?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" />Oh, yes!" Mollie said; "her name was Furry-Purry, and she lived with +Granny Barebones, and there was Tom—Tom—some thing; what <i>was</i> his +name? Tell us that, Aunt Ruth, do!"</p> + +<p>"Isn't it open to the objection you made to Mollie's choice a while ago, +Susie?" she asked. "I remember it went with 'The Three Bears' and 'Old +Mother Pig' and 'The Little Red Hen.'"</p> + +<p>"No, Auntie, I think not; it's different, somehow."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then, if you are sure you haven't outgrown it."</p> + +<p>"Is it a true story?" Nellie Dimock wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"It is made out of a true story, Nellie. A young cat which was born and +brought up in a barn became dissatisfied with her condition in life, and +made <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" />up her mind to change it. She chose the house of a friend of mine +for her future home, and presented herself every morning at the door, +asking in a very earnest and humble way to be taken in. When driven away +she went sadly and reluctantly, but in a few moments was back again +waiting patiently, quietly, hour after hour, day after day. If noticed +or spoken to, she gave a plaintive mew, looked cold and hungry, but +showed no signs of discouragement. She didn't once try to steal into the +house, as she might have done, but waited patiently for an invitation.</p> + +<p>"And when one morning she brought a mouse and laid it on the door-step, +and looking up, seemed to say: 'Kind lady, if you will take me for your +cat, see what I will do for you,' my friend could no longer refuse. The +door was <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" />opened, the long-wished-for invitation was given, and very +soon the little barn-cat became the pet and plaything of the family. She +proved a valuable family cat, and her descendants, to the fourth +generation, are living in my friend's family to-day.</p> + +<p>"Out of these materials I have dressed up the story of</p> + + +<p><b>HOW FURRY-PURRY BECAME GOLD ELSIE.</b></p> + +<p>"The door of the great house stood open and Furry-Purry looked in.</p> + +<p>"Furry-Purry was a small yellow cat striped down the back with a darker +shade of the same color. Her paws, the lower part of her body, and the +spot on her breast were white.</p> + +<p>"This is what the little cat saw, looking through the open door into the +great house:—</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" />A pleasant room hung with pictures, the floor covered with a soft +carpet, where all kinds of bright-colored flowers seemed to be growing, +and, in the sunniest corner, lying in an arm-chair piled with cushions, +a large tabby cat.</p> + +<p>"Just then a gust of wind closed the door, and Furry-Purry ran round the +house to the barn and remained all day hidden in her hole under the +boards.</p> + +<p>"That night there was a storm, and several cats in the neighborhood +crept into the barn for safety. There was old Mrs. Barebones, a cat with +a bad cough, which was thought to be in a decline; Tom Skip-an'-jump, a +sprightly young fellow with a tenor voice which he was fond of using on +moonlight nights; and Robber Grim, a fierce, one-eyed creature—the pest +of the neighborhood—with a great head and neck and flabby, hanging +cheeks and bare spots on his tawny <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" />coat where the fur had been torn out +in his fierce battles.</p> + +<p>"The thunder roared overhead and the lightning, shining through the +cracks, played on the barn floor and showed the cats sitting gravely in +a circle. Only Tom Skip-an'-jump, who still kept his kittenish tricks, +went frisking after his tail and turning somersaults in the hay. +Presently he tumbled over Furry-Purry and bit her ear.</p> + +<p>"'Come, play!' said he: 'it's a jolly time for puss-in-the-corner.'</p> + +<p>"'Tom,' said Furry-Purry, 'I never shall play again. I am very unhappy. +I have seen Mrs. Tabitha Velvetpaw lying on a silk cushion, while I make +my bed in the hay. She walks on a lovely soft carpet, and I have only +this barn floor. O Tom, I want to be a house-cat.'</p> + +<p>"'A house-cat!' repeated Tom dis<a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" />dainfully. 'They sleep all day. They +get their tails pulled and their ears pinched by horrid monsters with +only two legs to walk on, and nights—beautiful moonlight nights when we +barn-cats are roaming the alleys and singing on the roofs and having a +good time generally—they are locked in cellars and garrets and made to +watch rat-holes. Oh, no! not for Tom.'</p> + +<p>"He was off with a whisk of his tail to the highest beam in the barn, +looking down on them with the greenest of green eyes, and singing,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Some love the home<br /></span> +<span>Of a lazy drone,<br /></span> +<span>And a bed on a cushioned knee;<br /></span> +<span>But in wild free ways<br /></span> +<span>I will spend my days,<br /></span> +<span>And at night on the roofs I'll be.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Oh, 'tis my delight,<br /></span> +<span>On a moonlight night'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"<a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" />'Don't listen to him, my dear,' said Mrs. Barebones, the consumptive +cat; 'he's a wild, thoughtless creature, quite inexperienced in the ways +of the world. Heed the counsels of one whose sands of life are almost +run and who, before she goes to the land of cats, would fain warn a +youthful friend and, if possible, avert her from her own sad fate. This +racking cough (ugh! ugh!) and this distressing <i>cat</i>-arrh, (snuff! +snuff!) with which you see me afflicted were brought on by the hardships +and exposure incident to the life of a barn-cat: midnight rambles, my +dear (ugh!), in frost and snow; days when not so much as a mouse's tail +has passed my hungry jaws, and winter nights when my coat was too thin +to keep out the cold. And all these sufferings, past and present, are in +consequence of my being a barn-cat.'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" />'Now, may the dogs get me, if I ever heard such a string of nonsense!' +said Robber Grim. 'Don't believe a word she says. She's an old granny. +She's got the fidgets. She wants a dose of catnip-tea. Don't believe Tom +Skip-an'-jump, either. What does <i>he</i> know about war? He never was shot +at. Look at me! I'm Robber Grim! I'm an old one, I am! I've got good +blood in my veins. My great-grandfather was a catamount and his +grandmother was a tiger-cat. I've been in a hundred battles. I've had +one eye knocked out and an ear bit off. I left a piece of my tail in a +trap. I've been scalded with hot water and peppered all over with shot. +<i>I'll</i> teach you how to get a living without being a house-cat. I hate +houses and the people who live in them, and I do them all the <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" />mischief +I can. I eat up their chickens and I suck their eggs. I climb in at the +pantry window and skim their milk. Once when the cook left the kitchen +door open I snatched the beefsteak from the gridiron and made off with +the family dinner. They hate me—they do. They've tried to kill me a +dozen times; but I'm Robber Grim, ha! ha! and I've got nine lives!'</p> + +<p>"At this instant there came a flash of lightning, followed by a peal of +thunder that shook the barn to its foundations, and every cat fled in +terror to its hole.</p> + +<p>"The next morning Mrs. Tabitha Velvetpaw took a stroll round the garden +and down the lane a little way, where the catnip grew. The ground was +wet after the shower, and she was daintily picking her way along, very +careful not to soil her beautiful feet, of <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" />which she was justly proud, +when suddenly there glided from behind a tree and stood directly in her +path a small yellow cat.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, my paws and whiskers!' exclaimed Mrs. Tabitha, surprised out of +her usual dignity.</p> + +<p>"'If you please,' said Furry-Purry,—for it was she,—'I have made bold +to come out and meet you to ask your advice. I am a poor little +barn-cat, and I was contented with my lot till I saw you yesterday in +your beautiful home; but now I feel that I was intended for a higher +sphere. Tell me—oh, tell me, Mrs. Velvetpaw, how I may become a +house-cat!'</p> + +<p>"'Well, did I ever!' said Mrs. Velvetpaw. 'The idea!' and she moved a +step or two away from poor Furry-Purry, her manner, as well as her +words, expressing astonishment and disdain.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" />'I know it seems presuming, Mrs. Velvetpaw, but'—</p> + +<p>"'Presuming! I should say so. What is this generation of cats coming to, +when a low creature reared in a barn—a paw-paw (pauper) cat, as I may +say—dare lift her eyes to those so far above her?'</p> + +<p>"'I have heard my mother say "a cat may look at a king,"' said +Furry-Purry.</p> + +<p>"'Go away, you low-born creature! How dare you quote your mother to me? +Go away, this instant! I am ashamed to be seen talking with you! What if +my friend Mrs. Silvercoat or Major Mouser should happen to pass! Begone, +I say! scat!'</p> + +<p>"'O Mrs. Tabitha,' said the poor little cat, 'don't send me away! I +can't go back to that barn. Indeed, indeed, after spending this short +time in your <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" />company, I can never endure to live with Tom Skip-an'-jump +and Mrs. Barebones and that horrid Robber Grim. If you refuse to help me +I will go straight to Growler's kennel. When he has worried me to death, +won't you be sorry you drove me to such a fate? Dear, dear Mrs. +Velvetpaw, your face is kinder than your words. Oh, pity the sorrows of +a poor little cat!'</p> + +<p>"Now, Mrs. Tabitha was not at heart an ill-natured puss; and when she +saw Furry-Purry's imploring face, and listened to her eloquent appeal, +she was moved with compassion.</p> + +<p>"'Rather than see you go to the dogs,' said she, 'I will lend a paw to +help you. But what can I do, you silly thing?'</p> + +<p>"'Mrs. Velvetpaw, you have lived a long time in this neighborhood?'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" />'All my life, Yellow Cat.'</p> + +<p>"'And you know every body?'</p> + +<p>"'If you mean in the first rank of society—yes. Your Barebones, and +Hop-an'-jumps, and creatures of that vulgar herd, are quite out of my +<i>cat</i>egory.'</p> + +<p>"'Perhaps you know of some house-cat dead or gone away?'</p> + +<p>"'And if I do?'</p> + +<p>"'You might put me in her place, you know.'</p> + +<p>"'Yellow Cat,' said Mrs. Tabitha, severely.</p> + +<p>"'If you please, my name is Furry-Purry.'</p> + +<p>"'Well, Furry-Purry, then. Your presumption can only be pardoned in +consideration of your ignorance of the usages of society. House-cats, +you must know, hold their position in fam<a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" />ilies by hereditary descent. +My place, for instance, was my mother's and my grandmother's before me. +We are prepared by birth and education for the position we occupy. Have +you considered how utterly unfitted you are for the life to which you +aspire? I am sorry to disappoint you, but I fear your hopes are vain. +There is, indeed, a vacancy in the brick house opposite. Cæsar—a +venerable cat—died last week. He was much admired for his gentlemanly +and dignified deportment. "Who shall come after the king?"'</p> + +<p>"'I, Mrs. Tabitha, I'—</p> + +<p>"'You, indeed!' she interrupted, scornfully.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, yes, if you will but condescend to give me instructions. I am +quick to learn. The short time I have been so happy as to be in your +company I have <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" />gained much knowledge. I am sure I can imitate the +<i>mew</i>-sic of your voice. I know I can gently wave my tail, and touch my +left whisker with my paw as you do. When I leave you I shall spend every +moment till we meet again in practising your airs and graces, till I +make them all my own. Dear friend,—if you will let me call you +so,—help me to King Cæsar's place.'</p> + +<p>"There was much that was flattering to Mrs. Velvetpaw in this speech.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said she, 'I will see what can be done. There, go home now, and +the first thing to be done is to make yourself perfectly clean. Wash +yourself twelve times in the day, from the end of your nose to the tip +of your tail. Take particular pains with your paws. A cat of refinement +is known by the delicacy and cleanliness of her <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" />feet. Farewell! After +three days, meet me here again.'</p> + +<p>"You can imagine how faithfully Furry-Purry followed these +directions—how with her sharp tongue she smoothed and stroked every +hair of her pretty coat, and washed her face again and again with her +wet paws.</p> + +<p>"'You are wretchedly thin!' Mrs. Tabitha said at their next meeting. +'That fault can only be remedied by a generous diet. You must look me +full in the face when I talk to you. Really, you have no need to be +ashamed of your eyes, for they are decidedly bright and handsome. When +you walk, don't bend your legs till your body almost touches the ground. +That gives you a wretchedly hang-cat appearance. Tread softly and +daintily, but with dignity and grace of carriage. There <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" />must be other +bad habits I have not mentioned.'</p> + +<p>"'I am afraid I spit sometimes.'</p> + +<p>"'Don't do that—it is considered vulgar. Don't bristle your tail. Don't +show your claws except to mice. Keep such control over yourself as never +to be surprised out of a dignified composure of manner.'</p> + +<p>"Just here, without the slightest warning, there rushed from the thicket +near them a large fierce-looking dog. Up went Mrs. Velvetpaw's back in +an arch. Every hair of her body stood on end. Sharp-pointed claws +protruded from each velvet foot, and, hissing and spitting, she tumbled +over Furry-Purry in her haste, and scrambled to the topmost branch of +the pear-tree. The little cat followed, imitating her guide in every +particular. As for the dog, which <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" />was in pursuit of game, he did not +even look at them; and when he was out of sight they came down from the +tree, Mrs. Tabitha descending with the dignified composure she had just +recommended to her young friend. She made no allusion to her hurried +ascent.</p> + +<p>"'To-morrow night,' said she, 'as soon as it is dark, meet me in the +backyard of the brick house.'</p> + +<p>"Half glad and half frightened, Furry-Purry walked by her side the next +evening, delighting in the soft green turf of the yard and the +sweet-smelling shrubs against which she ventured to rub herself as they +passed. Mrs. Tabitha led her round the house to a piazza draped with +clustering vines.</p> + +<p>"'Come here to-morrow,' said she. 'Walk boldly up the steps and seat +<a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" />yourself in full view of that window. Look your prettiest—behave your +best. Assume a pensive expression of countenance, with your eyes +uplifted—so. If you are driven away, go directly, but return. Be +strong, be brave, be persevering. Now, my dear, I have done all I can +for you, and I wish you good luck,'</p> + +<p>"The next morning a little girl living in the brick house, whose name +was Winnie Gay, looked out of the dining-room window.</p> + +<p>"'Come quick, mamma!' she called; 'here's a cat on our piazza—a little +yellow cat, and she's looking right up at me. May I open the door?'</p> + +<p>"'No, indeed!' said Mrs. Gay; 'we want no strange cats here.'</p> + +<p>"'But she looks hungry, mamma. She has just opened her mouth at me +<a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" />without making a bit of noise. Can't I give her a saucer of milk?'</p> + +<p>"'Come away from the window, Winnie, and don't notice her. You will only +encourage her to come again. There, pussy, run away home; we can't have +you here.'</p> + +<p>"'Now, mamma, you have frightened her. See how she keeps looking back. +I'm afraid you've hurt her feelings. Dear little pussy! I wish I might +call you back.'</p> + +<p>"Furry-Purry was not discouraged at this her first unsuccessful attempt. +The child's blue eyes beamed a welcome, and the lady's face was gentle +and kind.</p> + +<p>"'If I catch a mouse,' thought the cat, 'and bring it to them to show +what I can do, perhaps I shall gain their favor.' Then she put away all +the fine airs and graces Mrs. Velvetpaw had <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" />taught her, and became the +sly, supple, watchful creature nature had made her. By a hole in the +granary she crouched and waited with unwearied patience one, two, almost +three, hours. Then she gave a sudden spring, there was one sharp little +shriek from the victim, a snap of pussy's jaws, and her object was +accomplished. She appeared again on the piazza, and, laying a dead mouse +on the floor, crouched beside it in an attitude of perfect grace, and +looked beseechingly in Mrs. Gay's face.</p> + +<p>"'Well, you <i>are</i> a pretty creature!' that lady said, 'with your soft +white paws and yellow coat,'</p> + +<p>"'May I have her for my cat, mamma?' Winnie said. 'I thought I never +should love another cat when dear old Cæsar died; but this little thing +is such a beauty that I love her already. May I have her for mine?'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" />But while Mrs. Gay hesitated, Furry-Purry, who could not hear what +they said, and who, to tell the truth, was in a great hurry to eat her +mouse, ran off with it to the barn. The next morning, however, she came +again, and Mr. Gay, who was waiting for his breakfast, was called to the +window.</p> + +<p>"'My cat has come again, papa, with another mouse—a monstrous one, +too.'</p> + +<p>"'That isn't a mouse,' Mr. Gay said, looking at the plump, silver-gray +creature Furry-Purry carefully deposited on the piazza-floor. 'Bless me! +I believe it is that rascal of a mole that's gnawed my hyacinth and +tulip bulbs. I offered the gardener's boy two dollars if he would catch +the villain. To whom does that cat belong, Winnie? She's worth her +weight in gold.'</p> + +<p>"'I don't believe she belongs to any<a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" />body, papa; but I think she wants +to belong to us, for she keeps coming and coming. <i>May</i> I have her for +mine? I am sure mamma will say yes if you are willing.'</p> + +<p>"'Why not?' said he. 'Run for a saucer of milk, and we will coax her +in.'</p> + +<p>"We who are acquainted with Furry-Purry's private history know how +little coaxing was needed.</p> + +<p>"As soon as the door was opened she walked in, and, laying the dead mole +at Mr. Gay's feet, rubbed herself against his leg, purred gently, looked +up into his face with her round bright eyes, and, in very expressive cat +language, claimed him for her master. When he stooped to caress her, and +praised and petted her for the good service she had rendered him, the +happy creature rolled over and over on the soft carpet in an ecstasy of +delight.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" />Then Winnie clapped her hands for joy.</p> + +<p>"'You are our own cat,' she said. 'You shall have sugar and cream to +eat. You shall lie on Cæsar's silk cushion; and because you are yellow, +and papa says you are worth your weight in gold, your name shall be Gold +Elsie,'</p> + +<p>"So Furry-Purry became a family cat.</p> + +<p>"The first time she met Mrs. Velvetpaw after this change in her life, +that excellent tabby looked at her with evident admiration.</p> + +<p>"'How handsome you have grown!' said she; 'your eyes are topaz, your +breast and paws are the softest velvet, your coat is spun gold. My dear, +you are the belle of cats,'</p> + +<p>"'Dear Mrs. Velvetpaw,' said Gold Elsie, 'my beauty and my prosperity I +owe in large measure to you. But <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" />for your wise counsels I should still +be a'—</p> + +<p>"'Hush! don't speak the word. My dear, never again allude to your +origin. It is a profound secret. You are received in the best society. +Mrs. Silvercoat tells me it is reported that your master sought far and +wide to find a worthy successor to King Cæsar, and that he esteems +himself specially fortunate in that, after great labor and expense, he +procured <i>you</i>. The ignorance you sometimes exhibit of the customs of +genteel society is attributed to your foreign breeding.'</p> + +<p>"'Mrs. Tabitha, I feel at times a strong desire to visit my old friends +in the barn once more.'</p> + +<p>"'Let me entreat you, my dear Miss Elsie, never again to think of it.'</p> + +<p>"'But there is poor Mrs. Barebones almost gone with a consumption. I +<a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" />should like to show her some kindness.'</p> + +<p>"'Her sufferings are ended. She has passed to the land of cats,'</p> + +<p>"'Poor Mrs. Barebones! and Robber Grim? Do you happen to have heard any +thing of him?'</p> + +<p>"Silently Mrs. Tabitha beckoned her to follow, and, leading the way to +the orchard, pointed to a sour-apple tree, where Gold Elsie beheld a +ghastly sight. By a cord tied tightly about his neck, his jaws +distended, his one eye starting from its socket, hung Robber +Grim—stiff, motionless, dead.</p> + +<p>"They hurried away, and presently Gold Elsie timidly inquired after her +former playmate, Tom Skip-an'-jump.</p> + +<p>"'Don't, my dear!' said Mrs. Velvetpaw; 'really, I can not submit to be +farther <i>cat</i>echized. If you are truly grateful to me, Elsie, for the +service<a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" /> I have rendered you, and wish to do me credit in the high +position to which I have raised you, you must, you certainly must, break +every tie that binds you to your former life.'</p> + +<p>"'I will, Mrs. Tabitha, I will,' said the little cat; and never again in +Mrs. Velvetpaw's presence did she mention Tom Skip-an'-jump's name,"</p> + +<p>"And didn't she ever see him again?" Nellie Dimock wanted to know. "I am +sure there was no harm in Tom."</p> + +<p>"Well, but you know she couldn't go with <i>that set</i> any more after she +had got into good society," said Mollie Elliot.</p> + +<p>"Mollie has caught Mrs. Velvetpaw's exact tone," said Florence Austin, +at which all the girls laughed.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't care," Mollie answered; "she was a nice little cat, and +deserved all her good fortune."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" /><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" />CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h2>TOMMY TOMPKINS' YELLOW DOG.</h2> + + +<p>"I have a letter to read to you this afternoon, girls," said Miss Ruth; +"also the story of a yellow dog. The letter is from a friend of mine who +spends her summers in a quiet village in Maine, in a fine old mansion +overlooking green fields and a beautiful lake with hills sloping down to +it on every side. Here is the letter she wrote me last June:—</p> + +<p>"'We have come back again to our summer home—to the old house, the +broad piazza, the high-backed chairs, and the blue china. The clump of +cinnamon roses across the way is one mass of spicy bloom, and soon its +fragrance <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" />will be mingled with that of new-mown hay. There is nothing +new about the place but Don Quixote, the great handsome English mastiff. +Do you know the mastiff—his lion-like shape, his smooth, fawn-colored +coat, his black nose, and kind, intelligent eyes, their light-hazel +contrasting with the black markings around them? If you do, you must +pardon this description.</p> + +<p>"'I am very fond of Don, and he of me. He belongs to our cousin, whose +house is but one field removed from ours; but he is here much of the +time. He evidently feels that both houses are under his protection, and +passes his nights between the two. Often we hear his slow step as he +paces the piazza round and round like a sentinel. He is only fifteen +months old, and of course feels no older than a little dog, <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" />though he +weighs one hundred and thirty pounds, and measures six feet from nose to +tail.</p> + +<p>"'He can't understand why he isn't a lap-dog, and does climb our laps +after his fashion, putting up one hind leg and resting his weight upon +it with great satisfaction. We have good fun with him out of doors, +where his puppyhood quite gets the better of his dignity, and he runs in +circles and fetches mad bounds of pure glee.</p> + +<p>"'One day, lying in my hammock, with Don on the piazza at my feet, I put +his charms and virtues together in verses, and I send them to you as the +most succinct account I can give of my new pet. As I conned them over, +repeating them half-aloud, at the frequent mention of his name Don +raised his head with an intelligent and appreci<a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" />ative look. Here are the +verses. I call them</p> + + +<p><b>DOG-GEREL.</b></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">'Don! Don! beautiful Don!<br /></span> +<span>Graceful and tall, with majestic mien,<br /></span> +<span>Fawn-colored coat of the softest sheen,<br /></span> +<span>The stateliest dog that the sun shines on,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Beautiful Don!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Don! Don! frolicsome Don!<br /></span> +<span>Chasing your tail at a game of tag,<br /></span> +<span>Dancing a jig with a kitchen rag,<br /></span> +<span>Rearing and tearing, and all for fun,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Frolicsome Don!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Don! Don! affectionate Don!<br /></span> +<span>Looking your love with soft kind eyes,<br /></span> +<span>Climbing our laps, quite forgetting your size;<br /></span> +<span>With kissing and coaxing you never are done,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Affectionate Don!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Don! Don! chivalrous Don!<br /></span> +<span>Stalking all night piazza and yard,<br /></span> +<span>Sleepless and watchful, our sentinel guard,<br /></span> +<span>Squire of dames is the name you have won,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Chivalrous Don!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" /> +<span class="i4">Don! Don! devotional Don!<br /></span> +<span>When the Bible is opened you climb to your place,<br /></span> +<span>And listen with solemn, immovable face,<br /></span> +<span>Nor frolic nor coax till the chapter is done,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Devotional Don!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Don! Don! wonderful Don!<br /></span> +<span>Devotional, faithful, affectionate one,<br /></span> +<span>If owning these virtues when only a pup,<br /></span> +<span>What will you be when you are grown up?<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Wonderful Don!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"And now by way of contrast," said Miss Ruth as she folded the letter, +"I have a story to tell you of a poor little forlorn, homely, +insignificant dog, of low birth and no breeding, which was picked up on +the street by a boy I know, and which made for himself friends and a +good home by seizing the first opportunity that offered to do his duty +and protect the property of those who <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" />had taken him in. I have no doubt +that Don Quixote, intelligent, faithful, kind, with not a drop of +plebeian blood in his noble body, will fulfill all the expectations of +his friends, and we shall hear of many a brave and gallant deed of his +performing; but when you have heard what Tommy Tompkins has to tell, I +think you will say that not even Don Quixote could have done himself +more credit under the circumstances than</p> + + +<p><b>TOMMY TOMPKINS' YELLOW DOG.</b></p> + +<p>"Tommy shall tell the story as he told it to me:—</p> + +<p>"'Yes, marm, he's my dog. His name's Grip. My father paid five dollars +for that dog. You look as if you thought he wasn't worth it; but I +wouldn't take twice the money for him, <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" />not if you was to pay it over +this minute. I know he ain't a handsome dog. I don't think yellow is a +pretty color for a dog, do you? and I wish he had a little more of a +tail. Liz says he's cur-tailed (Liz thinks it's smart to make puns), but +he'll look a great deal better when his ear gets well and his hair grows +out and covers the bare spots—don't you think so? But father says, +"Handsome is that handsome does," and nobody can say but that our dog +did the handsome thing when he saved over two hundred dollars in money +and all mother's silver spoons and lots of other things from being +stolen—hey, Grip? We call him Grip 'cause he hung on to that fellow so +till the policeman got in to take him.</p> + +<p>"'What fellow? Why, the burglar, of course. Didn't you read about it <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" />in +the newspaper? There was a long piece published about it the day after +it happened, with headings in big letters: "The house No. 35 Wells +Avenue, residence of Thomas Tompkins, the well-known dealer in hardware, +cutlery, etc., was entered last night by burglars. Much valuable +property saved through the courage and pluck of a small dog belonging to +the family." They didn't get that part right, for he didn't belong to us +then. You just wait, and I'll read the whole piece to you. I've got it +somewhere in my pockets. You see, I cut it out of the paper to read to +the boys at school.</p> + +<p>"'You'd rather I told you about it? Well. Lie down, Grip! Be quiet! +can't you? He don't mean any thing by sniffing round your ankles in that +way; anyhow, he won't catch hold unless I <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" />tell him to; but you see, +ever since that night he wants to go for every strange man or woman that +comes near the place. Liz says "he's got burglars on the brain."</p> + +<p>"'I guess I'll begin at the beginning and tell you how I came by him. +One night after school I'd been down to the steamboat landing on an +errand for father, and along on River Street there was a crowd of +loafers round two dogs in a fight. This dog was one of 'em, and the +other was a bulldog twice his size. The bulldog's master was looking on, +without so much as trying to part 'em; but nobody was looking after the +yellow dog: he didn't seem to have any master. Well, I want to see fair +play in every thing. It makes me mad to see a fellow thrash a boy half +his size, or a big dog chew up a <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" />little one. So I steps up and says to +the bulldog's master, "Why don't you call off your dog?" but he only +swore at me and told me to mind my own business.</p> + +<p>"'Well, I know a trick or two about dogs, and I ran into a grocer's shop +close by and got two cents' worth of snuff, and I let that bulldog have +it all right in his face and eyes. Of course he had to let go to sneeze; +and I grabbed the yellow dog and ran. It was great fun. I could hear +that dog sneezing and coughing, and his master yelling to me, but I +never once held up or looked behind me till I was half-way up Brooks +Street.</p> + +<p>"'Then I set the yellow dog down on the sidewalk and looked him over. +My! he's a beauty now to what he was then, for he's clean and well-fed +and <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" />respectable looking; but then he was nothing but skin and bone, and +covered all over with mud and dirt, and one ear was torn and one eye +swelled shut, and he limped when he walked, and—well, never mind, old +Grip! you was all right inside, wasn't you?</p> + +<p>"'Well, I never dreaded any thing more in all my life than taking that +dog home. Mother hates dogs. She never would have one in the house, +though I've always wanted a dog of my own. I knew Liz would call him a +horrid little monster, and Fred would poke fun at me—and, oh, dear! I'd +rather have gone to the dentist's or taken a Saturday-night scrub than +go into that dining-room with Grip at my heels.</p> + +<p>"'But it had to be done. They were all at supper, and mother took it +just as I was afraid she would. If she only <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" />would have waited and let +me tell how I came by the dog, I thought maybe she would have felt sorry +for the poor thing; but she was in such a hurry to get his muddy feet +off the dining-room carpet that she wouldn't listen to a single word I +said, but kept saying, "Turn him out! turn him out!" till I found it was +no use, and I was just going to do as she said when father looked up +from his supper, and says he: "Let the boy tell his story, mother. Where +did you get the dog, Tommy?" "'We were all surprised, for father hardly +ever interfered with mother about us children—he's so taken up with +business, you know, he hasn't any time left for the family. But I was +glad enough to tell him how I came by the dog; and he laughed, and said +he didn't see any objection to my keeping <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" />him over night. I might give +him some supper and tie him up in the shed-chamber, and in the morning +he'd have him taken round to Police-station C, where, if he wasn't +claimed in four days, he'd be taken care of.</p> + +<p>"'I knew well enough how they'd take care of him at Station C. They'd +shoot him—that's what they do to stray dogs without any friends. But +anyhow, I could keep him over night, for mother would think it was all +right, now father had said so. So I took him to the shed-chamber and +gave him a good supper,—how he did eat!—and I found an old mat for him +to lie on, and got a basin of warm water and some soap, and washed him +as clean as I could and rubbed him dry, and made him warm and +comfortable: and he licking my hands and face and wagging <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" />his stump of +a tail and thanking me for it as plain as though he could talk.</p> + +<p>"'But oh, how he hated to be tied up! Fact is, he made such a fuss I +stayed out there with him till past my bed-time; and when at last I had +to go I left him howling and tugging at the string. Well, I went to +sleep, and, after a while, I woke up, and that dog was at it still. I +could hear him howl just as plain, though the shed-chamber was at the +back of the house, ever so far from my room. I knew mother hadn't come +upstairs, for the gas was burning in the halls, as she always turned it +off the last thing; and I thought to myself: "If she hears the dog when +she comes up, maybe she'll put him out, and I never shall see him +again." And before I knew what I was about I was running through the +hall <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" />and the trunk-room, and so out into the shed. It was pitch dark +out there, but I found my way to Grip easy enough by the noise he made +when he saw me; and it didn't take long to untie the string and catch +him up and run back with him to my room. I knew he would be as still as +a mouse in there with me. You were lonesome out there in the shed, +weren't you, Grip?</p> + +<p>"'What would mother say? Well, you see, I meant to keep awake till she +came upstairs and tell her all about it; but I was so tired I dropped +asleep in a minute, and the first thing I knew I was dreaming that I was +running up Brooks Street with Grip in my arms, and the bull-dog close +after us, and just as he was going to spring mother screamed, and +somebody kept saying, "'St, boy! 'st, boy! stick to him, good <a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" />dog! +stick to him!" And then I woke up, and mother really was screaming, and +'twas Fred who was saying, "Stick to him! stick to him!" And the gas was +lit in the hall, and there was a great noise and hubbub out there, and I +rushed out, and there was a man on the floor and the yellow dog had him +by the throat. Father stood in the door-way with his pistol cocked, and +he said in a quiet kind of way (just as father always speaks when he +means business): "If you stir you are a dead man!" But I should like to +know how he could stir with that grip on his throat!</p> + +<p>"'Then there came a banging and ringing at our front door, and Fred ran +to open it, and in rushed our policeman—I mean the one that takes our +street on his beat. He had heard the noise <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" />outside, you see, and, for a +wonder, was on hand when he was wanted; and he just went for that fellow +on the floor and clapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists as quick as +you could turn your hand over; and when he got a look at him he says: +"Oh, it's you, Bill Long, is it? We've been wanting you for some time at +the lodge (that was his name for the police-station). Well, get up and +come along!"</p> + +<p>"'But I called the dog off.</p> + +<p>"'We didn't one of us go to bed again that night. Father and Fred looked +through the house, and father said it was the neatest piece of work in +the burglary line he ever saw done—real professionals, they were. There +was two of 'em. They'd taken plenty of time. The forks and the spoons +and the two hundred dollars in money <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" />was all done up in neat packages, +and they'd been through father's desk and the secretary drawers; and +they'd had a lunch of cold chicken and mince-pie, and left the marks of +their greasy hands on the best damask napkins Bridget had ironed that +day and left to air by the kitchen range. And then, you see, while one +stayed below to keep watch, the other went up to finish the job; and he +would have finished it, too, and both would have got away with all the +things if it hadn't have been for that dog. Look at him! will you? I +believe he understands every word I say as well as you do.</p> + +<p>"'Well, right at the door of father's room, Grip took him. How did he +lay the fellow on his back? We suppose he was creeping into the room on +his hands and knees,—they often do, <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" />father says,—and the dog made a +rush at him in front and gripped him in the throat, and the weight of +the dog threw him backward; and once down, Grip kept him there—see?</p> + +<p>"'Next morning at breakfast father said: "Tommy, how came the dog in the +upper hall last night? I told you to tie him up in the shed-chamber." +Then I had to own up, and tell how I went late in the evening and +brought him to my room because he howled so. I said I was real sorry, +and father said he would try to forgive me, seeing it all turned out +well, and if Grip hadn't been there we should have lost so much money. +And says I: "Father, don't you mean to take him round to Station C this +morning?" "No, I don't," says father. Then mother said she didn't know +but she'd about as soon lose the <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" />silver as to keep such a dog as that +in the house, and Fred said if I must have a dog, why didn't father get +me a black-and-tan terrier—"or a lovely pug," says Liz; and between 'em +they got me so stirred up I didn't know what to do. I said I didn't want +a black-and-tan, and I'd throw a pug out of the window! And if nobody +wanted to keep Grip, we'd go off together somewhere and earn our living, +and I guessed the next time burglars got into the house and carried off +all the money and things because we weren't there to stop 'em, they'd be +sorry they 'd treated us so. Then I looked out of the window and winked +hard to keep from crying. Wasn't I a silly?</p> + +<p>"'For they were only teasing me, and every one of them wanted to keep +Grip. Well, that's all. No, it isn't quite all <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" />either; for one morning +a man came to the house and wanted to see father—horrid man with a red +face and a squint in one eye. I remembered him right away. He was one of +the crowd looking on at the dog-fight down in River Street. He said he'd +lost a dog, a very valuable dog, and he'd heard we'd got him. Father +asked what kind of a dog, and he said yellow, and went on describing our +Grip exactly, till I couldn't hold in another minute for fear father +would let him have the dog. So I got round behind father's chair and +whispered: "Buy him, father! buy him!"</p> + +<p>"'Fred called me a great goony, and said if I'd kept still father could +have got the dog for half what he paid for him. Just because Fred is +sixteen he thinks he knows every thing, and he's <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" />always lording it over +me. He says I'll never make a business man—I ain't sharp enough. But I +think five dollars is cheap enough for a dog that can tackle a burglar +and scare off tramps and pedlars—don't you?'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" /><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" />CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h2>ONE DAY IN A MODEL CITY.</h2> + + +<p>"I will tell you, to-day," said Miss Ruth, after the members of her +Society were quietly settled at their work, "about a race of little +people who lived thousands and thousands of years ago. When the great +trees were growing, out of which the coal we use was made, this race +inhabited the earth as they do now in great numbers. We know this +because their bodies are found perfectly preserved in pieces of coal and +amber. Amber, you know, is a kind of gum that drops from certain trees +and hardens, becoming very transparent and of a pretty yellow color. It +is supposed that the little creatures found imbedded <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" />in it came to +their death in running up the trunks of these trees, their feet sticking +in the soft gum, and drop by drop trickling down on them till they were +fast imprisoned in a beautiful transparent tomb.</p> + +<p>"I remember seeing once at a museum a small black ant preserved in +amber, and he looked so natural and lifelike, so like the ants we see +running about to-day, that it was hard to realize that he came to his +death so long, so very long ago; in fact, before this earth of ours was +ready for the creation of man. What strange sights those little +bead-eyes of his must have seen!</p> + +<p>"When our ancestors were rude barbarians, living in caves and in holes +they dug in the ground, the little people dwelt in cities built with +wonderful skill and ingenuity; and while our fore<a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" />fathers were leading a +rude, selfish life,—herding together, it is true, but with no organized +government or fixed principles of industry and good order, living each +one for himself, the strong oppressing the weak,—the little folks were +ruled by a strict civil and military code. They lived together as +brethren, having all things in common—were temperate, cleanly, +industrious, civilized.</p> + +<p>"Well, there are plenty of their descendants living all about us to-day, +and I want you to become better acquainted with them, for they are very +wise and cunning in their ways. Whenever you cross a meadow, or even +when you are walking on the public road, unless you take heed to your +steps, the chances are that you set your foot more than once on a little +heap of loose sand that we call an ant-hill. The next time you discover +the accident—I am sure you will <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" />not do it on purpose—wait a few +moments and see what will happen. What you have done is to block up the +main entrance to an underground city, sending a quantity of loose earth +down the avenue, which the inhabitants must at great labor remove.</p> + +<p>"Let us hope none of the little people were at that instant either +leaving or entering the city by that gate, for if so, they were either +killed outright or badly hurt. Soon you will see one and another citizen +pushing his way through the <i>débris</i>, running wildly and excitedly +about, as though greatly frightened and distressed at the state of +things. Then more carefully surveying the ruins, apparently consulting +together as to what is best to be done, until, a plan of action having +been devised and settled upon, if you wait long enough, you will see a +band of workers in an orderly, sys<a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" />tematic manner begin to repair the +damage. All this happens every time you tread on an ant-hill. If a +passing animal breaks down the embankment,—a horse or a cow,—of course +the injury done is much greater. In such a case every worker in the city +is put to hard labor till the streets are cleared, the houses rebuilt, +and all traces of the disaster removed.</p> + +<p>"I am sure you will be interested to know what goes on from morning till +night in one of these ant-cities, and I have written out on purpose to +read to you this afternoon an account of one day's proceedings. I call +my paper</p> + + +<p><b>LIFE IN AN ANT-HILL; OR, ONE DAY IN A MODEL CITY.</b></p> + +<p>"At sunrise the doors and gates were opened, and every body was awake +and <a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" />stirring, from the queen in her palace to the servants who brought +in the meals and kept things tidy about the houses; and then, in +accordance with a good old custom handed down from generation to +generation, the first thing every body did on getting out of bed was to +take a bath. Such a washing and scrubbing and sponging off and rubbing +down as went on in every house, you can imagine. It made no difference +what kind of work one was going about,—plastering, brick-laying, or +digging of ditches,—like a sensible fellow, he went fresh and clean to +it every day.</p> + +<p>"Of course the queen-mother and the little princes and princesses, with +a palace full of servants to wait on them, had all these offices of the +toilet performed for them; but what do you <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" />think of common working +folks going about from house to house to help each other wash up for the +day? Fancy having a neighbor step in bright and early to wash your face +and hands for you, or give you a sponge-bath, or a nice dry rub!</p> + +<p>"After the wash came milking-time. Now, all the cows were pastured +outside the city, and the servants who had the care of them hurried off +as fast as they could, because the milk was needed for breakfast, +especially for the babies. A beautiful road led to the milking-ground, +broad and level, and so clean and well kept that not a stick or stone or +rut or mud-hole was to be found in it from beginning to end. And this +was true of all the streets and avenues, lanes and alleys, about the +city.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" />I don't know how they managed to keep them in such good +condition—whether they appointed street commissioners or a committee on +highways; but I wish those who have the care of the roads in Greenmeadow +would take a lesson from them, so that two little girls I know needn't +be kept from church so many Sundays in the spring because the mud is +deep at the crossings.</p> + +<p>"But I must tell you about the cows. There were a great many of them +quietly feeding in their pleasant pasture, and they were of several +different kinds. I don't know by what names their masters called them, +but I do know these gentle creatures were to them just what the pretty +Alderneys and Durhams are to us, and that they were treated with all the +kindness and consideration the wise <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" />farmer gives to his domestic +animals. There was one kind, a little white cow with queer crooked horns +and quite blind. These they made pets of, not putting them out to +pasture with the rest of the herd, but allowing them to walk the streets +and go in and out of the houses at their pleasure, treating them much as +we treat our cats and dogs.</p> + +<p>"While the milking was going on, every cow was stroked and patted and +gently caressed, and the good little creatures responded to this +treatment by giving down their milk without a kick or a single toss of +the horns. Such nice milk as it was—as sweet and as rich as honey! and +the babies who fed on it got as fat as little pigs.</p> + +<p>"By the time breakfast was over, the sun was well up, and all in the +city went <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" />about the day's business. There was much building going on, +for the place was densely populated and was growing rapidly. Great +blocks were rising, story upon story, every part going on at the same +time, with halls and galleries and closets and winding staircases, all +connected and leading into each other, after a curious and wonderful +fashion. Of course it took a great many workmen to construct these +buildings—carpenters, masons, bricklayers, plasterers, besides +architects and engineers; for the houses were all built on scientific +principles, and there were under-ground passages to be built that +required great skill and practical knowledge in their construction.</p> + +<p>"The mortar and bricks were made outside the city gates, and all day +gangs of workers journeyed back and forth to <a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" />bring in supplies. They +were hurrying, bustling, busy, but in good order and at perfect +understanding with each other. If one stopped to exchange greetings with +an acquaintance, to hear a bit of gossip perhaps, or to tell the latest +news, he would pick up his load in a great hurry and start off at a +round trot, as though he meant to make up for lost time. More than one +overburdened worker was eased of a part of his load, some good-natured +comrade adding it to his own. Thousands of bricks and as many loads of +mortar were brought into the city by these industrious people every day, +and their work was done quietly, thoroughly, and with wonderful +quickness and precision.</p> + +<p>"All this while there was plenty of indoor work going on; and the +queen's body-guard, the babies' nurses, the <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" />attendants on the princes +and princesses, the waiters and tenders, the sweepers and cleaners—all +were as busy as you please. It was a pretty sight to see the nurses +bring the babies out-of-doors for a sun-bath. The plump little +things—some of them wrapped in mantles of white or yellow silk, others +with only their skins to cover them—were laid down in soft spots on the +grass, where they were watched with the tenderest care by their +foster-mothers. If they were hungry, they had but to open their mouths +and there was plenty of food ready for them. If so much as a breath of +wind stirred the grass, or a little cloud obscured the sun, every nurse +snatched a baby and scampered back with it to the nursery, lest it +should take cold.</p> + +<p>"At noon the queen, attended by <a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" />her body-guard, made a royal progress +through the city. She was of a portly presence, had pretty silky hair, +and was dressed plainly in dark velvet. The little princesses wore +ruffles and silk mantillas, of all the colors of the rainbow; but the +queen-mother had far more important business to attend to than the +adornment of her person, and in her self-devotion to her commonwealth +had long ago, of her own free will, laid aside flounces and furbelows. +What a good motherly body she was! and how devoted her subjects were to +her! Every-where she went she was followed by an admiring crowd. No home +was too humble for her to enter, and under each roof she was received +with the liveliest demonstrations of loyalty and delight. The happy +people thronged about her. They skipped, <a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" />they danced, they embraced +each other in their joy. At times it was hard to restrain them within +proper bounds of respect to the royal person; but the guard well +understood their duties. They watched her every step, shielding and +protecting her with respectful devotion. They formed a barrier about her +when she rested, offered her refreshment at her first symptom of +weariness, and presently conducted her in regal state back to the +palace, hastening her progress at the last, that she might be spared the +sight of a sad little cavalcade just then approaching the gate.</p> + +<p>"There had been an accident to the workers employed in excavating an +under-ground road. A portion of the earth-works had caved in, and two +unfortunates had been buried in the ruins. Their companions, after hours +of<a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" /> arduous and indefatigable labor, had succeeded in recovering the +bodies, and were bringing them home for burial; while a third +victim—still living, but grievously crushed and wounded—was borne +tenderly along, with frequent stoppages by the way as his weakness +required. A crowd of sympathizing neighbors and friends went out to meet +the wonderful procession. Strong, willing arms relieved the weary +bearers of their burden, and the sufferer was conveyed to his home, +where his poor body was cleansed, and a healing ointment of wonderful +efficacy and power applied to his wounds. Meanwhile the corpses were +decently disposed outside the gates, awaiting burial; graves were +prepared in the cemetery, and at sunset the funeral took place.</p> + +<p>"But the day was not to end with <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" />this sad ceremony; for at twilight a +sentinel ran in with the glad news that two well-beloved citizens, sent +on an embassy to a distant country, and who had remained so long away +that they had been given up for dead, were returning: in fact, were at +that moment coming up the avenue to the gate. Then was there great +rejoicing, the whole city turning out to welcome them; and the poor +travelers, footsore and weary, and ready but now to lie down and die by +the road-side, so spent were they by the perils and hardships they had +undergone, suddenly found themselves within sight of home, surrounded by +friends, companions, brothers, who embraced them rapturously, praising +them for their fortitude and bravery, pitying their present weakness, +caressing, cheering, comforting them.<a name="Page_145" id="Page_145" /> So they were brought in triumph +back to their beloved city, where a banquet was prepared in honor of +their return.</p> + +<p>"So general and engrossing was the interest felt in this event, that a +public calamity had well-nigh followed. The attendants on the princes +and princesses (usually most vigilant and faithful), in the excitement +of the occasion, forgot their charge, and the young folks instantly +seized the opportunity to rush out of the city by a side gate; and when +they were discovered were half-way across the meadow, and making for the +wood beyond. In this wood (very dark and dreary) great danger, possibly +death, would have overtaken them; but the silly things, impatient of the +wholesome restraint in which, by order of the government, they were held +till they should arrive at years of discretion, <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146" />thought only of gaining +their freedom, and were pushing on at a great pace, frisking and +frolicking together as they went. They were, however, seen in time to +avert the catastrophe, speedily brought back to duty, and given +decidedly, though respectfully, to understand that, though scions of a +royal race, they were still to consider themselves under tutors and +governors.</p> + +<p>"Then all was quiet. The gates were closed, the good little people laid +themselves down to sleep, the sentinels began their watch, and night +settled down upon the peaceful city. Presently the moon rose, lighting +its single shapely dome, the deserted road lately trod-den by so many +busy feet, and the dewy meadow where the cattle were resting.</p> + +<p>"And now I wish we might say goodnight to the simple, kindly people +whose <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147" />occupations we have followed for a day, leaving them in the +assurance that many such days were to follow, and that they were long to +enjoy the peace and prosperity they so richly deserved. How pleasant to +think of them building their houses, tending their flocks, taking care +of the little ones, waiting upon their good queen, in the practice of +all those virtues that make a community happy and prosperous! But, alas! +this very day the chieftains of a neighboring tribe had met and planned +an assault upon this quiet city that was to result in great loss of +property and life, and of that which to them was far more precious than +either.</p> + +<p>"There was not the shadow of an excuse for the invasion. The hill +people—a fierce, brave tribe, trained under a military government, and +accustomed <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148" />to fighting from their youth—had no quarrel with the +citizens of the plain, who had no mind to fight with their neighbors or +to interfere with any one's rights. But the hill people were +slave-holders, and, whenever their establishments wanted replenishing, +they sent out an army to attack some neighboring city; and if they +gained the victory (as they were pretty sure to do, for they were a +fierce, brave race), they would rush into every house in the city and +carry off all the babies they could find, to be brought up as slaves.</p> + +<p>"And this is what they had planned to do to the pretty city lying asleep +in the moonlight on a July evening.</p> + +<p>"They started about noon—a large body of infantry, making a fine show; +for they wore polished armor as black as jet, that shone in the sun, and +every one <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149" />of them carried a murderous weapon. The advance guard was +made up of the biggest and bravest, while the veterans, and the young +soldiers who lacked experience, brought up the rear.</p> + +<p>"They had a long wearisome march across a rocky plain and up a steep +hill. Then there was a river to cross, and on the other side a stretch +of desert land, where the hot sun beat upon their heads, and where it +must have been hard to keep up the rapid pace at which they marched. But +they pressed on, and woe to him who stumbled and fell! for not a soldier +was allowed to stop an instant to help his fallen comrade. The whole +army swept on and over him, and there was no straggling from the close +ranks or resting for one instant till the day's journey was +accomplished.</p> + +<p>"The last stage of the journey was <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150" />through a dreary wood. Here they +were exposed to many unseen dangers. Beasts of prey sprang out upon and +devoured them. A big bird swooped down and carried aloft some poor +wretch whose fate it was to fill the hungry maw of a baby bird. And many +an unfortunate, getting entangled in a soft gray curtain of silk that +hung across the path, struggled vainly to extricate himself, till the +hairy monster which had woven the snare crept out of his den and cracked +his bones and sucked the last drop of his blood.</p> + +<p>"It was night when, weary and dusty, the army reached the borders of the +wood. But they forgot both their fatigue and their losses by the way +when they saw before them in the middle of a green meadow, its dome +glittering in the light of the setting <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151" />sun, the pretty, prosperous city +they had braved all these dangers to rob.</p> + +<p>"They rested that night, but were on the march soon after sunrise. A few +rushed forward to surprise the sentinels on guard, while the main body +of the army advanced more slowly, in solid phalanx, their brave +coats-of-mail catching the early rays of the sun.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile the peaceful inhabitants, all unconscious of coming disaster, +pursued their usual occupations—waiting on the queen-mother, milking +the kine, building houses, cleaning the streets. Then came the alarm: +'The foe is at the gate!' and you should have seen of what brave stuff +the little folks were made; how each one left his occupation or dropped +his implement of labor, and from palace, hall, and hut, ran out to +defend the beloved city. Only the <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152" />queen's body-guard remained and a few +of the nurses left in charge of the babies.</p> + +<p>"And it was wonderful to mark how their courage gave them strength. +Their assailants were of a taller, stronger race than they; but the +little folks had the advantage in numbers, were quiet and light in their +movements, and possessed a double portion of the bravery good patriots +feel in the defence of the commonwealth.</p> + +<p>"They threw themselves face to face and limb to limb upon their +assailants. With their living bodies they raised a wall across the track +of the army, and, as they came once and again, and yet again, they drove +them back. Hundreds were slain at every onslaught, but hundreds +instantly filled their places. There were plenty of single combats. One +would throw himself upon his antago<a name="Page_153" id="Page_153" />nist and cling there till he was cut +in pieces and fell to the ground, and another and another would spring +to take his place to meet the same fate. Dozens fought together—heads, +legs, and bodies intertwining in an indistinguishable mass, each held in +a savage grip that only loosened in death. A dozen devoted themselves to +certain death for the chance of killing a single antagonist. Surely such +desperate bravery, such generous heroism, deserved to gain a victory!</p> + +<p>"But there was a sudden rush, a break in the ranks, and, lo! the little +people were running back to the city,—back in all haste,—if, by any +possibility, they might save from the victor's clutch the treasures they +prized most. But what availed their efforts? The enemy was close behind +them, forcing <a name="Page_154" id="Page_154" />their way through the main entrance and the side gates, +till the whole army was pouring into the devoted city.</p> + +<p>"Can you imagine the scene that followed? The queen-mother and the young +princes and princesses were left undisturbed in their apartments, but +into every other house in the city, the rude soldiers rushed, searching +for the poor babies. Many of them their nurses had hidden away, hoping +that in the confusion their hiding-places would not be discovered; but +the cunning fellows—old hands some of them at the business—seemed to +know just where to look. Hundreds and hundreds of little ones were +captured that day. The faithful attendants clasped and clung to them, +suffering themselves to be torn in pieces before giving them up, but the +sacrifice was in vain.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_155" id="Page_155" />The moon shone down that night upon a ghastly scene. The dead and +dying strewed the ground, and the avenues leading to the city were +choked with the slain. Hundreds of homes were made desolate, that only +the night before were full of peaceful content.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile, the conquering army, laden with spoils, after another +difficult and toilsome journey had reached their home. The captive +babies were consigned to the care of slaves, procured long ago in a +similar way, and who, apparently contented and happy, for they knew no +other life, devoted all their energies to the service of their captors.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is an old story. Ever since the world began the strong have +oppressed the weak,—and ants or men, for greed or gold, will do their +neighbors wrong."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_156" id="Page_156" />Well," said Mollie, as Miss Ruth laid down the last sheet of her +manuscript, "if you hadn't told us beforehand that it was ants you were +going to read about I should certainly have thought they were people. +Don't they act for all the world just like folks? and who would ever +think such little creatures could be so wise!"</p> + +<p>"What I want to know," said Susie, "is, If the ant-cities are +underground, how can any one see what goes on in them?"</p> + +<p>"That is easily managed," Miss Ruth answered.</p> + +<p>"A nest is taken up with a quantity of the earth that surrounds it, then +it is cut down from the top—as you would halve a loaf of bread—and the +divided parts are placed in glass cases made purposely to receive them. +Of course, the <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157" />little people are greatly disturbed for a time, and no +wonder; but they soon grow accustomed to the new surroundings and go on +with their every-day employments as if nothing had happened. The sides +of the case make a fine firm wall for their city; they are furnished +with plenty of food and building material, and soon they can be seen +busy at work clearing their streets, building houses, feeding the +babies, and quite contented and happy in their glass city. If, after +months of separation, an ant from one half of the divided nest should be +put into the other he would be recognized at once and welcomed with joy; +but if a stranger were introduced he would be attacked and probably +killed."</p> + +<p>"We had a great time with the ants at our house last summer," said Eliza +Jones: "little mites of red things, you <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158" />know, and they <i>would</i> get into +the cake-chest and the sugar-bucket, and bothered ma so she had to keep +all the sweet things on a table with its legs in basins of water. They +couldn't get over that, you see."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" Mollie asked. "Can't they swim?"</p> + +<p>"Ours couldn't; lots of them fell in the water and were drowned."</p> + +<p>"Ants are usually quite helpless in the water," Miss Ruth said, "though +a French writer who has made the little folks a study, tells a story of +six soldier ants who rescued their companions from drowning. He put his +sugar-basin in a vessel of water, and several adventurous ants climbed +to the ceiling and dropped into it. Four missed their aim and fell +outside the bowl in the water. Their companions tried in vain to rescue +them, <a name="Page_159" id="Page_159" />then went away and presently returned accompanied by six +grenadiers, stout fellows, who immediately swam to their relief, seized +them with their pincers and brought them to land. Three were apparently +dead, but the faithful fellows licked and rubbed them quite dry, rolling +them over and over, stretching themselves on them, and in a truly +skillful and scientific manner sought to bring back life to their +benumbed bodies. Under this treatment three came to life, while one only +partly restored was carefully borne away. 'I have seen it' is Du Pont de +Nervours's comment on what he thinks may be considered a marvelous +story, though it seems no more wonderful to me than many well-attested +facts in the lives of the little people."</p> + +<p>"It's all wonderful," Susie said. "It seems as though they must think +and <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160" />reason and plan just as we do. Don't you think so, Auntie?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do, Susie. One who has long studied their ways ranks them next +to man in the scale of intelligence, and says the brain of an ant—no +larger perhaps than a fine grain of sand—must be the most wonderful +particle of matter in the world."</p> + +<p>"But they can't talk, Auntie?"</p> + +<p>"I am not so sure of that. Their voices may be too fine and high-pitched +for our great ears to hear. I fancy there is a deal of conversation +carried on in the grass and the bushes and the trees, that we know +nothing about."</p> + +<p>"How funny! What did you mean, Auntie, when you said the queen laid off +all her flounces and furbelows."</p> + +<p>"I was rather fancifully describing her wings, dear, which she takes off +herself <a name="Page_161" id="Page_161" />when she enters the nest, having no further use for them. There +are three kinds of ants in every nest: perfect males and females, and +the workers. There are many different races of ants, from the great +white ant of Africa—a terror to the natives, though in some respects +his good friend—down to the little red-and-yellow meadow ants so common +among us. The ants I have told you about, the Rufians and the Fuscans, +are natives of America, and are found in New England. The big black ant +so common here, sometimes called the jet ant, is a carpenter and a +wood-carver. His great jaws bore through the hardest wood, and his +pretty galleries and winding staircases penetrate through the beams and +rafters of many an old mansion. Not long ago I accidentally killed a +carpenter ant, and in a few minutes a comrade appeared who <a name="Page_162" id="Page_162" />slowly, and +apparently with great labor and fatigue, bore away the body. I felt as +though I were looking on at a funeral.</p> + +<p>"I wish I had time to tell you about the agricultural ant of Texas, and +the umbrella ants of Florida, who cut bits of leaf from the orange-trees +and march home with them in procession, holding each leaf in an upright +position. Fancy how odd they must look! But we have talked long enough +for this time about the little people, and I am sure you all agree with +King Solomon that they are 'exceeding wise.'"</p> + +<p>"I never will step on an ant-hill again if I can possibly help it," said +Susie. "It's too bad to make those hard-working folks so much trouble.</p> + +<p>"And I mean to put my ear close down to the ground," said Nellie Dimock, +"and listen and listen, so as to hear the ants talk to each other."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" /><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163" />CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h2>THE STORY OF OLD STAR.</h2> + + +<p>"Say, Sam!" said Roy Tyler, as the two boys were driving old Brindle +home from pasture the next evening, "don't you wish she'd tell us some +stories about horses? I'm tired of hearing about cats and ants."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know," Sammy answered; "'twas funny about old Robber +Grim. There's just such an old cat round our barn, catchin' chickens and +suckin' eggs. I've fired more rocks at that feller—hit him once in the +hind leg an' he went off limpin'."</p> + +<p>"Well, I want a horse story, and I know she'd just as soon tell one as +not, <a name="Page_164" id="Page_164" />if somebody would only ask her. Those girls will be wantin' +another cat story if we don't start something else. Girls always do like +cats," said Roy, a little scornfully. "Say, Sam, you ask her, will you?"</p> + +<p>"Why don't you ask her yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know. I tried to yesterday, but somehow I couldn't get it +out."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll tell you what I will do," said good-natured Sammy. "You come +round to-night after I get my chores done up, and we'll go together and +have it over with."</p> + +<p>"All right; I'll come," said Roy.</p> + +<p>They found Miss Ruth alone, for it was Thursday night and the minister's +family were at the prayer-meeting. The September evening was chilly, and +she was sitting before an open fire.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_165" id="Page_165" />You do the talking," Roy whispered at the door, and accordingly Sammy, +after fidgeting in his seat a little, opened the subject.</p> + +<p>"Roy wants me to ask you," he began, and then stopped at a punch in the +side from Roy's knuckles, and began again: "Me and Roy would like—if it +wouldn't be too much trouble, and you'd just as soon as not—to have you +tell us a horse story next time." Then in a loud whisper aside to Roy: +"You <i>did</i> ask me! You know you did."</p> + +<p>"Well, you needn't put it all on me, if I did," Roy answered, in the +same tone.</p> + +<p>Miss Ruth appeared not to notice this by-play.</p> + +<p>"A horse story," she said pleasantly; "yes, why not?"</p> + +<p>"You see," Sammy continued, "we like to hear about cats well enough, and +<a name="Page_166" id="Page_166" />that ant battle was first-rate—I'd like to have seen it, I know; but +Roy, he says the girls might be writin' notes askin' you to tell more +cat stories and—and—well"—</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see," she said; "too much of a good thing. Well, I will tell no +more cat stories, and it shall be all horse next Wednesday. Will that +suit you, Sammy? And Roy, do you like horses very much?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, 'm," said Roy, bashfully.</p> + +<p>"He says," said Sammy, rather enjoying the office of spokesman, "when he +grows up he means to have a fast trotter. I'd like to own a good horse +myself," continued Sam.</p> + +<p>"I know a boy about your age," said Miss Ruth, "whose father gave him, +for a birthday present, a Canadian pony; a funny looking little beast, +not much <a name="Page_167" id="Page_167" />larger than a big dog, but strong enough to carry double +Herbert's weight."</p> + +<p>"Like the Shetland ponies at the show?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but larger, and not so costly. He is a thick-set, shaggy fellow, +always looking as if he were not half-groomed, with his coat all rough +and tumbled, his legs covered with thick hair, his mane hanging on both +sides of his neck, and his forelock always getting into his bright +little eyes."</p> + +<p>"What color?" said Roy.</p> + +<p>"Dark brown; not handsome, but so affectionate and intelligent that you +would love him dearly. He is as frolicsome as a kitten, and I laughed +and laughed again to see him racing round the yard, hardly able to see +for the shag of hair tumbling over his eyes, playing queer tricks and +making uncouth gam<a name="Page_168" id="Page_168" />bols, more like a big puppy than a small horse. To be +sure he has a will of his own, and has more than once—just for +fun—thrown his young master over his head; but he always stands stock +still till the boy is on his back again, and as Herbert says: 'It is +only a little way to fall from his back to the ground.'"</p> + +<p>"How fast will he go?" Roy asked.</p> + +<p>"Fast enough for a boy to ride. From five to seven miles an hour, +perhaps, and keep it up all day, if need be, for the Canadian horses +have great strength and endurance. The last time I saw Herbert he told +me a pretty story about Elf King."</p> + +<p>"Is that his name?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; isn't it a pretty name? Elf for fairy, you know, and King for the +head of the fairies. But perhaps I am keeping you, boys. Is there any +thing you ought to be doing at home?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_169" id="Page_169" />No, no!" both answered together, and Sammy answered that he did up all +his chores before he came away.</p> + +<p>"Very well; then I will tell you about Elf King's visit to the +blacksmith."</p> + +<p>"Instead of next Wednesday?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, no! I have a long story for next Wednesday. This is very +short, and doesn't count; is just a little private entertainment thrown +in on our own account."</p> + +<p>Roy, who had all this time sat uncomfortably on the edge of his chair, +settled back, and Sammy made use of his favorite expression:—</p> + +<p>"All right!"</p> + +<p>"When Elf King came into Herbert's possession he had never been shod; +but very soon he was taken to the village blacksmith and four funny +little shoes fitted to his feet, which, when he was accustomed to, he +liked very much.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_170" id="Page_170" />One day the blacksmith saw the pony trotting up to his shop without a +halter. He supposed the little thing had strayed from home, and drove +him off, and when he refused to go, threw stones at him to make him run +away. But in a few moments back he came again. When the blacksmith went +out a second time to drive him off he noticed his feet and saw that one +shoe was missing. So he made a shoe, the pony standing by, quietly +waiting. When the new shoe was fitted Elf King pawed two or three times +to see if it felt comfortable, gave a pleased little neigh, as much as +to say, 'Yes, that's all right; thank you!' and started for home on a +brisk trot.</p> + +<p>"Think how surprised and pleased Herbert was when he went to the stable +to ride Elf King to the blacksmith's, to <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171" />find that the sharp little +pony had taken the business into his own hands."</p> + +<p>"I tell you," said Roy, "that's a horse worth having. What do you +suppose that boy would take for him?"</p> + +<p>"More money than you could raise in a hurry," said Sammy. "Miss Ruth, if +you had a horse now that jibbed, would you lick him?"</p> + +<p>"That jibbed," she repeated doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes; stopped in the road, you know; wouldn't go."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; now I understand. No, indeed, Sammy! If I had a horse +that—jibbed, I should be very patient with him and try to cure him of +the bad habit by kindness. I should know that beating would make him +worse."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's what I think, and the other day pa and I were huskin' corn +in <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172" />the barn, and there was a horse jibbed on our hill, and the driver +got down and licked him with the butt end of his whip, and kicked him +with his great cowhide boots, and I asked pa if I might take out a +measure of oats and see if I couldn't coax that horse to take his load +up the hill—you see pa owned a jibber once and I knew how he used to +manage him. And pa said I might, only I'd better look out or the fellow +would use me as he was usin' the horse. But I wasn't afraid, for he was +half-drunk, and I knew I could clip it faster'n he could.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, I went out there and I stood around a while, and says I, +'What'll you bet I can't get your horse to the top of the hill?' And he +said he wouldn't bet a red cent. 'Well,' says I,'will you let me try +just for fun?'<a name="Page_173" id="Page_173" /> and he said, 'Yes, I might try all day if I wanted to.' +And I got him to stand one side, where the horse couldn't see him, and I +went up to the horse's head and stroked his nose and gave him a handful +of oats, just a little taste, you know, and when he was kind of calmed +down I went a ways ahead holdin' out the measure of oats, and if that +horse didn't follow me up that hill just as quiet as an old sheep, and +the man he stood by and looked streaked, I tell you!"</p> + +<p>Sammy told his story with considerable animation and some forcible +gestures.</p> + +<p>"That was well done," said Miss Ruth, "and I hope the cruel fellow +profited by the lesson you gave him. I don't think I'm naturally +vindictive, but when I see a man beating a horse<a name="Page_174" id="Page_174" /> I find myself wishing +I was strong enough to snatch the whip from him and lay it well about +his own shoulders. But come, boys, the fire is down to coals—just right +for popping corn. Sammy, you know the way to the kitchen. Ask Lovina for +the corn-popper and a dish, and, Roy, you'll find a paper bag full of +corn in the cupboard yonder. Quick, now, and we'll have the dish piled +by the time Susie and Mollie are back from meeting."</p> + +<p>"Haven't we had a gay old time," said Roy, on the way home, "and ain't +you glad I put you up to coming, Sam Ray?" And Sammy admitted that he +was.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Now, girls and boys," said Miss Ruth, on the next Wednesday afternoon, +"I am going to take you on a <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175" />long journey,—in fancy, I mean,—over the +hills and plains and valleys, to the country of the Far West, with its +rolling prairies and big fields of wheat and corn. You shall be set down +in a green meadow, with a stream running through it, shallow and clear +at this time of year, but a little later, when the September rains have +filled it, rushing along full of deep, muddy water.</p> + +<p>"Under a big oak in about the middle of the pasture you will find an old +horse feeding. He is fat and sleepy looking, and has a kind face, and a +white spot on his forehead. This is Old Star, Farmer Horton's +family-horse. You may pat his neck and stroke his nose and feed him a +cookie or a bit of gingerbread,—I am afraid the old fellow hasn't teeth +enough left to chew an apple,—and then you may sit near him on the +<a name="Page_176" id="Page_176" />grass, and while I read aloud to you, fancy that he is talking, and, if +you have plenty of imagination, you will get</p> + + +<p><b>THE STORY OF OLD STAR, TOLD BY HIMSELF.</b></p> + +<p>"I hope nobody thinks I am turned out in this pasture because I am too +old to work. Horses pass here every day drawing heavy loads, older by +half a dozen years than I am, poor broken-down hacks too, most of them, +while I—well, if it wasn't for a little stiffness in the joints and a +giving out of wind, now and then, I can't see but what I'm as well able +to travel as I ever was.</p> + +<p>"The fact is, I never was put to hard work. There were always horses +enough besides me on the place to do the farm work and the teaming—Tom +and Jerry and the colt, you know; not Filly's colt:<a name="Page_177" id="Page_177" /> he died, poor +thing, before he was a year old, of that disease with a long name that +carried off so many horses all over the country: but a great shambling +big-boned beast old master swapped a yoke of steers for, over to Skipton +Mills. We called him Goliath, he was so tall: strong as an elephant, +too: a powerful hand at a horse-rake and mowing-machine. Well, well, how +time flies, to be sure! He's been dead and gone these five years, and +Tom and Jerry, they were used up long ago—there's a deal of hard work +to be done on a farm of this size, I can tell you; and as to Filly, she +came to a sad end, for she got mired down in the low pasture, and had to +be hauled out with ropes, poor critter, and died of the wet and the +cold.</p> + +<p>"Well, as I was saying, I never was put to hard work. I was born and +<a name="Page_178" id="Page_178" />raised on the place, and I do suppose—though I say it, who +shouldn't—that I was an uncommon fine—looking colt, dark chestnut in +color, and not a white hair on me except this spot in my forehead that +gave me my name. When I was three months old, master made a present of +me to his oldest boy on his sixteenth birthday, and every half-hour +Master Fred could spare from his work, he used to spend in dressing down +and feeding me and teaching me cunning tricks. I could take an apple or +a lump of sugar from his pocket, walk down the slope behind the barn on +two legs, with my forefeet on his shoulders, and shake hands, old master +used to say, 'just like a Christian.'</p> + +<p>"Master Fred set great store by me, as well he might. He's traveled +hundreds of miles on my back over the prairies, <a name="Page_179" id="Page_179" />and we've been out +together many a dark night when he'd drop the lines on my neck and say, +"Well, Star, go ahead if you know the way, for not one inch can I see +before my nose." That was after he learned by experience that I knew +better than he did where to go, and when to stop going. For he lost his +temper and called me hard names one night, when I stopped short in the +middle of the road and wouldn't budge an inch for voice or whip, with +the wind blowing a gale, and the rain coming down in bucketsful. But +when a flash of lightning showed the bridge before us clean washed away, +and only a few feet between us and the steep bank of the river, Master +Fred changed his tune. Afraid! not I; but I'm willing to own I <i>was</i> a +little scared the day we got into the water down by Cook's Cove, for +<a name="Page_180" id="Page_180" />you see I was hitched to the buggy and the lines got tangled about my +legs, and there were chunks of ice and lots of driftwood floating about, +and the current sucking me down; but master had got to shore and stood +on the bank calling, "This way, Star, this way!" and when I heard his +voice I—well, I don't know how I managed to do it, but I turned square +round and swam upstream with the buggy behind me, and got safe and sound +to land. I've heard Master Fred say my back was covered with +river-grass, and I trembled all over with the fright and the hard pull.</p> + +<p>"But, dear me, all that happened long ago when master was courting old +Tim Bunce's daughter Martha, down Stony Creek Road. How that girl did +take to me! She used to say she knew the sound of my hoofs on the road, +of a <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181" />still night, when we were a mile away; and she'd say over a little +rhyme she'd got hold of somehow:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Star, Star, good and bright,<br /></span> +<span>I wish you may and I wish you might<br /></span> +<span>Bring somebody to me I want to see to-night.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"If she said that twice, looking straight down the road, she told us we +were sure to come. She was a plump rosy-cheeked girl when Master Fred +brought her to be mistress here, though you mightn't think it to see her +now, what with the cooking and the dairy-work and raising a big family +of children. But if you want to know what mistress was like twenty years +ago, you've only to look at our Ada.</p> + +<p>"Now, there's a girl for you, as good as she is pretty, and getting to +be a woman grown; though I remember, as though it happened yesterday, +her <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182" />mother's coming out one spring day to where I was nibbling grass in +the door-yard, with her baby in her arms, and holding up the little +thing to me, and saying, 'This is Ada, Star,—you must be good friends +with Ada,' Friends! I should say so. Before that child was a year old, +she used to cry to be held on my back for a ride, and when she was +getting better of the scarlet fever, she kept saying, 'Me 'ant to tee +ole 'Tar,' till, to pacify her, they led me to the open window of the +room where she lay, and she reached her mite of a hand from the bed to +stroke my nose and give me the lump of sugar she had saved for me under +her pillow.</p> + +<p>"Bless the child! And it was just so with all the rest, Tim and Martha +and Fred and Jenny and baby May—there was a new baby in that house +every <a name="Page_183" id="Page_183" />year. Those young ones would crawl over me, and sit on me, when I +was lying down in the stable; ride me, three or four at a time, without +bridle or saddle, and cling to my neck and tail when there was no room +left on my back. They shared their apples and gingerbread with me, and +brought me goodies on a plate sometimes so that I might eat my dinner, +they said, 'like the rest of the folks,' I fetched them to and from +school, and trotted every day to the post-office and the Corners to do +the family errands; and when our Ada was old enough to be trusted to +drive, the whole lot of them would pile into the carryall, and away we +would go for a long ride, through the lanes and the shady woods that +border the pond, stopping a dozen times for the girls to clamber out and +pick the wild posies <a name="Page_184" id="Page_184" />and for the boys to skip stones or wade in the +water. For <i>I</i> was in no hurry to go on. There was plenty of tender +grass to be cropped by the roadside, and the young leaves of the maples +and white birch were sweet and juicy.</p> + +<p>"'Take good care of them, Star,' mistress used to say, standing in the +door-way to see us off; 'you have a precious load, but we trust you, +kind, faithful old friend,'</p> + +<p>"And so she might. I knew I must just creep down the hills with those +children behind me, and never stop for a drink at Rocky Brook, though I +were ever so thirsty, because of the sharp pitch down to the +watering-trough. And though from having been scared nearly to death, +when I was a colt, by a wheelbarrow in the road, I always <i>have</i> to shy +a little when I see one, our<a name="Page_185" id="Page_185" /> Ada will tell you, if you ask her, that in +the circumstances, I behaved very well.</p> + +<p>"<i>She</i> behaved well. She always chose the well-traveled roads, and gave +me plenty of room to turn. Once, I remember, they all wanted to take a +short cut by way of an old corduroy road; and though, if master had been +driving, I should have made no objection, and, as like as not, with a +little jolting and pitching, we should have got safe over, I didn't feel +like taking the responsibility, with all those young ones along, of +going that way; so I tried to make our Ada understand the state of my +mind, and after a while she did; for she said: 'Well, Star, if you don't +want to draw us over those logs, I'm not going to make you,' Now, wasn't +that sensible?</p> + +<p>"Well, if I was proud and happy to <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186" />be trusted with master's family on +week-days, think how I must have felt of a Sunday morning in the summer +time, with mistress dressed in her silk gown, and our Ada in muslin and +pink ribbons, and the boys in their best clothes, and master riding +along-side on Tom or Jerry, all going to meeting together. I liked +hearing the bells ring, and I liked being hitched under the maple-trees, +with all the neighbors' horses to keep me company. We generally dozed +while the folks were indoors, and woke up brisk and lively, and started +for home in procession.</p> + +<p>"But, dear! dear! there came a time when, with five horses on the farm, +not one could be had to give the children a ride or to do a stroke of +work, when master had to foot it to the Corners, and the two steers, Old +Poke and Eye<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187" />bright, dragged mistress and the children to meeting in the +ox-cart.</p> + +<p>"For we were all down with the epizoötic, coughing and sneezing enough +to take our heads off, and so sick and low, some of us, that we couldn't +stand in our stalls, and a man with a red face, Master Fred had over +from Skipton Mills, pouring nasty stuff down our throats, and making us +swallow big black balls of medicine that hurt as they went down—as if +we hadn't enough to suffer before! But our Jenny came to the stable with +a piece of pork-rind, and a bandage she'd made out of her little +red-flannel petticoat, and she wanted Master Fred to put it on my neck; +for, says she: 'That's what ma put on me when I had the sore +throat,'—the blessed child!</p> + +<p>"Well, we all pulled through except<a name="Page_188" id="Page_188" /> Filly's colt. He keeled over one +morning, poor fellow! and was dragged out and buried under the oaks in +the high pasture. But for some reason, I didn't pick up as quick as the +others. The cough held on, and I was pestered for breath, and I didn't +get back my strength; and what I ate didn't seem to fatten me up much, +for Master Fred says one day, laughing, 'Well, Old Star, we've saved +your skin and bones, and that's about all!' However, I got round again, +only my legs had a bad habit of giving way under me, without the least +bit of warning.</p> + +<p>"Our Ada did all she could to keep me up, holding a tight rein, and +saying, 'Steady, Star! steady!' when she saw any signs of stumbling. But +trying to keep from it seemed to make me do it all the more, and down I +would <a name="Page_189" id="Page_189" />come on my poor knees and spill those children out of the wagon, +like blackberries from a full basket.</p> + +<p>"One day, after this had happened, master told our Ada she was not to +drive me any more, and before I had got over feeling bad about that, +there came some thing a great deal worse; for I was standing by the pump +in the backyard one day, and master and mistress were in the porch, and +I heard him tell her he had had an offer from Jones the milkman, to buy +me. 'Twould be an easy place, and he'd promised to treat me well, and +he'd about made up his mind to take up with it; for he couldn't afford +to keep a horse on the place that—well, I don't care to repeat the rest +of the speech. 'Twas rather hard on me, but I haven't laid it up against +master. Fact is, he had a deal to worry <a name="Page_190" id="Page_190" />him about that time, for he was +disappointed in the wheat crop, and the heavy rains had damaged his +corn, and he was feeling mighty poor.</p> + +<p>"But mistress was up in arms in a minute. 'What, sell Star!' says she, +'our good, faithful Star, who's been in the family ever since you were a +boy! and to Ki Jones to peddle milk round Skipton Mills and Hull +Station! O pa!' says mistress, says she, 'have we got down so low as +that? Why 't would break our Ada's heart, and mine too, to see Star +hitched to a milk-cart. Rather than have you do that, says she, 'I'll go +in rags, and keep the children on mush and molasses;' and she put her +apron to her eyes.</p> + +<p>"'Well, well, don't fret!' says master,—and I thought he looked kind o' +ashamed,—'I haven't sold him yet<a name="Page_191" id="Page_191" /> I've a notion to turn him out to +grass a while, and see what that'll do for him,' So the next day he put +me in this pasture.</p> + +<p>"You see that plank bridge yonder, over the creek? That's where our Ada +fell into the water. Master has put up a railing, and made all safe +since the accident happened. 'T was a risky place always, though the +children have crossed it hundreds of times, and none of them ever +tumbled over before.</p> + +<p>"But I hadn't been here a week, when one sunshiny afternoon our Ada came +through the pasture, on her way to visit the sick Simmonses—there's +always some of that tribe down with the chills. She came running up to +me—her little basket, full of goodies, on her arm,—stopped to talk a +minute and feed me an apple, and then passed <a name="Page_192" id="Page_192" />along, while I went on +nibbling grass, till I heard a scream and a splash, and knew, all in a +minute, she must have fallen off the plank bridge into the water. Dear! +dear! what was to be done? I ran to the fence, and looked up and down +the road. Some men were burning brush at the far end of the next field. +I galloped toward them, and back again to the creek, and whinnied and +snorted, and tried my best to make them understand that they were +needed; but they didn't appear to notice, and I just made up my mind, +that if any thing was done to save our Ada from drowning, I was the one +to do it.</p> + +<p>"I made my way through the alder-bushes down by the bank, to a place +where the current sets close in shore. At first I couldn't see any +thing, then <a name="Page_193" id="Page_193" />all at once, there floated on the muddy water close to me, +the little red shawl she wore, then a hand and arm, and her white face +and brown hair all streaming. I caught at her clothes, and though Ada is +a stout girl of her age, and the wet things added a deal to her weight, +I lifted her well out of the water. I remember thinking, 'If only my +poor legs don't give out, I shall do very well,' And they didn't give +out, for when help came—it seems those men in the field <i>had</i> noticed +me, and came to see what was the matter—they found me all in a lather +of sweat, and my eyes starting out of their sockets, but with my feet +braced against a rock, keeping our Ada's head and shoulders well above +water.</p> + +<p>"They got her home as quick as they could, and put her to bed between +hot <a name="Page_194" id="Page_194" />blankets, and the next day she was none the worse for her ducking, +though she carried the print of my teeth in her tender flesh for many a +day; for how was I to know where the child's clothes left off and her +side began.</p> + +<p>"Of course they made a great fuss over me. Mistress came running to meet +me, and put both arms around my neck, and said: 'O Star, you have saved +our darling's life!' and the little ones hugged and kissed me, and the +boys took turns rubbing me down; and I stood knee deep in my stall that +night in fresh straw, and besides my measure of oats, had a warm mash, +three cookies, and half a pumpkin-pie for my supper.</p> + +<p>"But master only patted my neck, and said: 'Well done, Old Star!' Master +Fred and I always did understand one another.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_195" id="Page_195" />There hasn't been any thing more said about selling me to Ki Jones. In +the winter I have a stall at the south side of the stable, where I get +the sun at my window all day, and in summer I live in this pasture, with +shady trees, and cool water, and grass and clover-tops in plenty. I have +nothing to do the live-long day, but to eat and drink and enjoy myself; +but I do hope folks passing along the road don't think I'm turned out in +this field because I'm too old to work."</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Old Star!" said Mollie, as her aunt laid down the paper. "We +are much obliged for your nice story, and we hope you'll live ever so +many years. I wouldn't hint for the world that you aren't as smart as +you used to be."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_196" id="Page_196" />Isn't he rather a self-conceited old horse?" said Nellie Dimock.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes; but that is natural. I suppose he has been more or less +spoiled and petted all his life."</p> + +<p>"When he told about going to meeting," Fannie Eldridge said, "it +reminded me of a story mamma tells, of an old horse up in Granby, that +went to church one Sunday all by himself."</p> + +<p>"How droll! How did it happen, Fannie?"</p> + +<p>"Why, he belonged to two old ladies who went to church always, and +exactly at such a time every Sunday morning Dobbin was hitched to the +chaise and brought round to the front door and Miss Betsey and Miss +Sally got in and drove to church. But one Sunday something hindered +them, and Dobbin waited and waited till the bell stopped <a name="Page_197" id="Page_197" />ringing and +all the other horses which attended church had gone by; and at last he +got clear out of patience, and started along without them. Mamma says +the people laughed to see him trot up to the church-door and down to the +sheds and walk straight into his own place, and when service was over +back himself out and trot home again."</p> + +<p>"What did Miss Betsey and Miss Sally do?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, they had to stay at home. When they came out they saw the old +chaise ever so far off, going toward the church, and they felt pretty +sure old Dobbin was going to meeting on his own account. That is a true +story Miss Ruth, every word of it—mamma says so."</p> + +<p>"Our old Ned cheated us all last summer," said Florence Austin, "by +<a name="Page_198" id="Page_198" />pretending to be lame. He really was made lame, at first, one day when +mamma was driving, by getting a stone in his foot, and she turned +directly and walked him all the way back to the stable. But when William +had taken out the stone, he seemed to be all right, and the next +afternoon mamma and Alice and I started for a drive. We got about a mile +out of town, when all at once Ned began to limp. Mamma and Alice got out +of the phaeton, and looked his feet all over, for they thought may be he +had picked up another stone; but they couldn't see the least thing out +of the way, only that he limped dreadfully as if it half-killed him to +go. Well, there was nothing to be done but to give up our drive; for we +couldn't bear to ride after a lame horse!"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_199" id="Page_199" />I can't either!" Mollie interjected.</p> + +<p>"Well, he had been lately shod, and our coachman thought that perhaps a +nail from one of the shoes pricked his foot, so he started to take him +to the blacksmith's. But don't you think, as soon as Ned knew that +William was driving, he started off at a brisk trot and wasn't the least +bit lame I but the next time mamma took him out, he began to limp +directly, and kept looking round as much as to say: 'How can you be so +cruel as to make me go, when you must see every step I take hurts me?' +But when mamma came home with him again, William said: 'It's chatin' you +he is, marm.'"</p> + +<p>"And what did your mother do?"</p> + +<p>"Well, as soon as she made up her mind that he was shamming, she took no +notice of his little trick, but touched <a name="Page_200" id="Page_200" />him up with the whip, and made +him go right along. He knew directly that she had found him out. Oh, he +is <i>such</i> a knowing horse! The other day Alice was leading him through +the big gate, to give him a mouthful of grass in the door-yard. Alice +likes to lead him about. When he stepped on her gown, and she held it up +to him all torn, and scolded him, she said: 'O Ned! aren't you ashamed +of yourself? how could you be so clumsy and awkward?' and she said he +dropped his head and looked so sorry and ashamed, as if he wanted to +say: 'Oh, I beg pardon! I didn't mean to do it,' that she really pitied +him, and answered as if he had spoken: 'Well, don't worry, Ned; it's of +no consequence,' Ned is such a pet. Papa got him in Canada, on purpose +for mamma and Alice to drive; <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201" />and it was so funny when he first +came—he didn't understand a word of English, not even whoa. He belonged +to a Frenchman way up the country, and had never been in a large town, +and acted so queer—like a green countryman, you know, turning his head +and staring at all the sights. And it's lovely to see him play in the +snow. He was brought up in the midst of it, you know. When there's a +snow-storm he's wild to be out of the stable, and the deeper the drifts, +the better pleased he is. He plunges in and rolls over and over, and +rears and dances. Oh, it is too funny to see him! But I beg pardon, Miss +Ruth! I didn't mean to talk so long about Ned."</p> + +<p>"We are all glad to hear about him," she said, and Susie added that it +was very interesting.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_202" id="Page_202" />My Uncle John owned a horse," said Roy Tyler, "that opened a gate and +a barn-door to get to the oat-bin, and he shut the barn-door after him +too. I guess you can't any of you tell how he did that!"</p> + +<p>"He jumped the gate, and shoved his nose in the crack of the door and +pried it open," said Sammy.</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't. That wouldn't be <i>opening</i> the gate, would it?" Roy +retorted. "And how did he shut it after him?"</p> + +<p>"I think you had better tell us, Roy," said Miss Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Well, he reached over the fence, and lifted the latch with his teeth, +that's how he opened the gate; and he shut it by backing up against it +till it latched itself. Then he pulled out the wooden pin of the +barn-door, and it swung open by its own weight—see?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_203" id="Page_203" />Well, pa had a horse that slipped his halter and shoved up the cover +of the oat-bin, when he got hungry in the night and wanted a lunch," +said Sammy; "and I read about a horse the other day which turned the +water-tap when he wanted a drink, and pulled the stopper out of the pipe +over the oat-bin, just as he 'd seen the coachman do, so the oats would +come down, and"—</p> + +<p>"But really now," Ruth Elliot, interrupted, "interesting and wonderful +as all this is, we must stop somewhere. I have another story to tell +you, about a minister's horse, but it can wait over till next week. Lay +aside your work, girls; it is past five o'clock."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" /><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204" />CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h2>TUFTY AND THE SPARROWS.</h2> + + +<p>Florence Austin came early to the Society the next Wednesday afternoon, +and found Miss Ruth on the piazza,</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you, Florence," she said. "I was just wishing for a +helper. Mollie and Susie have gone on an errand, and I am alone in the +house, and here is a whole family in trouble that I can't relieve."</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" said the little girl.</p> + +<p>"A baby bird has fallen out of the nest, and I am too lame to-day to +venture down the steps; and papa and mamma are in great distress, and +the babies in the nest half-starved, and can't <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205" />have their dinner +because the old birds dare not leave poor chippy a moment lest some +stray cat should get him. See the little thing down there in the grass +just under the woodbine!"</p> + +<p>Florence descended the piazza-steps at two jumps, and was back with the +young bird in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Now where shall I put him, Miss Ruth?"</p> + +<p>Ruth Elliot pointed out the nest. It was in the thickest growth of the +woodbine, just over their heads; and when Florence had climbed in a +chair, she had her first look at a nest of young birds. The little city +girl was delighted.</p> + +<p>"How cunning!" she exclaimed. "Oh, how awfully cunning! four in +all—three of them with their mouths wide open. No wonder this little +fellow got pushed out. Here, you droll little speci<a name="Page_206" id="Page_206" />men, crowd in +somewhere! He isn't hurt at all, for he seems as lively as any of them."</p> + +<p>As Florence jumped down from the chair, Susie and Mollie and the Jones +girls came up the walk.</p> + +<p>"What are you two doing?" Mollie called out.</p> + +<p>"Florence has just restored a lost baby to his distressed family," her +aunt answered. "Come into the house, girls, and let papa and mamma +Chippy get over their fright and look after the babies. Florence, I am +greatly obliged to you. I should have felt very sorry if harm had come +to the little one, for I have watched that nest ever since the old birds +began to build."</p> + +<p>The little girl replied politely that she was glad she had been of use.</p> + +<p>"I know what chippies' nests are made <a name="Page_207" id="Page_207" />of," said Mollie: "fine roots and +fibers, and lined beautifully with soft fine hair,"</p> + +<p>"Did you watch the birds while they were making it, Mollie?"</p> + +<p>"No; but one night after tea, when Auntie and Susie and I were playing +at choosing birds,—telling which bird we liked best and why, you +know,—papa came along and said: 'I choose the chirping sparrow for my +bird'; and when we laughed at him and called for his reasons (because +chippies are such insignificant things, you know, and no singers), he +told us he liked them because they were tame and friendly, and because +they built such neat, pretty nests; and he pulled an old nest he had +saved in pieces, and showed us how it was put together."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Susie; "and the other reason he gave for liking them best +<a name="Page_208" id="Page_208" />was, that they got up early and rang the rising-bell for all the other +birds. That was such a funny reason for papa to give, for we all know he +dearly loves his morning nap."</p> + +<p>"Really, now, do the chippies get up first in the morning?" said +Florence.</p> + +<p>"With the first peep of day," Miss Ruth answered. "This morning I heard +their cheerful twitter before a ray of light had penetrated to my room; +and a welcome sound it was, for it told me the long night was over. One +dear little fellow sang two or three strains before he succeeded in +waking any body; then a robin joined in, in a sleepy kind of way; then +two or three wrens, and then a cat-bird; and, last of all, my little +weather-bird, which, from the topmost branches of the elm-tree, warbled +out to me that it was a pleasant <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209" />day. Oh, what a sweet concert they all +gave me before the sun rose!"</p> + +<p>"I never heard of a weather-bird, Aunt Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Your Uncle Charlie gave him that name, Susie, when we were children. +His true name is Warbling Verio; but we used to fancy the little fellow +announced what kind of day it would be. If clear he called out: +'Pleasant day!' three times over, with a pause between each sentence and +a long-drawn-out Yes at the close; or, if it rained, he said 'Rainy day' +or 'Windy day,' describing the weather, whatever it might be, always +with an emphatic <i>Yes</i>.</p> + +<p>"One day he talked to me, but it was not about the weather. Things had +gone wrong with me all the morning. I had spoken disrespectfully to my +grandmother, and had been so cross <a name="Page_210" id="Page_210" />and impatient with baby Walter that +mother had taken him from me, though she could ill spare the time to +tend him. Then I ran through the garden to a little patch of woods +behind the house, and sat on an old log, in a very bad humor.</p> + +<p>"Presently, high above my head in the branches of the walnut-tree, the +weather-bird began his monotonous strain. I paid no attention to him at +first, I was so taken up with my own disagreeable thoughts, till it came +to me all at once that he was not telling me it was a pleasant day, +though the sun was shining gloriously and a lovely breeze rustled the +green leaves. What was it the little bird was saying over and over +again, as plain as plain could be? 'NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY +GIRL! Y-E-S.'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_211" id="Page_211" />I rubbed my eyes and pinched my arm, to make sure I was awake; for I +thought I must have dreamed it. But no, there it was again, sweet, sad, +reproachful: 'NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! Y-E-S,'</p> + +<p>"I jumped up in a rage, and called it a horrid thing; and when it +wouldn't stop, but kept on reproaching me with my evil behavior, I could +bear it no longer, but put my fingers in my ears and ran back to the +house and up to my own room, where I cried with anger and shame. But +solitude and reflection soon brought me to a better state of mind; and, +long before the day was over, I had confessed my fault and was forgiven. +But though I wanted very much to see a new water-wheel Charlie set up +that afternoon in the brook, I dared not go through the wood to get <a name="Page_212" id="Page_212" />to +it, lest that small bird should still be calling, 'Naughty girl! Y-e-s.'</p> + +<p>"Charlie grumbled the next morning when I wakened him out of a sound +sleep by shouting gayly from my little bed in the next room that his +weather-bird was calling, 'Pleasant day!' 'Why, what <i>should</i> he call,' +he wanted to know, 'with the sun shining in at both windows?'</p> + +<p>"I never told my brother how the bird had given voice to my accusing +conscience, nor has the lesson ever been repeated; for from that day to +this the Warbling Verio has made no more personal remarks to me."</p> + +<p>"There's a bird down in Maine" said Ann Eliza Jones, "they call the +Yankee bird, 'cause he keeps saying, 'All day +whittling—whittling—whittling.'"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_213" id="Page_213" />Yes; and the quails there always tell the farmers when they must hurry +and get in their hay," said her sister. "When it's going to rain they +sing out: 'More wet! more wet!' and 'No more wet!' when it clears off."</p> + +<p>"Aunt Ruth," said Mollie, "please tell us about the funny little bantam +rooster who used to call to his wife every morning: 'Do—come +out—n-o-w!'"</p> + +<p>"Very well; but we are getting so much interested in this bird-talk that +we are making rather slow progress with our work. Suppose we all see how +much we can accomplish in the next ten minutes."</p> + +<p>Upon this Mollie caught up the block lying in her lap, Florence +re-threaded her needle, Nellie Dimock hunted up her thimble, which had +rolled under the <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214" />table, and industry was the order of the day.</p> + +<p>And while they worked, Miss Ruth told the story of</p> + + +<p><b>THE WIDOW BANTAM.</b></p> + +<p>"She belonged to our next-door neighbor, and we called her the Widow +because her mate—a fine plucky little bantam rooster—was one day slain +while doing battle with the great red chanticleer who ruled the +hen-yard.</p> + +<p>"I took pity on the little hen in her loneliness, and singled her out +from the flock for special attention. She very soon knew my voice, would +come at my call, and used to slip through a gap in the fence and pay me +a visit every day. If the kitchen door were open she walked in without +ceremony; if closed, she flew to the window, tapped on the <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215" />glass with +her bill, flapped her wings, and gave us clearly to understand that she +wished to be admitted. Once inside, she set up a shrill cackling till I +attended to her wants, and scolded me at the top of her voice if I kept +her long waiting. When she had eaten more cracked corn and Indian meal +than you would think so small a body could contain, she walked about in +a slow, contented way, and was ready for all the petting we chose to +give her.</p> + +<p>"She was a pretty creature, with a speckled coat and a comb the color of +red coral: very small, but lively and vigorous, and exhibiting in all +her movements both grace and stateliness. She would nestle in my lap, +take a ride on my shoulder, and walk the length of my arm to peck at a +bit of cake in my hand, regarding me all the while with <a name="Page_216" id="Page_216" />a queer +sidelong glance, and croaking out her satisfaction and content. When she +was ready to go she walked to the kitchen door, and asked in a very +shrill voice to be let out. She continued these visits till late in the +fall, when she was shut up with the rest of our neighbor's flock for the +winter.</p> + +<p>"One bitter cold day in January we heard a faint cackle outside, and, +opening the kitchen door, found our poor widow in a sorry plight. One +foot was frozen, her feathers were all rough and dirty, her wings +drooping, her bright comb changed to a dull red. How she escaped from +the hen-house, surmounted the high fence, and hobbled or flew to our +door, we did not know; but there she was, half-dead with hunger and +cold.</p> + +<p>"We did what we could for her. I <a name="Page_217" id="Page_217" />bathed and bandaged the swollen foot, +and made a warm bed for her in a box in the shed, from which she did not +offer to stir for many days. I fed her with bits of bread soaked in warm +milk, and Charlie said, nursed and tended her as if she had been a sick +baby. She was very gentle and patient, poor thing! and allowed me to +handle her as I pleased, always welcomed my coming with a cheerful +little cackle, and, as she got stronger, trotted after me about the shed +and kitchen like a pet kitten.</p> + +<p>"In the spring, when she was quite well again, I restored her to her +rightful owner. Perhaps she had grown weary of her solitary life, for +she seemed delighted to rejoin her old companions; but every day she +made us a visit, and at night came regularly to roost in the shed.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_218" id="Page_218" />One morning we heard two voices instead of one outside our window, and +behold! Mrs. Bantam had taken another mate—a fine handsome fellow, so +graceful in form and brilliant in plumage that we at once pronounced him +a fit companion to our favorite hen. They were evidently on the best of +terms, croaking and cackling to each other, and exchanging sage opinions +about us as we watched them from the open door. I am sure she must have +told him all about her long illness the previous winter, and pointed me +out as her nurse, for he nodded and croaked and cast sidelong looks of +friendly regard in my direction.</p> + +<p>"But when Mrs. Bantam came into the kitchen for her luncheon she could +not induce Captain Bantam to follow. In vain she coaxed and cackled, +run<a name="Page_219" id="Page_219" />ning in and out a dozen times to convince him there was nothing to +fear. He would not believe her nor budge one inch over the door-sill. +She lost patience at last, and rated him soundly; but as neither coaxing +nor scolding availed, and she was eating her meal with a poor relish +inside, while he waited unhappily without, we settled the difficulty by +putting the dish on the door-step, where they ate together in perfect +content.</p> + +<p>"But a more serious trouble came at bed-time, for Mrs. Bantam expected +to roost as usual in the shed, while the Captain preferred the old +apple-tree where the rest of the flock spent their nights. The funny +little couple held an animated discussion about it which lasted far into +the twilight—and neither would yield. The Captain was very polite <a name="Page_220" id="Page_220" />and +conciliatory. He evidently had no mind to quarrel: but neither would he +give up the point. He occasionally suspended the argument by a stroll +into the garden, where, by vigorous scratching, he would produce a +choice morsel, to which he called her attention by an insinuating 'Have +a worm, dear?' She never failed to accept the offering, gulping it down +with great satisfaction, but was too old a bird to be caught by so +shallow a trick, for she would immediately return to her place by the +shed window, and resume her discourse. When she had talked herself +sleepy she ended the contest for that night by flying through the window +and settling herself comfortably in the old place, while the Captain +took his solitary way across the garden and over the fence to the +apple-tree.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221" />Every night for a week this scene occurred under the shed window; then, +by mutual consent, they seemed to agree to go their several ways without +further dispute. About sunset the Captain might be seen politely +escorting his mate to her chosen lodging-house, and, after seeing her +safely disposed of for the night, quietly betaking himself to his roost +in the apple-tree.</p> + +<p>"He was at her window early every morning crowing lustily. Charlie and I +were sure he said: 'Do—come—out—now! Do—come—out—n-o-w!' and were +vexed with the little hen for keeping him waiting so long. But his +patience never failed; and, when at last she flew down and joined him, a +prouder, happier bantam rooster never strutted about the place. All day +long he kept close at her side, providing her <a name="Page_222" id="Page_222" />with the choicest tidbits +the garden afforded, and watching her with unselfish delight while she +swallowed each dainty morsel. In the middle of the day they rested under +the currant-bushes, crooning sleepily to each other or taking a quiet +nap.</p> + +<p>"One day we missed them both, and for three weeks saw them only at +intervals, Mrs. Bantam always coming alone, eating a hurried meal, and +stealing away as quickly as possible; while the Captain wandered about +rather dejectedly, we thought, in the society of the other hens.</p> + +<p>"But one bright morning we heard Mrs. Bantam clucking and calling with +all her old vigor; and there she was at the kitchen-door, the prettiest +and proudest of little mothers, with three tiny chicks not much larger +than the <a name="Page_223" id="Page_223" />baby chippies you saw in the nest, Florence, but wonderfully +active and vigorous for their size. We named them Bob and Dick and +Jenny, and, as they grew older, were never tired of watching their +comical doings. Their mother, too, afforded us great amusement, while we +found much in her conduct to admire and praise. She was a fussy, +consequential little body, but unselfishly devoted, and ready to brave +any danger that threatened her brood. Charlie and and I learned more +than one useful lesson from the bantam hen and her young family.</p> + +<p>"One of these lessons we put into verse, which, if I can remember, I +will repeat to you. We called it</p> + + +<p><b>CHICKEN DICK THE BRAGGER.</b></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Scratch! scratch!<br /></span> +<span>In the garden-patch,<br /></span> +<span>Goes good Mother Henny;<br /></span> +<span><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224" />Cluck! cluck!<br /></span> +<span>Good luck! Good luck!<br /></span> +<span>Come, Bob and Dick and Jenny!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>A worm! a worm!<br /></span> +<span>See him squirm!<br /></span> +<span>Who comes first to catch it!<br /></span> +<span>Quick! quick!<br /></span> +<span>Chicken Dick,<br /></span> +<span>You are the chick to snatch it!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Peep! peep!<br /></span> +<span>While you creep,<br /></span> +<span>My long legs have won it!<br /></span> +<span>Cuck-a-doo!<br /></span> +<span>I've beat you!<br /></span> +<span>Don't you wish you'd done it?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Dick! Dick!<br /></span> +<span>That foolish trick<br /></span> +<span>Of bragging lost your dinner;<br /></span> +<span>For while to crow<br /></span> +<span>You let it go,<br /></span> +<span>Bob snatched it up—the sinner!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225" /> +<span>Bob! Bob!<br /></span> +<span>'T was wrong to rob<br /></span> +<span>Your silly little brother,<br /></span> +<span>And in the bush<br /></span> +<span>To fight and push,<br /></span> +<span>And peck at one another.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>But Bobby beat,<br /></span> +<span>And ate the treat.—<br /></span> +<span>Dear children, though you're winners,<br /></span> +<span>Be modest all;<br /></span> +<span>For pride must fall,<br /></span> +<span>And braggers lose their dinners.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"And now I will tell you an adventure of young Dick's, in which a habit +he had of crowing on all occasions proved very useful to him. He grew to +be a fine handsome fellow, and was sold to a family who lived on the +meadow-bank.</p> + +<p>"There was a big freshet the next autumn, the water covering the meadows +on both sides of the river, and <a name="Page_226" id="Page_226" />creeping into cellars and yards and +houses. It came unexpectedly, early one morning, into the enclosure +where Dick, with his half-dozen hens, was confined, and all flew for +refuge to the roof of the neighboring pig-pen. But the incoming flood +soon washed away the supports of the frail building, and it floated +slowly out into the current to join company with the wrecks of +wood-piles and rail fences, the spoils from gardens and orchards, in the +shape of big yellow pumpkins and rosy apples, bobbing about in the +foaming muddy stream, and all the other queer odds and ends a freshet +gathers in its course.</p> + +<p>"From his commanding position, Dick surveyed the scene, and thought it a +fitting occasion to raise his voice. He stretched himself to the full +height of his few inches, flapped his wings, <a name="Page_227" id="Page_227" />and crowed—not once or +twice, but continually. Over the waste of waters came his shrill +'Cock-a-doodle-doo!' All the cocks along the shore answered his call; +all the turkeys gobbled, and the geese cackled. His vessel struck the +heavy timber of a broken bridge, and lurched and dipped, threatening +every moment to go to pieces. The waves splashed and drenched them, and +the swift current carried them faster and faster down to the sea. It was +all Dick and his little company could do to keep their footing, and +still the plucky little fellow stood and crowed.</p> + +<p>"A neighbor who was out in his boat gathering drift-wood, recognizing +Dick's peculiar voice, went to the rescue, and, taking this strange +craft in tow, brought the little company, with their gallant leader, +drenched and draggled but still crowing lustily, safe to land.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_228" id="Page_228" />And that is all I can tell you about Dick, for it is five o'clock, and +time to put up our work."</p> + +<p>"I like every kind of bird," said Florence Austin at the next meeting of +the Society, "except the English sparrows. They are a perfect nuisance!"</p> + +<p>"Why, what harm do they do?" Nellie asked.</p> + +<p>"Harm!" said Florence; "you don't know any thing about it here in the +country. We had to cut down a beautiful wisteria-vine that climbed over +one side of our house because the sparrows would build their nests in +it, and made such a dreadful noise in the morning that nobody on that +side of the house could sleep. And they drive away all the other birds. +We used to have robins hopping over our lawn, and dear little +yellow-birds used to build their <a name="Page_229" id="Page_229" />nests in the pear-trees; but since the +sparrows have got so thick, they have stopped coming. My father says the +English sparrow is the most impudent bird that ever was hatched. He +actually saw one snatch away a worm a robin had just dug up. I believe I +hate sparrows!"</p> + +<p>"I don't," said Nellie. "I have fed them all winter. They came to the +dining-room window every morning, and waited for their breakfast; and a +funny little woodpecker, blind of one eye, came with them sometimes."</p> + +<p>"They do lots of good in our gardens," said Mollie, "digging up grubs +and beetles. Papa told us so."</p> + +<p>"There's nobody in this world so bad," said Susie, sagely, "but that you +can find something good to say about them." At which kindly speech Aunt +Ruth smiled approval.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_230" id="Page_230" />I think," she said, "this will be a good time to tell you a story +about an English sparrow and a canary-bird I will call it</p> + + +<p><b>TUFTY AND THE SPARROW.</b></p> + +<p>"One morning in April a young canary-bird whose name was Tufty escaped +through an open window carelessly left open while he was out of his +cage, and suddenly found himself, for the first time in his life, in the +open air. He alighted first on an apple-tree in the yard, and then made +a grand flight half-way to the top of the elm-tree.</p> + +<p>"The sun was bright and the air so still that the light snow which had +fallen in the night yet clung to the branches and twigs of the tree, and +Tufty examined it with interest, thinking it pretty but rather cold as +he poked it about <a name="Page_231" id="Page_231" />with his bill, and tucked first one little foot, and +then the other, under him to keep it warm. Presently he heard an odd +little noise below him, and, looking down, saw on the trunk of the tree +a bird about his own size, with wings and back of a steel-gray color, a +white breast with a dash of dull red on it, and a long bill, with which +he was making the noise Tufty had heard by tapping on the tree.</p> + +<p>"'Good-morning!' said Tufty, who was of a friendly and social +disposition, and was beginning to feel the need of company.</p> + +<p>"'Morning!' said the woodpecker, very crisp and shorthand not so much as +looking up to see who had spoken to him.</p> + +<p>"If you had heard this talk you would have said Tufty called out: 'Peep! +peep!' and the woodpecker—but<a name="Page_232" id="Page_232" /> that's because you don't understand +bird-language.</p> + +<p>"'What are you doing down there?' said Tufty, continuing the +conversation.</p> + +<p>"'Getting my breakfast,' said the woodpecker.</p> + +<p>"'Why, I had mine a long time ago!' said Tufty.</p> + +<p>"He didn't in the least understand how that knocking on the tree was to +bring Mr. Longbill's morning meal; but he was afraid to ask any more +questions, the other had been so short with him.</p> + +<p>"Just then he heard a hoarse voice overhead saying, 'Come along! come +along!' and, looking up, saw a monstrous black creature sailing above +the tops of the trees. It was only a crow on his way to the swamp, and +he was trying to hurry up his mate, that always would lag behind in that +corn-field <a name="Page_233" id="Page_233" />where there wasn't so much as a grain left; but Tufty, which +by this time you must have discovered was a very ignorant bird, thought +the black monster was calling <i>him</i>, and piped back feebly: 'I can't! I +can't!' and was all of a tremble till Mr. Crow was quite out of sight.</p> + +<p>"He sat quiet, looking a little pensive, for the fact was, he was +beginning to feel lonely, when there flew past him a flock of brown +birds chirping and chattering away at a brisk rate. 'Now for it!' +thought Tufty, 'here's plenty of good company;' and he spread his wings +and flew after them as fast as he could. But he could not keep up with +them, but, panting and weary, alighted on the roof of a house to rest. +And here he saw such a pretty sight; for on a sunny roof just below him +were two <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234" />snow-white pigeons. One was walking about in a very +consequential way, his tail-feathers spread in the shape of a fan, and +turning his graceful neck from side to side in quite a bewitching +fashion. Just as Tufty alighted, the pretty dove began to call: 'Come, +dear, come! Do, dear, do!' in such a sweet, soft, plaintive voice, as if +his heart would certainly break if his dear <i>didn't</i> come, that Tufty, +who in his silly little pate never once doubted that it was he the +lovely white bird was pining for, felt sorry to disappoint him, and +piped back: 'Oh, if you please, I should like to ever so much! but you +see I must catch up with those brown birds over there;' and, finding his +wind had come back to him, he flew away. The pigeon, which had not even +seen him, and had much more important business to attend <a name="Page_235" id="Page_235" />to than to +coax an insignificant little yellow-bird, went on displaying all his +beauties, and crooning softly, 'Do, dear! do! do! do!'</p> + +<p>"Tufty had no trouble in finding the brown birds, for long before he +came to the roof of the barn where they had alighted he heard their loud +voices in angry dispute; and they made such an uproar, and seemed so +fractious and ill-tempered, that Tufty felt afraid to join them, but +lingered on a tree near by.</p> + +<p>"Presently one of them flew over to him. She was a young thing—quite +fresh and trim-looking for a sparrow.</p> + +<p>"'Good-morning!' she said, hopping close to him and looking him all over +with her bright little eyes,</p> + +<p>"'Good-morning!' said Tufty, as brisk as you please.</p> + +<p>"'Now, I wonder where you come <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236" />from and what you call yourself,' said +the sparrow. 'I never saw a yellow-bird like you before. How pretty the +feathers grow on your head!' and she gave a friendly nip to Tufty's +top-knot.</p> + +<p>"Tufty thought she was getting rather familiar on so short an +acquaintance, but he answered her politely, told her his name, and that +he came from the house where he had always lived, and was out to take an +airing.</p> + +<p>"'I want to know!' said the sparrow. 'Well, my name is Brownie. Captain +Bobtail's Brownie, they call me, because Brownie is such a common name +in our family. It's pleasant out-of-doors, isn't it? Oh, never mind the +fuss over there!'—for Tufty's attention was constantly diverted to the +scene of the quarrel—'they are always at it, scold<a name="Page_237" id="Page_237" />ing and fighting. +Come, let's you and I have a good time!'</p> + +<p>"'What is the fuss about?' said Tufty.</p> + +<p>"'A nest,' said Brownie, contemptuously. 'Ridiculous, isn't it? Snow on +the ground, and not time to build this two weeks; but you see, <i>he</i> +wants to keep the little house on top of the pole lest some other bird +should claim it, and <i>she</i> wants to build in the crotch of the +evergreen, and the neighbors are all there taking sides. She has the +right of it—the tree is much the prettier place; but dear me! she might +just as well give up first as last, for he's sure to have his +way—husbands are such tyrants!' said Captain Bobtail's Brownie, with a +coquettish turn of her head; 'but come, now, what shall we do?'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_238" id="Page_238" />'I'm too cold to do any thing,' said Tufty, dolefully.</p> + +<p>"The sun was hidden by a cloud and a cold wind was blowing, and the +house-bird, accustomed to a stove-heated room, was shivering.</p> + +<p>"'Take a good fly,' said Brownie; 'that will warm you,'</p> + +<p>"'But I'm hungry,' piped Tufty.</p> + +<p>"'All right!' said Brownie. 'I know a place where there's a free lunch +set out every day for all the birds that will come—bread-crumbs, seeds, +and lovely cracked corn. Come along! you'll feel better after dinner,'</p> + +<p>"So they flew, and they flew, and Brownie was as kind as possible, and +stopped for a rest whenever Tufty was tired, and chatted so agreeably +and pleasantly, that before they reached their journey's end Tufty had +quite <a name="Page_239" id="Page_239" />fallen in love with her. Then, too, the sun was shining again, +and the brisk exercise of flying had set the little bird's blood in +motion, so that he was warm again, but oh, so hungry!</p> + +<p>"They came at last to a brown cottage with a broad piazza, and it was on +the roof of this piazza that a feast for the birds was every day spread. +But as they flew round the house Tufty became very much excited.</p> + +<p>"'Stop, Brownie!' he cried; 'let me look at this place! Surely I've been +here before. That red curtain, that flower-stand in the window, +that—Oh! oh! there's my own little house! Why, Captain Bobtail's +Brownie, you've brought me home!'</p> + +<p>"Now, all this time Tufty's mistress had been in great trouble. As soon +as she discovered her loss she ran out-of-<a name="Page_240" id="Page_240" />doors, holding up the empty +cage and calling loudly on her little bird to return. But he was high up +in the elm-tree watching the woodpecker, and, if he heard her call, paid +no attention to it. Very soon he flew after the sparrows, and she lost +sight of him. Not a mouthful of breakfast could the poor child eat.</p> + +<p>"'I shall never see my poor little Tufty again, mamma!' she said. 'I saw +him flying straight for the swamp, and he never can find his way back!' +and she cried as if her heart would break.</p> + +<p>"In the middle of the forenoon her brother Jack called to her from the +foot of the stairs:—</p> + +<p>"'What will you give me, Kittie,' he said, 'if I will tell you where +Tufty is?'</p> + +<p>"'O Jack! do you know? Have <a name="Page_241" id="Page_241" />you seen him? Where? where?' cried the +little girl, coming downstairs in a great hurry.</p> + +<p>"'Be quiet!' said Jack. 'Now, don't get excited; your bird is all right, +though I'm sorry to say he's in rather low company,' And he led her to +the dining-room window that looked into the garden, and there, sure +enough, was Tufty on a lilac-bush. Brownie was there too. She was +hopping about and talking in a most earnest and excited manner. It was +easy to see that she was using all her powers of persuasion to coax +Tufty not to go back to his old home, but to help her build a little +house out-of-doors, where they could set up housekeeping together.</p> + +<p>"Kittie knew just what to do. She ran for the cage and for a sprig of +dried pepper-grass (of all the good things she <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242" />gave her bird to eat, he +liked pepper-grass best), and, standing in the open door-way, called: +'Tufty! Tufty!' He gave a start, a little flutter of his wings, and +then, with one glad cry of recognition, and without so much as a parting +look at poor Brownie, flew straight for the door, and alighted on the +top of his cage.</p> + +<p>"'How strangely things come about, mamma?' Kittie said that evening as +they talked over this little incident. 'Jack has laughed at me all +winter for feeding the sparrows, and called them hateful, quarrelsome +things, and said I should get nicely paid next summer when they drove +away all the pretty song-birds that come about the house. And now, don't +you see, mamma, one of the sparrows I have fed all winter—I knew her +right away by a funny little <a name="Page_243" id="Page_243" />dent in her breast—has done me such good +service? Why, I am paid a hundred thousand times over for all I have +ever done for the sparrows.'"</p> + +<p>"And what became of poor Brownie?" Nellie asked. "I almost hoped Tufty +would stay out with her, she was such a good little sparrow."</p> + +<p>"She lingered about the garden for a while, making a plaintive little +noise; but when the family of Brownies came to dinner she ate her +allowance, and flew away with them, apparently in good spirits. But +Tufty moped for a day or two, and, as long as he lived, showed great +excitement at the sight of a flock of sparrows; and it is my private +opinion that, if a second opportunity had been given him, Kittie Grant's +Tufty would have gone off for good and all with Captain Bobtail's +Brownie."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244" />Susie Elliot walked part of the way home with Florence Austin, and the +two little girls, who were fast becoming intimate friends, talked over +the events of the afternoon.</p> + +<p>"How much your auntie knows about animals and birds!" said Florence; +"she seems almost as fond of them as if they were people."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Susie answered; "she was always fond of pets, papa says; and, +ever since she has been ill, she has spent a great deal of time watching +them and studying their ways. I think it makes her forget the pain,"</p> + +<p>"Is it the pain that keeps her awake at night, Susie? You know she said +this afternoon she was glad to hear the chippy-birds, because then she +knew the long night was over; and she looked so white, and couldn't get +down those <a name="Page_245" id="Page_245" />three little easy steps to pick up the baby-bird. But she +walks about the garden sometimes with a crutch, doesn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! and she's better than when she first came here to live, only +she never can be well, you know. Today is one of her poor days; but she +used to be so ill that she was hardly ever free from pain. You never +would have known it, though, she was always so cheerful and doing +something to give us good times."</p> + +<p>"Can't she ever be made well, Susie? There's doctors in town, you know, +who cure <i>every thing</i>," said the little girl.</p> + +<p>Susie shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Papa says she has an incurable disease;" and then seriously—"I think +if Jesus were here he would put his hands on auntie and make her well."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" /><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246" />CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h2>PARSON LORRIMER'S WHITE HORSE.</h2> + + +<p>"And now for the story of the minister's horse," Mollie Elliot said, +when Miss Ruth's company of workers had assembled on the next Wednesday +afternoon. "I suppose he was an awfully good horse, which set an example +to all the other horses in the parish to follow. Say, Auntie, wasn't +he?"</p> + +<p>"When my grandmother was a little girl," Ruth Elliot began, "she lived +with her father and mother in a small country town among the New +Hampshire hills: and of all the stories she told in her old age about +the quiet simple life of the people of Hilltown, the one her +grandchildren liked best to hear was</p> + + +<p><b><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247" />THE STORY OF PARSON LORRIMER'S WHITE HORSE.</b></p> + +<p>"Parson Lorrimer had lived thirty years in Hilltown before he owned a +horse. He began to preach in the big white meeting-house when he was a +young man, and, as neither he nor his people wanted a change, when he +was sixty years old he was preaching there still. It was a scattered +parish, with farm-houses perched on the hill-sides and nestled in the +valleys; and the minister, in doing his work, had trudged over every +mile of it a great many times. He made nothing of walking five miles to +a meeting on a December evening, with the thermometer below zero, or of +climbing the hills in a driving snow-storm to visit a sick parishioner. +He was a tall, spare man, healthy and vigorous, with iron-gray hair, a +strong <a name="Page_248" id="Page_248" />kind face, and a smile in his brown eyes that made every baby in +Hilltown stretch out its arms to him to be taken.</p> + +<p>"Not a chick or child had Parson Lorrimer of his own. He had never +married, but lived in the old parsonage, a stately mansion, with rooms +enough in it to accommodate a big family, with only an elderly widow and +her grown-up son to minister to his wants and to keep him company. His +study was at the back of the house, and looked out upon the garden and +orchard, so that the smell of his pinks and roses came to him as he +wrote, and the same robins, year by year, built their nests within reach +of his hand in the branches of the crooked old apple-tree that shaded +his window.</p> + +<p>"The minister was fond of caring for living creatures, both small and +<a name="Page_249" id="Page_249" />great, and every domestic animal about the place knew it. The cat +jumped fearlessly to his knee, sure of a welcome. The cow lowed after +him if he showed himself at the window. The little chicks fluttered to +his shoulder when he appeared in the door-yard, and the old sow with her +litter of pigs kept close at his heels as he paced the orchard, +pondering next Sunday's sermon.</p> + +<p>"He remembered them all. There was always a handful of grain for the +chickens in the pocket of his study-gown, a ripe pumpkin in the shed for +Sukey; and the good man would laugh like a school-boy, as the funny +little baby-pigs rolled and tumbled over each other for the apples he +tossed them. A great, good, gentle man, learned and wise in theology and +knowledge of <a name="Page_250" id="Page_250" />the Scriptures, with tastes and habits as simple as a +child.</p> + +<p>"But I must hurry on with my story, or you will think I am telling you +more about the parson than his horse. The good man realized, one day, +that he was not as young as he used to be, and that climbing Harrison +Hill on a July afternoon and walking five miles in a drizzling rain +after a preaching service were not so easy to do as he had found them a +dozen years before. So he wisely concluded to call in the aid of four +strong legs in carrying on his work, and that is how he came to buy a +horse.</p> + +<p>"The people of Hilltown heartily approved of this plan, and several were +anxious to help him.</p> + +<p>"Deacon Cowles had a four-year-old colt, raised on the farm, 'a real +clever <a name="Page_251" id="Page_251" />steady-goin' creetur, that he guessed he could spare—might be +turned in for pew-rent;' and Si Olcott didn't care if he traded off his +gray mare on the same conditions. She was about used up for farm-work, +but had considerable go in her yet—could jog round with the parson for +ten years to come.</p> + +<p>"The minister received these offers with politeness, and promised to +think of them; and then one day after a brief absence from home, set +every body in the parish talking, by driving into town seated in an open +wagon, shining with fresh paint and varnish, and drawn by a horse the +like of which had never been seen in Hilltown before.</p> + +<p>"He was of a large and powerful build, and most comely and graceful in +proportion, with a small head, slender legs, <a name="Page_252" id="Page_252" />and flowing mane and tail. +In color, he was milk-white, while his nose and the inside of his +pointed ears were of a delicate pink. He held his head high, stepping +proudly and glancing from side to side in a nervous, excited way; but he +had a kind eye, and the watching neighbors saw him take an apple from +the hand of his new master, after they turned in at the parsonage gate. +In answer to all questions, the parson said he had purchased the horse +at Winterport, of a seafaring man, that he was eight years old, and his +name was Peter. But to neither man nor woman in Hilltown did he ever +tell the sum he paid in yellow gold and good bank-notes for the white +horse,</p> + +<p>"A few days after the purchase, Parson Lorrimer attended a funeral, and +when the service at the house was <a name="Page_253" id="Page_253" />ended, and he had shaken hands all +round with the mourners, and exchanged greetings with neighbors and +friends, he stepped out to the side-yard, where he had fastened his +horse, and drove round the house to take his place before the hearse; +for in Hilltown it was the custom for the minister to lead the +procession to the burying-ground.</p> + +<p>"It was Peter's first appearance in an official capacity, and he stepped +with sufficient dignity into the street, where a long line of wagons and +chaises, led off by the mourners' coach and the big black hearse, waited +the signal to start, while in the door-yard and along the sidewalk were +ranged the foot-passengers; for at a funeral in Hilltown everybody went +to the grave.</p> + +<p>"A passing breeze caught a piece of <a name="Page_254" id="Page_254" />paper lying in the road, and +flirted it close to Peter's eyes. He gave a tremendous leap sideways, +and it was a marvel no one was struck by his flying heels, then +gathering himself together he ran. How he did run! The good folks +scattered right and left with amazing quickness, considering their +habits of life; for in the slow little town, every body took things fair +and easy, and the white horse dashed past the string of wagons, the +mourners' equipage, and the tall black hearse. There was a cloud of +dust, a rattling of wheels, a clatter of hoofs, and Peter and the parson +were far down the road. The people gazed after their departing spiritual +guide in speechless astonishment. The mourners' heads were thrust far +out of the coach windows. Even the sleepy farm-horses pricked up their +<a name="Page_255" id="Page_255" />ears: while old Bill, the sexton's clumsy big-footed beast, which for +fifteen years had carried the dead folks of Hilltown to their graves, +and had never before been known, on these solemn occasions to depart +from his slow walk, made a most astonishing departure; for, taking his +driver unawares, he suddenly started after the flying white steed, +breaking into a lumbering gallop, that set plumes nodding, curtains +flapping, and glasses rattling, and made the huge unwieldly vehicle +lurch and bob about in a way to threaten a shocking catastrophe.</p> + +<p>"A vigorous twitch of the lines, and a loud 'Whoa, now, Bill! Whoa, I +tell ye!' soon brought the sexton's beast to a stand-still. I am sure he +must have shared his master's surprise at such unseeming conduct, who +wondered 'What <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256" />in time had got into the blamed crittur!' But neither +voice nor rein checked Peter's speed. On he flew, down the hill past the +post-office, the meeting-house, and the tavern. It was a straight road, +and his driver kept him to it. Fortunately there were no collisions, and +at the last long ascent his pace slackened and he turned of his own +accord in at the parsonage gate.</p> + +<p>"At the village store and the tavern that evening, Peter's evil behavior +was talked about.</p> + +<p>"'He's a sp'iled horse,' Jonathan Goslee, the minister's hired man, +said, 'though you can't make parson think so. He's dead sure to run +ag'in. A horse knows when he's got the upper hand, jest as well as a +child, and he'll watch his chance to try it over ag'in, you see if he +don't.'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_257" id="Page_257" />But the next time Peter shied and tried to run, it was the minister +who got the upper hand; and when the short excitement was over, and the +horse quiet and subdued, he was driven back to within a few paces of the +object of his fright. A neighbor was called to stand at his head, while +his master took down the flaming yellow placard that had caused all the +trouble, and slowly and cautiously brought it to him, that he might see, +smell, and touch it, talking soothingly to him and petting and caressing +him. When he had become accustomed to its appearance, and had learned by +experience that it was harmless, it was nailed to the tree again and +Peter passed it the second time without trouble.</p> + +<p>"'If I'd owned the horse,' the minister's helper said, when he told this +<a name="Page_258" id="Page_258" />story, 'I s'pose I should have <i>licked</i> him by,—but I guess, in the +long run, parson's way was best.'</p> + +<p>"This was one of many lessons Peter received to correct his only serious +fault. He was willing and swift, intelligent and kind, but so nervous +and timid, and made so frantic by his fear of any unknown object, that +he was constantly putting the minister's life and limbs in jeopardy. But +he had a wise, patient teacher, and he was apt to learn.</p> + +<p>"My grandmother was fond of telling some of the means adopted to bring +about the cure;—how one day after Peter had shied at sight of a +wheelbarrow, the parson trundled the obnoxious object about the yard for +half an hour in view of the stable window, then emptied a measure of +oats in it, and opened the stable door; <a name="Page_259" id="Page_259" />how the horse trotted round and +round, drawing each time a little nearer, then came close, snorted and +wheeled,—his master standing by encouraging him by hand and +voice,—until, unable longer to resist the tempting bait, he put his +pink nose to the pile and ate first timidly, then with confidence. After +that, the old lady said, Peter felt a particular regard for wheelbarrows +in general, hoping in each one he happened to pass to find another +toothsome meal.</p> + +<p>"He suffered at first agonies of terror at sight of the long line of +waving, flapping garments he had to pass every Monday in his passage +from the big gate to the stable; but, through the minister's devices, +grew so familiar with their appearance, that he took an early +opportunity of making their closer acquaintance, and mouthed the +parson's <a name="Page_260" id="Page_260" />ruffled shirt, and took a bite of the Widow Goslee's dimity +short-gown.</p> + +<p>"And so the kindly work went on. Peter gained trust and confidence every +day, learning little by little that his master was his friend, that +under his guidance no harm came to him, no impossible task was given to +him; until at length confidence cast out fear, and the white horse +became as docile and obedient as he had always been willing and strong.</p> + +<p>"These qualities, on one occasion, stood him in good stead; for the +parsonage barn and stable one night burned to the ground. Peter's stall +was bright with the red light of the fire, and the flames crackled +overhead in the barn-loft when the parson led out his favorite, +trembling in every limb, his eyes wild with terror, but <a name="Page_261" id="Page_261" />perfectly +obedient to his master's hand. It was as if he had said: 'I must go, +even through this dreadful fire, if master leads the way.'</p> + +<p>"There was a Fourth of July celebration in the next parish, and Parson +Lorrimer was invited to deliver the oration. He rode over on horseback, +took the saddle from Peter's back, and turned him loose in a pasture +where other of the guests' horses were grazing. A platform was erected +on the green, with seats for the band, the invited guests, and the +speaker of the day; while the people gathered from both parishes were +standing about in groups waiting for the exercises to commence. Flags +were flying, bells ringing, and a field-piece, that had seen service in +the War of the Revolution, at intervals belched out a salute in honor of +the day. The <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262" />band was playing a lively tune, when suddenly there was a +stir and a dividing to the right and left of the crowd gathered about +the stand, and through the lane thus formed came the minister's white +horse.</p> + +<p>"He trotted leisurely up, stopped before the platform, and made a bow, +then began to dance, keeping time to the music, and going round and +round in a space quickly cleared for him by the lookers-on. I don't know +whether it was a waltz the band was playing, or if horses were taught to +waltz so long ago; but whatever kind of dance it was,—gallopade, +quickstep, or cotillion,—Peter, in his horse-fashion, danced it well. +Faster and faster played the music, and round and round went the pony. +The people laughed and shouted, and Peter made his farewell bow <a name="Page_263" id="Page_263" />and +trotted soberly out of the ring, in the midst of a great shout of +applause.</p> + +<p>"How did Parson Lorrimer feel? Of all that amused and wondering crowd, +not one was more taken by surprise than he—both at this exhibition of +Peter's accomplishments and at the tale it told of his early days; for +it was impossible to doubt that at some time in his life he had been a +trained horse in a circus. From the field near by he had recognized the +familiar strains that used to call him to his task, and had leaped the +fence and made his way to where the crowd was gathered, to play his +pretty part on the village green, before the sober citizens of +Centerville and Hilltown, as he had played it hundreds of times before, +under the canvas, to the motley crowd drawn together by the attractions +of the ring.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_264" id="Page_264" />Of course the minister felt sorry and ashamed when he learned, in this +public way, of the low company Peter had kept in his youth. Whenever a +traveling circus had stopped at Winterport, Parson Lorrimer had not +failed to warn his young people from the pulpit to keep their feet from +straying to this place of sinful amusement. But mingled with his +chagrin, I think he must have felt a little pride in the ownership of +the beautiful creature, so intelligent to remember, and so supple of +limb to perform, the unaccustomed task.</p> + +<p>"He took pains to narrate more fully than he had thought necessary +before, how he had come in possession of the animal. He had gone, he +said, on business to Winterport, and on the wharf, early one morning, +had met a man in the dress of a sailor leading the white <a name="Page_265" id="Page_265" />horse. In +answer to inquiries, the stranger said he had taken the horse In payment +of a debt, and was about to ship him on board a trading-vessel then +lying in the dock, bound to the East Indies. Would he sell, the minister +asked, on this side of the water? Yes, if he could get his price. While +they talked, Parson Lorrimer caressed the horse, who responded in so +friendly a way that the minister, who had lost his heart at first sight +to the beautiful creature, then and there made the purchase, waiting +only till the banks were open to pay over the money. He had asked few +questions; had known, he said, by Peter's eyes that he was kind, and by +certain unmistakable marks about him that he came of good stock. Of the +stranger, he had seen nothing from that day, and could not even remember +his name.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_266" id="Page_266" />'I always knew,' Jonathan Goslee said, 'that the critter had tricks +and ways different from common horses, I've catched him at 'em +sometimes. One day I found him with his bran-tub bottom upwards, amusin' +himself tryin' to stand with all four legs on it at once. And he'll +clear marm's clothes-line at a leap as easy as you'd jump over a pair of +bars. But I never happened to catch him practisin' his +dancin'-lesson—must have done it, though, on the sly, or he couldn't +have footed it so lively that day over to Centerville. Well, sometimes I +think—and then ag'in I don't know. If that there sailor feller stole +the horse he sold in such a hurry to parson, why didn't the owner make a +hue and cry about it, and follow him up? 'Twould have been easy enough +to track the beast to Hilltown. And <a name="Page_267" id="Page_267" />then ag'in, if 'twas all fair and +square, and he took the horse for a debt, why didn't he sell him to a +show company for a fancy price, instead of shippin' him off to the Indys +in one of them rotten old tubs, that as like as not would go under +before she'd made half the voyage. But there, we never shall get to the +bottom facts in the case, any more than we shall ever know how much +money parson paid down for that horse,'</p> + +<p>"And they never did.</p> + +<p>"My grandmother remembered Parson Lorrimer as an old man, tall and +straight, with flowing white hair, a placid face, and kind, dim eyes +that gradually grew dimmer, till their light faded to darkness. For the +last four years of his life he was totally blind, She remembered how he +used to mount <a name="Page_268" id="Page_268" />the pulpit-stairs, one hand resting upon the shoulder of +his colleague, and, standing in the old place, with lifted face and +closed eyes, carry on the service, repeating chapter and hymns from +memory, his voice tremulous, but still sweet and penetrating.</p> + +<p>"She remembered going to visit the old man in his study. It was +summer-time, and he sat in his arm-chair at the open window, and on the +grass-plat outside—so near that his head almost touched his master's +shoulder—the old white horse was standing; for they had grown old +together, and together were enjoying a peaceful and contented old age. +Every bright day for hours Peter stood at the window, and in the +winter-time, when he was shut in his stable, the old man never failed to +visit him.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_269" id="Page_269" />But one November afternoon, Parson Lorrimer being weary laid himself +down upon his bed, where presently the sleep came to him God giveth to +his beloved.</p> + +<p>"The evening after his funeral a member of the household passing the +study-door was startled at seeing in the pale moonlight a long, ghostly +white face peering in at the window.</p> + +<p>"It was only Peter, that had slipped his halter and wandered round to +the old place looking for his master. He allowed them to lead him back +to his stable, but every time the door was opened he whinnied and turned +his head. As the days passed and the step he waited for came no more, +hope changed to patient grief. His food often remained untasted; he +refused to go out into the sunshine; and so, <a name="Page_270" id="Page_270" />gradually wasting and +without much bodily suffering, he one day laid himself down and his life +slipped quietly away.</p> + +<p>"He was buried outside the grave-yard, at the top of the hill, as near +as might be to the granite head-stone that recorded the virtues of 'Ye +most faithful Servant and Man of God Silus Timothy Lorrimer Who for 52 +Yrs did Minister to This Ch and Congregation in Spiritual Things.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'The faithful Memory of The Just<br /></span> +<span>Shall Flourish When they turn To Dust.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Peter has no head-stone to mark his grave, but his memory is green in +Hilltown. The old folks love to tell of his beauty, his intelligence, +and his life-long devotion to his master; and there is a tradition +handed down and repeated <a name="Page_271" id="Page_271" />half-seriously, half in jest, that when +Gabriel blows his trumpet on the resurrection morning, and the dead in +Hilltown grave-yard awake, Parson Lorrimer will lead his flock to the +judgment riding on a white horse."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" /><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272" />CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h2>THE QUILTING.</h2> + + +<p>The patchwork quilt was finished. The pieces of calico Miss Ruth from +week to week had measured and cut and basted together, with due regard +to contrast and harmony of colors, were transformed into piles of +gay-colored blocks; the blocks multiplied and extended themselves into +strips, and the strips basted together had kept sixteen little hands +"sewing the long seam" for three Wednesday afternoons. And now it was +finished, and the quilting had begun.</p> + +<p>Miss Ruth had decided, after a consultation with the minister's wife, +that the girls might do this most important <a name="Page_273" id="Page_273" />and difficult part of the +business. She wanted the gift to be theirs from beginning to end—that, +having furnished all the material, they should do all the work. How +pleased and proud they were to be thus trusted, you can imagine, while +the satisfaction they took in the result of the summer's labor repaid +their leader a hundred-fold for her share in the enterprise.</p> + +<p>Never was a quilt so admired and praised. Of all the odds and ends the +girls had brought in, Ruth Elliot had rejected nothing, not even the +polka-dotted orange print in which Mrs. Jones delighted to array her +baby or the gorgeous green-and-red gingham of Nellie Dimock's new apron.</p> + +<p>It took two long afternoons of close work for the girls (not one of whom +had ever quilted before) to accomplish <a name="Page_274" id="Page_274" />this task; but they did it +bravely and cheerfully. There were pricked fingers and tired arms and +cramped feet, and the big dictionary that raised Nellie Dimock to a +level with her taller companions must have proved any thing but an easy +seat; but no one complained.</p> + +<p>Let us look in upon the Patchwork Quilt Society toward the close of this +last afternoon.</p> + +<p>"I was sewing on this very block," Mollie Elliot is saying, leaning back +in her chair to survey her work, "when Aunt Ruth was telling us how +Captain Bobtail's Brownie brought Tufty home.</p> + +<p>"That pink-and-gray block over there in the corner," said Fannie +Eldridge, pointing with her needle, "was the first one I sewed on. I +made awful work with it, too; for when Dinah Diamond <a name="Page_275" id="Page_275" />set herself on +fire with the kerosene lamp I forgot what I was about, and took ever so +many long puckery stitches that had to be picked out,"</p> + +<p>"If I should sleep under that bed-quilt," said Sammy Ray (Sammy and Roy +had been invited to attend this last meeting of the Society), "what do +you suppose I should dream about?"</p> + +<p>No one could imagine.</p> + +<p>"A white horse and a yellow dog," the boy said, "'cause I liked those +stories best."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mollie; "and of course Nellie Dimock would dream about cats, +wouldn't you, Nell? and Roy Tyler about moths and butterflies, and +Florence Austin about birds, and I—well, I should dream of all the +beasts and the birds Aunt Ruth has told us about, all jumbled up +together."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_276" id="Page_276" />I shall always remember one thing," Nellie Dimock said, "when I think +about our quilt."</p> + +<p>"What is that, Nellie?"</p> + +<p>"Not to step on an ant-hill if I can possibly help it, because it blocks +up the street, and the little people have to work so hard to cart away +the dirt."</p> + +<p>"I ain't half so afraid of worms as I used to be," Eliza Ann Jones +announced, "since I've found out what funny things they can do; and next +summer I'm going to make some butterflies out of fennel-worms,"</p> + +<p>"Roy says," Sammy began, and stopped; for Roy was making forcible +objections to the disclosure.</p> + +<p>"Well, what does Roy say?" Miss Ruth asked, knowing nothing of the kicks +administered under the table.</p> + +<p>"He won't let me tell," said Sammy.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_277" id="Page_277" />He's always telling what I say," said Roy. "Why don't he speak for +himself?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I never!" said Sammy. "I thought you was too bashful to speak, +and so I'd do it for you."</p> + +<p>"What was it, Roy?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I said, when I owned a horse, if he should happen to shy, you +know, I'd cure him of it just as that minister cured Peter."</p> + +<p>Here there was a pushing back of chairs and a stir and commotion, for +the last stitch was set to the quilting. Then the binding was put on, +and the quilt was finished; but the September afternoon was finished +too, and Lovina Tibbs lighted the lamps in the dining-room before she +rang the bell for tea.</p> + +<p>Lovina had exerted herself in her special department to make this last +<a name="Page_278" id="Page_278" />meeting of the Society a festive occasion. She gave to the visitors +what she called "a company supper"—biscuits deliciously sweet and +light, cold chicken, plum-preserves, sponge-cake, and for a central dish +a platter containing little frosted cakes, with the letters "P.Q.S." +traced on each in red sugar-sand.</p> + +<p>When the feast was over, one last-admiring look given to "our quilt" and +the girls and boys had all gone home, Susie and Mollie sat with their +mother in Miss Ruth's room.</p> + +<p>"Auntie," said Susie, who for some moments had been gazing thoughtfully +in the fire, "I have been thinking how nice it would be if, when our +quilt goes to the home missionary, all the interesting stories you have +told us while we were sewing on it could go too.<a name="Page_279" id="Page_279" /> Then the children in +the family would think so much more of it—don't you see? I wish there +was some way for a great many more boys and girls to hear those +stories."</p> + +<p>"Why, that's just what Florence Austin was saying this afternoon," said +Mollie. "She said she wished all those stories could be printed in a +book."</p> + +<p>"You hear the suggestion, Ruth," Mrs. Elliot said.</p> + +<p>But Ruth smiled and shook her head,</p> + +<p>"They are such simple little stories," said she.</p> + +<p>"For simple little people to read—'for of such is the kingdom of +heaven.' Think, Ruth, if, instead of one Eliza Jones 'making butterflies +out of fennel-worms' next summer, and in that way getting at some +wonderful facts far more effectively than any book could <a name="Page_280" id="Page_280" />teach her, +there should be a dozen, aria perhaps as many boys resolving, like Roy, +to use kindness and patience instead of cruelty and force in their +dealings with a dumb beast. But you know all this without my preaching. +Ten times one make ten, little sister."</p> + +<p>"If I thought my stones would do good," she said.</p> + +<p>"Come, I have a proposition to make," said the minister's wife. "You +shall write out the stories—you already have some of them in +manuscript—and I will fill in with the doings of the Patchwork Quilt +Society. Do you agree?"</p> + +<p>And that is how this book was written.</p> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>The Girl Chum's Series</h1> + +<h4>ALL AMERICAN AUTHORS.</h4> +<h4>ALL COPYRIGHT STORIES.</h4> + +<p>A carefully selected series of books for +girls, written by popular authors. These +are charming stories for young girls, well +told and full of interest. Their simplicity, +tenderness, healthy, interesting motives, +vigorous action, and character painting will +please all girl readers.</p> + +<p> +<b>HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING.<br /> +PRICE, 60 CENTS.</b><br /> +<br /> +<b>BENHURST CLUB, THE.</b> By Howe Benning.<br /> +<br /> +<b>BERTHA'S SUMMER BOARDERS.</b> By Linnie S. Harris.<br /> +<br /> +<b>BILLOW PRAIRIE.</b> A Story of Life in the Great West. By Joy +Allison.<br /> +<br /> +<b>DUXBERRY DOINGS.</b> A New England Story. By Caroline B. Le Row.<br /> +<br /> +<b>FUSSBUDGET'S FOLKS.</b> A Story For Young Girls. By Anna F. Burnham.<br +/> +<br /> +<b>HAPPY DISCIPLINE, A.</b> By Elizabeth Cummings.<br /> +<br /> +<b>JOLLY TEN, THE; and Their Year of Stories.</b> By Agnes Carr Sage.<br /> +<br /> +<b>KATIE ROBERTSON. A Girl's Story of Factory Life.</b> By M.E. Winslow.<br +/> +<br /> +<b>LONELY HILL. A Story For Girls.</b> By M.L. Thornton-Wilder.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MAJORIBANKS. A Girl's Story.</b> By Elvirton Wright.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MISS CHARITY'S HOUSE.</b> By Howe Benning.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS. A Story For Young Girls.</b> By Mary Spring +Corning.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MISS MALCOLM'S TEN. A Story For Girls.</b> By Margaret E. Winslow.<br /> +<br /> +<b>ONE GIRL'S WAY OUT.</b> By Howe Benning.<br /> +<br /> +<b>PEN'S VENTURE.</b> By Elvirton Wright.<br /> +<br /> +<b>RUTH PRENTICE. A Story For Girls.</b> By Marion Thorne.<br /> +<br /> +<b>THREE YEARS AT GLENWOOD. A Story of School Life.</b> By M. E. +Winslow.<br /> +</p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>The Girl Comrade's Series</h1> + +<h4>ALL AMERICAN AUTHORS.</h4> +<h4>ALL COPYRIGHT STORIES.</h4> + +<p>A carefully selected series of books for girls, written by popular +authors. These are charming stories for young girls, well told and full +of interest. Their simplicity, tenderness, healthy, interesting motives, +vigorous action, and character painting will please all girl readers.</p> + +<p><b>HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING.</b> PRICE, 60 CENTS.</p> + +<p> +<b>A BACHELOR MAID AND HER BROTHER.</b> By I.T. Thurston.<br /> +<br /> +<b>ALL ABOARD, A Story For Girls.</b> By Fanny E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>ALMOST A GENIUS. A Story For Girls.</b> By Adelaide L. Rouse.<br /> +<br /> +<b>ANNICE WYNKOOP, Artist. Story of a Country Girl.</b> By Adelaide L. +Rouse.<br /> +<br /> +<b>BUBBLES. A Girl's Story.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>COMRADES.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>DEANE GIRLS, THE. A Home Story.</b> By Adelaide L. Rouse.<br /> +<br /> +<b>HELEN BEATON, COLLEGE WOMAN.</b> By Adelaide L. Rouse.<br /> +<br /> +<b>JOYCE'S INVESTMENTS. A Story For Girls.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MELLICENT RAYMOND. A Story For Girls.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MISS ASHTON'S NEW PUPIL. A School Girl's Story.</b> By Mrs. S.S. +Robbins.<br /> +<br /> +<b>NOT FOR PROFIT. A Story For Girls.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>ODD ONE, THE. A Story For Girls.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>SARA, A PRINCESS. A Story For Girls.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +</p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS SERIES</h1> + +<h2>By CAROLYN JUDSON BURNETT</h2> + +<h4>Handsome Cloth Binding</h4> + +<h2><i>Splendid Stories of the Adventures of a Group of Charming +Girls</i></h2> + +<p>THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS' VACATION ADVENTURES; or, Shirley Willing +to the Rescue.</p> + +<p>THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS' CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS; or, A Four Weeks' +Tour with the Glee Club.</p> + +<p>THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS; or, Shirley Willing on a +Mission of Peace.</p> + +<p>THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS ON THE WATER; or, Exciting Adventures on a +Summer's Cruise Through the Panama Canal</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h1>THE MILDRED SERIES</h1> + +<h2>By MARTHA FINLEY</h2> + +<h4>Handsome Cloth Binding</h4> + +<h2><i>A Companion Series to the Famous "Elsie" Books by the Same +Author</i> +</h2> + +<p>MILDRED KEITH</p> + +<p>MILDRED AT ROSELANDS</p> + +<p>MILDRED AND ELSIE</p> + +<p>MILDRED'S MARRIED LIFE</p> + +<p>MILDRED AT HOME</p> + +<p>MILDRED'S BOYS AND GIRLS</p> + +<p>MILDRED'S NEW DAUGHTER</p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York.</p> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h1>THE CAMP FIRE GIRL SERIES</h1> + +<h2><b>By HILDEGARD G. FREY.</b> </h2> + +<p>The only series of stories for Camp Fire Girls +endorsed by the officials of the Camp Fire Girls' Organization. Handsome +Cloth Binding. Price, 60 Cents per Volume.</p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The Winnebagos go +Camping.</b></p> + +<p>This lively Camp Fire group and their Guardian go back to Nature in a +camp in the wilds of Maine and pile up more adventures in one summer +than they have had in all their previous vacations put together.</p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL; or, The Wohelo Weavers.</b></p> + +<p>How these seven live wire girls strive to infuse into their school life +the spirit of Work, Health and Love and yet manage to get into more than +their share of mischief, is told in this story.</p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT ONOWAY HOUSE; or, The Magic Garden.</b></p> + +<p>Migwan is determined to go to college, and not being strong enough to +work indoors earns the money by raising fruits and vegetables. The +Winnebagos all turn a hand to help the cause along and the +"goingson" at +Onoway House that summer make the foundation shake with laughter.</p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS GO MOTORING; or, Along the Road That Leads the +Way.</b> In which the Winnebagos take a thousand mile auto trip.</p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS LARKS AND PRANKS; or, The House of the Open +Door.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The Trail of the Seven +Cedars.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD; or, Glorify Work.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over the Top with the +Winnebagos.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or, The Christmas Adventure at +Carver House.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN; or, Down Paddles.</b></p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>The AMY E. BLANCHARD Series</h1> + +<p>Miss Blanchard has won an enviable reputation as a writer of short +stories for girls. Her books are thoroughly wholesome in every way and +her style is full of charm. The titles described below will be splendid +additions to every girl's library. Handsomely bound in cloth, full +library size. Illustrated by L.J. Bridgman. Price, 60 cents per volume, +postpaid.</p> + +<p><b>THE GLAD LADY.</b> A spirited account of a remarkably pleasant +vacation +spent in an unfrequented part of northern Spain. This summer, which +promised at the outset to be very quiet, proved to be exactly the +opposite. Event follows event in rapid succession and the story ends +with the culmination of at least two happy romances. The story +throughout is interwoven with vivid descriptions of real places and +people of which the general public knows very little. These add greatly +to the reader's interest.</p> + +<p><b>WIT'S END.</b> Instilled with life, color and individuality, this +story of +true love cannot fail to attract and hold to its happy end the reader's +eager attention. The word pictures are masterly; while the poise of +narrative and description is marvellously preserved.</p> + +<p><b>A JOURNEY OF JOY.</b> A charming story of the travels and adventures +of +two young American girls, and an elderly companion in Europe, It is not +only well told, but the amount of information contained will make it a +very valuable addition to the library of any girl who anticipates +making-a similar trip. Their many pleasant experiences end in the +culmination of two happy romances, all told in the happiest vein.</p> + +<p><b>TALBOT'S ANGLES.</b> A charming romance of Southern life. Talbot's +Angles +is a beautiful old estate located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The +death of the owner and the ensuing legal troubles render it necessary +for our heroine, the present owner, to leave the place which has been in +her family for hundreds of years and endeavor to earn her own living. +Another claimant for the property appearing on the scene complicates +matters still more. The untangling of this mixed-up condition of affairs +makes an extremely interesting story.</p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1>The Boy Allies</h1> +<h4>(Registered in the United States Patent Office)</h4> +<h1>With the Navy</h1> + + +<h2>By ENSIGN ROBERT L. DRAKE</h2> + +<p><b>Handsome Cloth Binding, Price 60 Cents per Volume</b></p> + +<p>Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, young American lads, meet each other +in an unusual way soon after the declaration of war. Circumstances place +them on board the British cruiser "The Sylph" and from there on, +they +share adventures with the sailors of the Allies. Ensign Robert L. Drake, +the author, is an experienced naval officer, and he describes admirably +the many exciting adventures of the two boys.</p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES ON THE NORTH SEA PATROL; or, Striking the First Blow +at +the German Fleet.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES UNDER TWO FLAGS; or, Sweeping the Enemy from the +Seas.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE FLYING SQUADRON; or, The Naval Raiders of the +Great War.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE TERROR OF THE SEA; or, The Last Shot of +Submarine D-16.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE SEA; or, The Vanishing Submarine.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALTIC; or, Through Fields of Ice to Aid the +Czar.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES AT JUTLAND; or, The Greatest Naval Battle of +History.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH UNCLE SAM'S CRUISERS; or, Convoying the American +Army Across the Atlantic.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE SUBMARINE D-32; or, The Fall of the Russian +Empire.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE VICTORIOUS FLEETS; or, The Fall of the German +Navy.</b></p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1><b>The Boy Allies With</b></h1> +<h4>(Registered in the United States Patent Office)</h4> +<h1><b>the Army</b></h1> + +<h2><b>By CLAIR W. HAYES</b></h2> + +<p><b>Handsome Cloth Binding, Price 60 Cents per Volume</b></p> + +<p>In this series we follow the fortunes of two American lads unable to +leave Europe after war is declared. They meet the soldiers of the +Allies, and decide to cast their lot with them. Their experiences and +escapes are many, and furnish plenty of the good, healthy action that +every boy loves.</p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE; or, Through Lines of Steel.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES ON THE FIRING LINE; or, Twelve Days Battle Along the +Marne.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS; or, A Wild Dash Over the +Carpathians.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES IN THE TRENCHES; or, Midst Shot and Shell Along the +Aisne.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES IN GREAT PERIL; or, With the Italian Army in the +Alps.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN; or, The Struggle to Save a +Nation.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES ON THE SOMME; or, Courage and Bravery +Rewarded.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES AT VERDUN; or, Saving France from the Enemy.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES; or, Leading the American +Troops to the Firing Line.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH HAIG IN FLANDERS; or, The Fighting Canadians of +Vimy Ridge.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH PERSHING IN FRANCE; or Over the Top at Chateau +Thierry.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE GREAT ADVANCE; or, Driving the Enemy Through +France and Belgium.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH MARSHAL FOCH; or, The Closing Days of the Great +World War.</b></p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8601013 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14610 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14610) diff --git a/old/14610-8.txt b/old/14610-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eda4a76 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14610-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4847 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Miss Elliot's Girls, by Mrs Mary Spring Corning + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Miss Elliot's Girls + +Author: Mrs Mary Spring Corning + +Release Date: January 6, 2005 [EBook #14610] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +[Illustration: "What's the matter?" said Charlie. "A great, horrid +green worm," said I. Page 53. _Miss Elliot's Girls._] + + +MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS + +STORIES OF +BEASTS, BIRDS, AND BUTTERFLIES + +By MRS. MARY SPRING CORNING + + +[Illustration] + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS +NEW YORK + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1886, BY +CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GREENY, BLACKY, AND SLY-BOOTS. + + +Sammy Ray was running by the parsonage one day when Miss Ruth called to +him. She was sitting in the vine-shaded porch, and there was a crutch +leaning against her chair. + +"Sammy," she said, "isn't there a field of tobacco near where you live?" + +"Yes'm; two of 'em." + +"To-morrow morning look among the tobacco plants and find me a large +green worm. Have you ever seen a tobacco worm?" + +Sammy grinned. + +"I've killed more'n a hundred of 'em this summer," he said. "Pat Heeley +hires me to smash all I can find, 'cause they eat the tobacco." + +"Well, bring one carefully to me on the leaf where he is feeding; the +largest one you can find." + +Before breakfast the next morning Ruth Elliot had her first sight of a +tobacco worm. + +"Take care!" said Sammy, "or he'll spit tobacco juice on you. See that +horn on his tail? When you want to kill him, you jest catch hold this +way, and"-- + +"But I don't want to kill him," she said. "I want to keep him in this +nice little house I have got ready for him, and give him all the tobacco +he can eat. Will you bring me a fresh leaf every, morning?" + +While she was speaking she had put the worm in a box with a cover of +pink netting. On his way home Sammy met Roy Tyler, and told him (as a +secret) that the lame lady at the minister's house kept worms, and would +pay two cents a head for tobacco worms. "Anyway," said Sammy, "that's +what she paid me." + +If there was money to be got in the tobacco-worm business, Roy wanted a +share in it; and before night he brought to Miss Ruth, in an old tin +basin, eight worms of various sizes, from a tiny baby worm just hatched, +to a great, ugly creature, jet black, and spotted and barred with +yellow. The black worm Miss Ruth consented to keep, and Roy, lifting him +by his horn, dropped him on the green worm's back. + +"Now you have a Blacky and a Greeny," the boy said; and by these names +they were called. + +Roy and Sammy came together the next morning, and watched the worms at +their breakfast. + +"How they eat!" said Sammy; "they make their great jaws go like a couple +of old tobacco-chewers." + +"Yes; and if they lived on bread and butter 't would cost a lot to feed +'em, wouldn't it?" said Roy. + +"Look at my woodbine worm, boys," Miss Ruth said, as she lifted the +cover of another box. "Isn't he a beauty? See the delicate green, shaded +to white, on his back, and that row of spots down his sides looking like +buttons! I call him Sly-boots, because he has a trick of hiding under +the leaves. He used to have a horn on his tail like the tobacco worms." + +"Where that spot is, that looks like an eye?" + +"Yes; and one day he ate nothing and hid himself away, and looked so +strangely that I thought he was going to die; but the next morning he +appeared in this beautiful new coat." + +"How funny! Say, what is he going to turn into?" + +But Miss Ruth was busy house-cleaning. First she turned out her tenants. +They were at breakfast; but they took their food with them, and did not +mind. Then she tipped their house upside down, and brushed out every +stick and stem and bit of leaf, spread thick brown paper on the floor, +and put back Greeny and Blacky snug and comfortable. + +The next time Sammy and Roy met at the parsonage, three flower-pots of +moist sand stood in a row under the bench. + +"Winter quarters," Miss Ruth explained when she saw the boys looking at +them; "and it's about time for my tenants to move in. Greeny and Blacky +have stopped eating, and Sly-boots is turning pale." + +"A worm turn pale!" + +"Yes, indeed; look at him." + +It was quite true; the green on his back had changed to gray-white, and +his pretty spots were fading. + +"He looks awfully; is he going to die?" + +"Yes--and no. Come this afternoon and see what will happen." + +But when they came, Blacky and Sly-boots were not to be seen. Their +summer residence, empty and uncovered, stood out in the sun, and two of +the flower-pots were covered with netting. + +"I couldn't keep them, boys," Miss Ruth said; "they were in such haste +to be gone. Only Greeny is above ground." + +Greeny was in his flower-pot. He was creeping slowly round and round, +now and then stretching his long neck over the edge, but not trying to +get out. Soon he began to burrow. Straight down, head first, he went +into the ground. Now he was half under, now three quarters, now only the +end of his tail and the tip of his horn could be seen. When he was quite +gone, Sammy drew a long breath and Roy said, "I swanny!" + +"How long will he have to stay down there?" + +"All winter, Roy." + +"Poor fellow!" + +"Happy fellow! _I_ say. Why, he has done being a worm. His creeping days +are over. He has only to lie snug and quiet under the ground a while; +then wake and come up to the sunshine some bright morning with a new +body and a pair of lovely wings to spread and fly away with." + +"Why, it's like--it's like"-- + +"What is it like, Sammy?" + +"Ain't it like _folks_, Miss Ruth?" Grandma sings:-- + + 'I'll take my wings and fly away + In the morning,' + +"Yes," she said; "it _is_ like folks." Then glancing at her crutch, +repeated, smiling: "In the morning." + +When the woodbine in the porch had turned red, and the maples in the +door-yard yellow, the flower-pots were removed to the warm cellar, and +one winter evening Sammy Ray wrote Greeny's epitaph:-- + + "A poor green worm, here I lie; + But by-and-by + I shall fly, + Ever so high, + Into the sky." + +He came often in the spring to ask if any thing had happened, and one +day Miss Ruth took from a box and laid in his hand a shining brown +chrysalis, with a curved handle. + +"What a funny little brown jug!" said Sammy. + +"Greeny is inside; close your hand gently and see if you feel him." + +"How cold!" said the boy; and then: "Oh! oh! he _is_ alive, for he +kicks!" + +In June Greeny and Blacky came out of their shells, but no one saw them +do it, for it was in the night; but Sly-boots was more obliging. One +morning Miss Ruth heard a rustling, and lo! what looked like a great +bug, with long, slender legs, was climbing to the top of the box. Soon +he hung by his feet to the netting, rested motionless a while, and then +slowly, slowly unfolded his wings to the sun. They were brown and white +and pink, beautifully shaded, and his body was covered with rings of +brown satin. Blacky and Greeny were not so handsome. They had +orange-spotted bodies, great wings of sober gray, and carried long +flexible tubes curled like a watch-spring, that could be stretched out +to suck honey from the flowers. + +At sunset Miss Ruth sent for the boys. She placed the uncovered box +where the moths waited with folded wings, in the open window. Up from +the garden came a soft breeze sweet with the breath of the roses and +petunias. There was a stir, a rustle, a waving of dusky wings, and the +box was empty. + +So Greeny and Blacky and Sly-boots "took their wings and flew away," and +the boys saw them no more. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE PATCHWORK QUILT SOCIETY. + + +The minister's wife came home from a meeting of the sewing society one +afternoon quite discouraged. + +"Only nine ladies present!" she said, "and very little accomplished; and +the barrel promised to that poor missionary out West, before cold +weather--I really don't see how it is to be done." + +"What work have you on hand?" Miss Ruth inquired. + +"We have just made a beginning," Mrs. Elliot answered with a sigh. +"There's half a dozen fine shirts to make, and a pile of sheets and +pillowcases, dresses and aprons for four little girls, table-cloths and +towels to hem, and I know not what else. We always have sent a +bed-quilt, but this barrel must go without it. It's a pity, too, for +they need bedding." + +"Why, so it is," said Miss Ruth. "Susie,"--to a little girl sitting +close beside her,--"why can't some of you girls get together one +afternoon in the week and make a patchwork quilt to send in the barrel?" + +Susie put her head on one side and considered. + +"Where could we meet, Aunt Ruth?" + +"Here in my room, Susie, if mamma has no objection." + +"Certainly not," Mrs. Elliot said; "but are you well enough to undertake +it, Ruth?" + +"Yes, indeed, Mary; I shall really enjoy it." + +"And would you cut out the blocks for us, and show us how to keep them +from getting all _skewonical_, like the cradle-quilt I made for Amelia +Adeline?" + +Amelia Adeline was Susie's doll. + +"Yes; and I could tell you stories while you were working. How would +that do?" + +"Why, it would be splendid!" said the little girl. "There comes Mollie, +I guess, by the noise. Won't she be glad? Say, Mollie!--why, what a +looking object!" + +This exclamation was called forth by the appearance of the little girl, +who had been heard running at full speed the length of the piazza, and +now presented herself at the door of Miss Ruth's room, her face flushed, +her hair in the wildest confusion, and the skirt of her calico frock +quite detached from the waist, hanging over her arm. + +"Wasn't it lucky that the gathers ripped?" she cried, holding up the +unlucky fragment. "If they hadn't, mamma, I should be hanging, head +down, from the five-barred gate in the lower pasture, and no body to +help me but the cows. You see, I set out to jump, and my skirt got +caught in a nail on the post." + +"O Mollie!" said her mother, "what made you climb the five-barred gate?" + +"'Cause she's a big tom-boy," said Lovina Tibbs, who had come from the +kitchen to call the family to supper. "Ain't yer 'shamed of yerself, +Mary Elliot?--a great girl like you, most ten years old, walkin' top o' +rail fences and climbin' apple-trees in the low pastur'!" + +"No, I'm not!" said Mollie, promptly. + +"Hush, Mollie," said Mrs. Elliot. "Lovina, that will do. Wash your face +and hands, Mollie, and make yourself decent to come to supper." + +An hour later, seated in the hammock, the girls discussed their aunt's +plan. + +"We'll have the Jones girls," said Susie, "and Grace Tyler, and Nellie +Dimock, she's such a dear little thing; and I suppose we must ask Fan +Eldridge, because she lives next door, though I dread to have her come, +she gets mad so easy; but mamma wouldn't like to have us leave her out; +and then, let's see--oh! we'll ask Florence Austin, the new girl, you +know." + +"Would you?" said Mollie, doubtfully. "We don't know her very well, and +she dresses so fine and is kind of _citified_, you know. Ar'n't you +afraid she'll spoil the fun?" + +"No," said Susie, decidedly. "Mamma said we were to be good to her +because she's a stranger; and I think she's nice, too--not a bit proud, +though her father is so rich." + +"Well," Mollie assented, who, though thirteen months older than her +sister, generally yielded to Susie's better judgment; "let her come, +then. That makes six besides us, and Aunt Ruth said half a dozen would +be plenty. Sue, I think it's going to be real jolly, don't you?" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE STORY OF DINAH DIAMOND. + + +Miss Ruth Elliot was the minister's sister. And two years before, when +she came to live in the parsonage, an addition of two rooms was built +for her on the ground floor because she was an invalid, and lame, and +could not climb the stairs. + +They were pretty rooms, with soft carpets, pictures on the walls, and in +the winter time the sun shining in all day at the south window and the +glass door. In summer with this door wide open and the piazza cool and +shady with woodbine and clematis, you would have agreed with the little +girls who made up Ruth Elliot's sewing circle, that first Wednesday +afternoon, that they were "just lovely!" + +All were there--the Jones' twins, Ann Eliza and Eliza Ann, tall girls as +like each other as two peas and growing so fast one could always see +where their gowns were let down; Grace Tyler with curly black hair and +rosy cheeks; Nellie Dimock, a little dumpling of a girl with big blue +eyes and a funny turned up nose; Fannie Eldridge, looking so sweet and +smiling, you would not suspect she could be guilty of the fault Susie +had charged her with; and Florence Austin, whose father had lately +purchased a house in Green Meadow, and with his family had come to live +in the country. Last of all, the minister's two little daughters, whom +you have already met. + +Ruth Elliot was sitting at a table covered with piles of bright calico +pieces cut and basted for sewing, and when each girl had received a +block with all necessary directions for making it, needles were +threaded, thimbles adjusted, and the Patchwork Quilt Society was in full +session. + +"Now, Aunt Ruth," said Susie, "you promised to tell us a story, you +know." + +"Yes; tell us about Dinah Diamond, please," said Mollie. + +"You and Susie have heard that story before, Mollie." + +"That does not make a bit of difference, Auntie. The stories we like +best we have heard over and over again. Besides, the other girls haven't +heard it. Come, Aunt Ruth, please begin." + +And so, while all sat industriously at work, Ruth Elliot related to the +little girls + + +THE TRUE STORY OF DINAH DIAMOND. + +"When I was a little girl," she began, "I had a present from a neighbor +of a black kitten. I carried her home in my apron, a little ball of +black fur, with bright blue eyes that turned yellow as she got bigger, +and a white spot on her breast shaped like a diamond. I remember she +spit and clawed at me all the way home, and made frantic efforts to +escape, and for a day or two was quite homesick and miserable; but she +soon grew accustomed to her surroundings, and was so sprightly and +playful that she became the pet of the house. + +"The first remarkable thing she did, was to set herself on fire with a +kerosene lamp. We were sitting at supper one evening, when we heard a +crash in the sitting-room, and rushing in, found the cloth that had +covered the center table and a blazing lamp on the floor. It was the +work of an instant for my father to raise a window, wrap the lamp in the +table-cloth, and throw both into the street. This left the room in +darkness, and I don't think the cause of the accident occured to any of +us, till there rushed from under the sofa a little ball of fire that +flew round and round the room at a most astonishing pace. + +"'Oh, my kitten! my kitten!' I screamed. 'She's burning to death! Catch +her! Catch her! Put her out! Throw cold water on her! Oh, my poor, poor +Dinah!' and I began a wild chase in the darkness, weeping and wailing as +I ran. The entire family joined in the pursuit. We tumbled over chairs +and footstools. We ran into each other, and I remember my brother +Charlie and I bumped our heads together with a dreadful crash, but I +think neither of us felt any pain. They called out to each other in the +most excited tones: 'Head her off there! Corner her! You've got her! No, +you haven't! There she goes! Catch her! Catch her!' while I kept up a +wailing accompaniment, 'Oh, my poor, precious Dinah! my burned up Dinah +Diamond,' etc. + +"Well, my mother caught her at last in her apron and rolled her in the +hearth rug till every vestige of fire was extinguished and then laid her +in my lap. + +"Don't laugh, Mollie," said tenderhearted Nellie Dimock--"please don't +laugh. I think it was dreadful. O Miss Ruth, was the poor little thing +dead?" + +"No, indeed, Nellie; and, wonderful to relate, she was very little hurt. +We supposed her fine thick coat kept the fire from reaching her body, +for we could discover no burns. Her tongue was blistered where she had +lapped the flame, and in her wild flight she had lamed one of her paws. +Of course her beauty was gone, and for a few weeks she was that +deplorable looking object--a singed cat. But oh, what tears of joy I +shed over her, and how I dosed her with catnip tea, and bathed her paw +with arnica, and nursed and petted her till she was quite well again! My +little brother Walter ("That was my papa, you know," Mollie whispered to +her neighbor), who was only three years old, would stand by me while I +was tending her, his chubby face twisted into a comical expression of +sympathy, and say in pitying tones: 'There! there! poo-ittle Dinah! I +know all about it. How oo must huffer' (suffer). The dear little fellow +had burned his finger not long before and remembered the smart. + +"I am sorry to say that the invalid received his expressions of sympathy +in a very ungracious manner, spitting at him notwithstanding her sore +tongue, and showing her claws in a threatening way if he tried to touch +her. As fond as I was of Dinah, I was soon obliged to admit that she had +an unamiable disposition." + +"Why, Miss Ruth, how funny!" said Ann Eliza Jones. "I didn't know there +was any difference in cats' dispositions." + +"Indeed there is," Miss Ruth answered: "quite as much as in the +dispositions of children, as any one will tell you who has raised a +family of kittens. Well, Dinah made a quick recovery, and when her new +coat was grown it was blacker and more silky than the old one. She was +a handsome cat, not large, but beautifully formed, with a bright, +intelligent face and great yellow eyes that changed color in different +lights. She was devoted to me, and would let no one else touch her if +she could help it, but allowed me to handle her as I pleased. I have +tucked her in my pocket many a time when I went of an errand, and once I +carried her to the prayer-meeting in my mother's muff. But she made a +serious disturbance in the midst of the service by giving chase to a +mouse, and I never repeated the experiment. + +"Dinah was a famous hunter, and kept our own and the neighbors' premises +clear of rats and mice, but never to my knowledge caught a chicken or a +bird. She had a curious fancy for catching snakes, which she would kill +with one bite in the back of the neck and then drag in triumph to the +piazza or the kitchen, where she would keep guard over her prey and call +for me till I appeared. I could never quite make her understand why she +was not as deserving of praise as when she brought in a mole or a mouse; +and as long as she lived she hunted for snakes, though after a while she +stopped bringing them to the house. She made herself useful by chasing +the neighbors' hens from the garden, and grew to be such a tyrant that +she would not allow a dog or a cat to come about the place, but rushed +out and attacked them in such a savage fashion that after one or two +encounters they were glad to keep out of her way. + +"Once I saw her put a flock of turkeys to flight. The leader at first +resolved to stand his ground. He swelled and strutted and gobbled +furiously, exactly as if he were saying, 'Come on, you miserable little +black object, you! I'll teach you to fight a fellow of my size. Come on! +Come on!' Dinah crouched low, and eyed her antagonist for a moment, then +she made a spring, and when he saw the 'black object' flying toward him, +every hair bristling, all eyes, and teeth, and claws, the old gobbler +was scared half out of his senses, and made off as fast as his long legs +would carry him, followed by his troop in the most admired disorder. + +"I was very proud of one feat of bravery Dinah accomplished. One of our +neighbors owned a large hunting dog and had frequently warned me that if +my cat ever had the presumption to attack his dog, Bruno would shake the +breath out of her as easy as he could kill a rat. I was inwardly much +alarmed at this threat, but I put on a bold front, and assured Mr. Dixon +that Dinah Diamond always had come off best in a fight and I believed +she always would, and the result justified my boast. + +"It happened that Dinah had three little kittens hidden away in the +wood-shed chamber, and you can imagine under these circumstances, when +even the most timid animals are bold, how fierce such a cat as Dinah +would be. Unfortunately for Bruno he chose this time to rummage in the +wood-shed for bones. We did not know how the attack began, but suppose +Dinah spied him from above, and made a flying leap, lighting most +unexpectedly to him upon his back, for we heard one unearthly yell, and +out rushed Bruno with his unwelcome burden, her tail erect, her eyes +two balls of fire, and every cruel claw, each one as sharp as a needle, +buried deep in the poor dog's flesh. How he did yelp!--ki! ki! ki! ki! +and how he ran, through the yard and the garden, clearing the fence at a +bound, and taking a bee-line for home! Half-way across the street, when +Dinah released her hold and slipped to the ground, he showed no +disposition to revenge his wrongs, but with drooping ears and tail +between his legs kept on his homeward way yelping as he ran. Nor did he +ever give my brave cat the opportunity to repeat the attack, for if he +chanced to come to the house in his master's company, he always waited +at a respectful distance outside the gate. + +"It would take too long to tell you all the wonderful things Dinah did, +but I am sure you all agree with me that she was a remarkable cat. She +came out in a new character when I was ill with an attack of fever. She +would not be kept from me. Again and again she was driven from the room +where I lay, but she would patiently watch her opportunity and steal in, +and when my mother found that she was perfectly quiet and that it +distressed me to have her shut out, she was allowed to remain. She would +lie for hours at the foot of my bed watching me, hardly taking time to +eat her meals, and giving up her dearly loved rambles out of doors to +stay in my darkened room. I have thought some times if I had died then +Dinah would have died too of grief at my loss. But I didn't die; and +when I was getting well we had the best of times, for I shared with her +all the dainty dishes prepared for me, and every day gave her my +undivided attention for hours. It was about this time that I composed +some verses in her praise, half-printing and half-writing them on a +sheet of foolscap paper. They ran thus:-- + + 'Who is it that I love so well? + I love her more than words can tell. + And who of all cats is the belle? + My Dinah. + + Whose silky fur is dark as night? + Whose diamond is so snowy white? + Whose yellow eyes are big and bright? + Black Dinah. + + Who broke the lamp, and in the gloom + A ball of fire flew round the room, + And just escaped an awful doom? + Poor Dinah. + + Who, to defend her kittens twain, + Flew at big dogs with might and main, + And scratched them till they howled with pain? + Brave Dinah. + + Who at the table takes her seat + With all the family to eat, + And picks up every scrap of meat? + My Dinah. + + Who watched beside me every day, + As on my feverish couch I lay, + And whiled the tedious hours away? + Dear Dinah. + + And when thou art no longer here, + Over thy grave I'll shed a tear, + For thou to me wast very dear, + Black Dinah.' + +"Did you really used to set a chair for her at the table and let her eat +with the folks?" Fanny Eldridge asked. + +"Well, Fannie, that statement must be taken with some allowance. +Occasionally when there was plenty of room she was allowed to sit by me, +and I assure you she behaved with perfect propriety. I kept a fork on +purpose for her, and when I held it out with a bit of meat on it she +would guide it to her mouth with one paw and eat it as daintily as +possible. I never knew her to drop a crumb on the carpet. Indeed, I know +several boys and girls whose table manners are not as good as Dinah +Diamond's." + +"I suppose you mean me, Auntie," said Mollie. "Mamma is always telling +me I eat too fast, and I know I scatter the bread about sometimes when +I'm in a hurry." + +"Well, Mollie," said Miss Ruth, laughing, "I was _not_ thinking of you, +but if the coat fits, you may put it on." + +"What became of Dinah at last, Miss Ruth?" + +"She made a sad end, Fannie, for as she grew older her disposition got +worse instead of better, until she became so cross and disagreeable that +she hadn't a friend left but me. She would scratch and bite little +children if they attempted to touch her, and was so cruel to one of her +own kittens that we were raising to take her place--for she was too old +and infirm to be a good mouser--that we were afraid she would kill the +poor thing outright. One morning, after she had made an unusually savage +attack on her son Solomon, my mother said: 'We must have that cat +killed, and the sooner the better. It isn't safe to keep such an ugly +creature a day longer.' Dinah was apparently fast asleep on her cushion +in the corner of the kitchen lounge when these words were spoken. In a +few minutes she jumped down, walked slowly across the room and out at +the kitchen door, and we never saw her again." + +"Why, how queer! What became of her?" + +"We never knew. We inquired in the neighborhood, and searched the barn +and the wood-shed, and in every place we could think of where she would +be likely to hide, but we could get no trace of her, and when weeks +passed and she did not return we concluded that she was dead." + +"You don't think--_do_ you think, Miss Ruth, that she understood what +was said and knew if she stayed she would have to be killed?" + +"_I_ do," said Mollie, positively. "I'm sure of it!--and so the poor +thing went off and drowned herself, or, maybe, died of a broken heart." + +"Oh!" said Nellie Dimock, "poor Dinah Diamond!" + +"Nonsense, Mollie!" said Susie Elliot. "Cats don't die of broken +hearts." + +"She had been ailing for some days," Miss Ruth explained, "refusing her +food and looking forlorn and miserable, and I am inclined to think +instinct taught her that her end was near. You know wild animals creep +away into some solitary place to die, and Dinah had a drop or two of +wild-cat blood in her veins. I fancy she hid herself in some hole under +the barn and died there. It was a curious coincidence, that she should +have chosen that particular time, just after her doom was pronounced, to +take her departure. But what grieved me most was that, excepting myself, +every member of the family rejoiced that she was dead. + +"Poor Dinah Diamond! She was beautiful and clever, and constant and +brave, but she lived unloved and died unlamented because of her bad +temper." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY. + + +"If I can't have the seat I want, I won't have any; and I think you are +real mean, Mollie Elliot! I ain't coming here any more." + +These were the words Miss Ruth heard spoken in loud angry tones as she +opened the door connecting her bedroom with the parlor, where the little +girls were assembled, and caught a glimpse of an energetic figure in +pink gingham running across the lawn that separated the minister's house +from his next door neighbor. + +"Now, Auntie," said Mollie, in answer to Miss Ruth's look of inquiry, "I +am not in the least to blame. I'll leave it to the girls if I am. Fan +Eldridge is so touchy! She came in a minute ago and Nellie Tyler +happened to be sitting by me, and Fan marched up to her and says, 'I'll +take my seat if you please'; and I said, 'It's no more your seat than it +is Nellie's,' We don't have any particular seats, you know we don't, +Auntie, but sit just as it happens. Well, she declared it was her seat +because she had had it the last two afternoons, and I told Nellie not to +give up to her because she acted so hateful about it, and then she went +off mad. I'm sure I don't care; if she chooses to stay away she can." + +"You don't quite mean that, Mollie," her aunt said gravely. "The +Patchwork Society can't afford to lose one of its members, certainly not +for so small a difference as the choice of a seat. We must have Fanny +back, if I give up my seat to her. But come into this room, girls. I +have something pretty to show you. Softly! or you will frighten him +away." + +There was a honeysuckle vine trained close to the window, in full bloom, +and darting in and out among the flowers, taking a sip now and then from +a honey-cup, or resting on a leaf or twig, was a large butterfly with +black-velvet wings and spots and bands of blue and red and yellow. + +"O you beauty!" said Miss Ruth. "Do you know, girls, of all the moths +and butterflies I have raised from the larvć,--and I have had Painted +Ladies, and Luna Moths, and one lovely Cecropia which was the admiration +of all beholders,--my favorite has always been the Swallow-tailed? +Perhaps it was because he was my first love. I was no older than you, +Nellie, when, half curious and half disgusted, I held at arm's length on +a bit of fennel-stalk, and dropped in an old ribbon-box Aunt Susan +provided for the purpose, the great green worm that, after various +stages of insect life, turned into just such a beautiful creature as you +see flying about among the flowers. Since then I have raised dozens of +them." + +"I don't see how you could have any thing to do with worms," said Eliza +Jones. "I hate them--the horrid, squirming things!" + +"So did I, Eliza, till I studied into their ways and learned what +wonderful things they can do; and now, I assure you, I have a high +respect and admiration for them." + +"Will you tell us about it?" Florence asked. "I've always wanted to know +just how worms turned into butterflies," + +"And I should like nothing better than to tell you," she answered. +"'Making butterflies,' as a dear little boy once defined my favorite +occupation, and telling those who are interested in such things how they +are made, is very delightful to me," + +"Come, then, girls, hurry!" said Nellie: "the sooner we get to work the +sooner the story will begin. Good-by, Mr. Swallow-tail,--I wonder what +they call you so for,--we are going to hear all about you," + +But when they returned to the other room they found Sammy Ray and Roy +Tyler on the piazza, close to the open door. Roy beckoned to his sister, +and they held a whispered conference during which the words, "You ask +her," energetically spoken by Roy, could be plainly heard by those +inside. + +Nellie turned presently, half laughing, but a little embarrassed. + +"The boys want to know if they can't come in," she said. "I tell them +it's ridiculous for boys to attend a sewing society, but they won't go +away till I've asked." + +Here the boys stepped forward and took off their hats. Their faces shone +with the scrubbing with soap and water they had given them, and both had +on clean collars. Sammy dived in his trowsers pocket and brought out a +couple of big brass thimbles and some needles stuck in a bit of flannel. + +"We are willing to help sew," said the boy, and bravely stood his +ground, though all the girls laughed, and even Miss Ruth looked amused +at the sight of these huge implements. + +"If we let you in at all, boys," she said, "it must be as guests. What +do you say, girls? Suppose we put it to vote. As many of you as are in +favor of admitting Samuel Ray and Roy Tyler to the meeting of the +Patchwork Quilt Society, now in session, will please to signify it by +raising the right hand." + +Every hand was lifted. + +"It is a unanimous vote," she announced. "Walk in, boys. One more chair, +Susie. Now, then, are we ready?" + +But this was fated to be a day of interruptions, for while she was +speaking the door opened and in walked Lavina Tibbs, bearing a plate +piled high with something covered with a napkin. + +"Miss Elliot's compliments," she said, "and would the Bed-quilt Society +accept some gingerbread for luncheon?" She set the plate on the table, +removed the napkin with a flourish, and added on her own account:-- + +"It's jest out of the oven, an' if it ain't good I don't know how to +make soft gingerbread, that's all!" + +Good? If you had inhaled its delicious odor, and seen its lovely brown +crust and golden interior, you would have longed (as did every boy and +girl in the room) to taste it directly; and, having tasted, you would +have eaten your share to the last crumb. Miss Ruth gave Susie a +whispered direction, and the little girl brought from a corner cupboard +a pile of pink-and-white china plates, and napkins with pink borders to +correspond. The plates had belonged to Miss Ruth's grandmother, and were +very valuable; but Ruth Elliot believed that nothing was too good to be +used, and that the feast would be more enjoyable for being daintily +served. But when all were helped, she still appeared to think some thing +was wanting, and, after looking round the circle, her glance rested upon +Mollie. The little girl had been unusually quiet ever since her dispute +with Fannie, for she knew very well, though not a word of reproof had +been spoken, that her aunt was not pleased with her. She dropped her +eyes before Miss Ruth's gaze, and grew red in the face; then suddenly +jumping up, she said:-- + +"I'll go and ask Fan Eldridge to come back, shall I, Auntie? and she may +have any seat she likes; I'm sure I don't care." + +"Yes, dear," Miss Ruth said, in the tone Mollie loved best to hear, "and +be quick, do! or the gingerbread will be cold." + +Fannie was standing idly at the window looking toward the parsonage, +already repenting of her hasty departure, when Mollie rushed in. + +"Come back, Fan, do! we all want you to," she said. "Mamma has sent in +some hot gingerbread, and Sam Ray and Roy Tyler are there, and auntie is +going to tell us about swallow-tailed butterflies, and she doesn't like +to begin without you. Come, now, do! and you may have my seat." + +The little girl needed no urging, but her mother interposed. + +"Fannie was greatly to blame," Mrs. Eldridge said. "She has told me all +about it, and I think she deserves to be punished by staying at home." + +"Oh, but please, Mrs. Eldridge," said Mollie, "let her off this time! It +was my fault as well as hers, for you see I provoked her by answering +back." + +"Say you are sorry, Fannie." + +"Yes, truly, mamma, I am," said Fannie, with tears in her eyes; "and +I'll take any seat, or I'll stand up all the afternoon, if you'll only +let me go, and I _will_ try to break myself of getting angry so easy; +see if I don't!" + +On the strength of these promises Mrs. Eldridge gave her consent, and +the little girls crossed the lawn hand-in-hand, in loving companionship. +So harmony was restored in the Society, and all ate their gingerbread +with a relish. Sammy and Roy would have liked better to have munched +their share on the piazza-steps, without plate or napkin. Under the +circumstances, however, they behaved very well; for, though Roy took +rather large mouthfuls, and Sammy licked his fingers when he thought no +one was looking, these were small delinquencies, and you will be glad +to know that the girls were too well-bred to appear to notice. Mollie, +now fully restored to favor, was allowed to pass the finger-bowl, while +Susie collected the plates, distributed the work, and made every thing +snug and tidy in the room. Then Miss Ruth commenced the story of + + +THE SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY. + +"When I was ten years old, my brother Charlie and I spent a summer with +Aunt Susan, who lived in the old homestead some miles out of town. + +"One night after tea she sent us into the garden to gather some sprigs +of fennel for her to take to prayer-meeting--all the old ladies in +Vernon took dill or fennel to evening meeting. I had just put my hand to +the fennel-bush when I drew it back with a scream. + +"'What's the matter?' said Charlie. + +"'A great, horrid green worm,' said I. 'I almost touched it!' + +"'Here, let me smash him!' said Charlie; 'where is he?' + +"'Oh, don't touch him!' I cried; 'he might bite you. Oh, dear, I hate +worms! I wonder what they were made for!' + +"'That kind was made to turn into butterflies,' said Tim Rhodes. + +"Tim was working Aunt Susan's garden on shares that summer, and had +heard all we said, for he was weeding the onion-bed close by. + +"'What, that fellow!' said Charlie; 'will he turn into a butterfly?' and +we both of us looked at the caterpillar. He was about as long and as +thick as my little finger, of a bright leafy green, with black-velvet +rings dotted with orange at even distances along his body. He lay at +full length on a fennel-stalk, and seemed to be asleep; but when Charlie +touched him with a little stick, instantly there shot out of his head a +pair of orange-colored horns, and the air was full of the pungent odor +of fennel. + +"'It smells like prayer-meeting,' said Charlie, and ran off to play; but +I wanted further information. + +"'Mr. Rhodes,' said I, 'how do you know this kind of worm makes +butterflies?' + +"'Because I've seen 'em do it, child. If you should put that fellow now +in a box with some holes in the top, so as he could breathe, and give +him plenty of fresh fennel to eat, in a week (or less time if he's full +grown) he'll wind himself up, and after a spell he'll hatch out a +butterfly--a pretty one, too, I tell you,' + +"'I mean to try it,' I said; and I ran to the house and Aunt Susan gave +me an old ribbon-box, and Mr. Rhodes punched a few holes in the cover +with his pocket-knife; and after a little hesitation I picked the +fennel-stalk with the worm on it, and laid it carefully in the box, +making sure that the cover was tight. The box was then taken to the +house and deposited on a bench in the porch, for Aunt Susan objected to +entertaining this new boarder indoors. + +"I gave my worm his breakfast the next morning before I had my own, and, +forgetting my aversion, sat by the open box and watched him eat, as his +strong jaws made clean work with leaf and stem. + +"'He isn't so ugly, after all, Charlie,' I said; 'he is almost handsome +for a worm, with all those bright colors on him,' + +"Then Charlie caught a little of my enthusiasm, and said _he_ meant to +keep a worm too. So he searched the fennel-bush and found three, and +tumbled them unceremoniously into the box. + +"'Now they'll have good times together,' said he; 'that fellow was awful +lonesome shut up by himself,' + +"At Aunt Susan's suggestion I improved my worm-house by removing the top +of the box and stretching mosquito-netting across, fastening it securely +along the edges lest my prisoners should escape. And it was well I took +this precaution; for, though for several days they made no attempt to +get away, and seemed to do nothing but eat and sleep, one morning I +found my largest and handsomest worm in a very disturbed and restless +condition. He was making frantic efforts to escape. Up and down, round +and round, over and under his companions, who were still quietly +feeding, without a moment's pause, he was pushing his way. I watched him +till I was tired; but when I left him he was still on his travels. + +"In the afternoon, however, he had settled himself half-way up the side +of his house. His head was moving slowly from side to side, and a fine +white thread was coming out of his mouth. When I looked again he had +fastened himself to the box by the tip of his tail and by a loop of fine +silk passing round the upper part of his body. There he hung motionless +two, three, almost four, days. The green and orange and black faded +little by little, his body shrank to half its size, and he looked +withered, unsightly, dead. I thought he _was_ dead; but Tim Rhodes (who +all along had shown a friendly interest in my pursuit) took a look at my +poor dead worm,' and pronounced him all right. + +"'Keep a watch on him this afternoon,' said Tim,' and you'll see +something queer,' + +"So we did; and Aunt Susan was summoned to the porch by the news that +'the worm had split in the back and was coming out of his skin.' By the +time she had got on her glasses and was ready to witness this wonderful +sight, it was over. A heap of dried skin lay in the bottom of the box, +and a pretty chrysalis of a delicate green color hung in place of the +worm. + +"'O Auntie!' said Charlie, 'you ought to have seen him twist and squirm +and make the split in his back bigger and bigger till it burst open and +tumbled off, just as a boy wriggles out of a tight coat, you know!' + +"After this came three weeks of waiting, during which the green +chrysalis turned gray and hard and the other worms, one by one, went +through the same changes, until four gray chrysalis were fastened to the +sides of the box. + +"Every day I looked, but nothing happened, until it seemed to me, tired +of waiting, that nothing ever _would_ happen. But one bright morning I +forgot all my weariness when I found, clinging to the netting, a +beautiful creature like the one we saw on the honeysuckle this +afternoon, with a slender black body and wings spotted with yellow and +scarlet and lovely blue. When I opened the box he didn't try to fly. He +was weak and trembling, and his wings were damp, but every moment they +grew larger and his colors brighter in the sunshine. + +"While Charlie and I stood watching him, we discussed, in our own way, a +problem that has puzzled wiser heads than ours--how three distinct +individuals (the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly) could be one +and the same creature, and how from a low-born worm that groveled and +crawled could be born this bright ethereal being--all light and beauty +and color--that seemed fitted only for the sky. + +"Aunt Susan listened to our talk a while and then repeated a text of +Scripture:-- + +"'Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his +glorious body?'" + +"While we talked the butterfly grew stronger and more beautiful, until +at last, spreading his wings to their widest extent, he darted high into +the air and we lost him. But from the day I took the green worm from the +fennel-bush in Aunt Susan's garden I date my introduction to a +delightful study which I have followed all my life as I have found +opportunity. So you see it is no wonder I am fond of the swallow-tailed +butterfly; and I have another reason, for once on a time I tamed one so +that it sucked honey from my finger." + +"Auntie, you are joking!" + +"Indeed, no. It was a poor little waif which, mistaking chimney heat for +warm spring weather, hatched himself out of season, and whose life I +prolonged by providing him with food." + +"The dear little thing! Tell us about it, please." + +"Well, I had put away some chrysalids for the winter in a closet in my +sleeping-room, and one day my nurse--I was ill at the time--heard a +rustling in the box where they lay and brought it to me for +investigation; and, behold! when I opened it there was a full-grown +swallow-tail, who, waking too soon from his winter's nap, left the soft +bed of cotton where his companions lay sleeping side by side and, wide +awake and ready to fly, was impatiently waiting for some one to let him +out into the sunshine. + +"But the March sunshine was fitful and pale, and the cold wind would +have chilled him to death before night; so we resolved to keep him +indoors. We gave him the liberty of the room, and he fluttered about the +plants in the window, now and then taking a flight to the ceiling, +where, I am sorry to say, he bruised his delicate wings; but he seemed +to learn wisdom by experience, for after a while he contented himself +with a lower flight. Every day my bed was wheeled close to the window, +and I amused myself for hours watching my pretty visitor. He would +greedily suck a drop of honey, diluted with water, from the leaf of a +plant or from the end of my finger, and by sight or smell, perhaps by +both senses, soon learned where to go for his dinner. + +"And so he lived and thrived for a fortnight, and I had hopes of keeping +him till spring; but one cold night the furnace fire went out, and in +the morning my pretty swallow-tail lay dead on the window-sill. Wasn't +it a pity? + +"Oh," said Florence, "I like to hear about butterflies! Will you please +tell us about some of the other kinds you have kept?" + +"Tell us about that big fellow you said every body made a fuss over. +Ce-ce--I can't remember what you called him." + +"Cecropia!" said Susie, promptly. "Yes, do, Auntie! if you are not +tired." + +If Ruth Elliot had been ever so weary I think she would have forgotten +it at sight of the interested faces of her audience; but in fact she was +not in the least tired, but was as pleased to tell as they were to +listen to the story of + + +THE CECROPIA MOTH. + +"One day in November," she said, "a man who used to do odd jobs about +the place for my father, and whom we always called Josh,--his name was +Joshua Wheeler,--left his work to bring to the house and put into my +hand a queer-looking pod-shaped package firmly fastened to a stout twig. +It was of a rusty gray color and looked as much like a thick wad of +dirty brown paper as any thing I can think of. + +"'I found this 'ere cur'us lookin' thing,' he said, 'under a walnut-tree +on the hill yonder, where I was rakin' up leaves--an', thinks I, there's +some kind of a crittur stored away inside, an' Miss Ruth she's crazy +arter bugs an' worms an' sich like varmints, an' mebbe she'd like to see +what comes out o' this 'ere; so I've fetched it along.' + +"You may be sure I thanked him heartily and gave him a sixpence besides, +which I am afraid went to buy tobacco. 'Law, Doctor, don't I know it?' +Josh used to reply when my father urged him to break off a habit that +was making a shaky old man of him at sixty; 'don't I know it's a +dretful bad habit; but then you see a body must have somethin' to be +a-chawin' on.' + +"But what was in the brown package? That was the question I puzzled my +brains over. I had never seen a cocoon in the least like it before, and +I had no book on entomology to help me. With the point of a needle I +carefully picked away the outer layer till I came to loose silken fibers +that evidently were the covering of an inside case. Whatever was there +was snugly tucked away in a little inner chamber with the key inside, +and I must wait with what patience I could command till he chose to open +the door. + +"I kept my precious cocoon all winter in a cold, dry place; but when +warm spring weather came it lay in state on my work-table, in a box +lined with cotton, where I could watch it all day long. Nothing +happened till one bright day in June I heard a faint scratching inside +the brown case. It grew louder and louder every moment. Evidently my +tenant was bestirring himself and, with intervals of rest, was scraping +and tearing away his silken wrappings. Presently an opening was made and +out of this were poked two bushy legs with claws that held fast by the +outside of his house, while the creature gradually pulled himself out. + +"First a head with horns; then a part of the body and two more legs; +then, with one tremendous effort, he was free!--an odd beast of no +particular color, looking exceedingly damp and disagreeable, with his +fat chunky body and short legs, like an exaggerated bumble-bee, only not +at all pretty. He was shaky on his legs and half tumbled from his box +to the window-sill, along which he walked trembling till he came to the +tassel of the shade, just within his reach. This he grabbed with all +four claws, his wings hanging down. + +"'It's nothing but a homely old brown bug!' said my brother Charlie, +whom I had called to see the sight. + +"'No,' I said, "'it isn't a bug. I'm sure I don't know what it is,' + +"I was ready to cry with disappointment and vexation, for I had expected +great things from my brown chrysalis. + +"The tassel was gently swaying with the weight of the clumsy creature, +and in the warm sunshine which was gradually drying body and wings faint +colors began to show--a dull red, a dash of white, a wavy band of gray, +with patches of soft brown that began to look downy like feathers. Every +moment these colors grew more distinct and took new shapes. None of +them were bright, but they were beautifully blended and the whole body +was of the texture of the finest velvet. + +"But the wings! How can I describe to you how those thick, crumpled, +unsightly appendages grew and grew, changing in color from a dingy black +to a dark brown, with bands of gray and red? how the great white patches +took distinct form, and some were dashed with red and bordered with +black, and others eye-shaped with crescents of pale blue? It must have +taken an hour for all this to come about--for the great wings to unfurl +to their widest extent and the cecropia moth to show himself in all his +beauty to our admiring gaze. + +"The whole family had gathered to see the show. My father lingered, hat +and riding-whip in hand, though he had a round of twenty miles to make +among his patients before night; and Aunt Susan, who was on a visit, +stood peering through her spectacles, too much absorbed to notice black +Dinah taking a nap in her work-basket and the kitten making sad havoc +with her knitting. Josh was called in from the wood-shed, and, with his +hat on the back of his head and hands deep in his pockets, gazed in +silence. + +"'Wal,' he said at length, 'if that don't beat all natur'! Look at the +size of that crittur, will you, and the hole he's jest crawled out of. +Why, he's as big as a full-grown bat, measures full seven inches across +from wing to wing. Wal, now, I'd gin consider'ble to know what's be'n +goin' on for a spell back in that leetle house where he's passed his +time; and I'll bet, Doctor, with all your larnin', _you_ can't tell.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FURRY-PURRY BECOMING GOLD ELSIE. + + +Miss Ruth found on her table the next Wednesday afternoon a note very +neatly and carefully written, which read as follows:-- + + Miss RUTH,--Will you Please tell us Another Cat Story, becaus I + like them best. So does Fannie Eldridge she said So after You told + Worm stories. + + Miss Ruth I Have Named my Black Kitty After your Dinah Diamond, her + Last Name has to Be Spot Becaus her Spot is not a Diamond, this is + from your Friend. + + NELLIE DIMOCK. + +"I hold in my hand," Miss Ruth said, when she had carefully perused this +epistle, "a written request from two members of our Society for another +cat story. Susie and Mollie, have I any more cat stories worth telling?" + +"Yes, indeed, Auntie" said Mollie. "Don't you remember the pretty fairy +story you used to tell us about the good little girl who saved a cat +from being drowned by some bad boys, and carried her home? and she +turned out to be a fairy cat and gave that girl every thing she wished +for--cakes and candy, and a lovely pink silk frock packed in a nutshell +for her to wear to the party?" + +"O Mollie! that's too much of a baby story," said Susie. "Tell us about +the musical cat who played the piano by walking over the keys, and all +the people in the house thought it was a ghost." + +"Yes, Auntie; and the funny story of the cat and the parrot--how the +parrot got stuck up to her knees in a pan of dough, and in her fright +said over every thing she had learned to say: 'Polly wants a cracker!' +'Oh, my goodness' sakes alive!' 'Get out, I say!' 'Here's a row!' 'Scat, +you beast!' and so on;--and how the cat got her out." + +"These are old stories, girls, and you have told them for me." + +"Our old cat Jane," said Eliza Ann Jones, "is a regular cheat. You see, +she _would_ lie in grandma's chair. She used to jump in if grandma left +it only for a minute; and grandma wouldn't know she was there, and two +or three times sat right down on her. Why, it was just awful, and scared +poor grandma half to death. Well, ma whipped the old cat every time she +caught her in the chair, and we thought she was cured of the habit; but +one day ma came into the room and there was nobody there but Jane, and +she was stretched on the rug and seemed to be fast asleep; but grandma's +chair was rocking away all by itself. Ma wondered what made the chair +go, so she thought she'd watch. She left the door on a crack and peeped +through, and as soon as the cat thought she was alone she jumped into +the chair and settled herself for a nap; but when ma made a little +noise, as if somebody were coming out, she hopped out and stretched +herself on the rug and made believe she was fast asleep. 'Twas her +jumping out so quick that set the chair rocking. Now, wasn't that cute?" + +"I never knew till the other day," said Florence Austin, "that cats +scatter crumbs to attract the birds, and then watch for them and spring +out on the poor things when they are feeding." + +"What a shame! I wouldn't keep a cat who played such a cruel trick," +Mollie said. + +"My Dinah Spot doesn't catch birds or chickens," said Nellie Dimock; +"only mice." + +Mrs. Elliot had come in with a message to her sister while this talk +went on, and had lingered to hear Eliza's story of old Jane. + +"Girls," she said, "with your President's permission, I will tell you a +story about a cat. It is curious, because it proves that a cat remembers +and reasons much as a man or woman would in similar circumstances. Susie +and Mollie, I have told it to you before, but you will not mind hearing +it again. + +"When my brother Charles was a young man he kept a bachelor +establishment in the country, and with other pets owned a beautiful gray +cat he had; brought with him from Germany. She was very intelligent and +docile, a great favorite with her master, and was allowed many +privileges in the house. She came in and out through a small door cut in +the side of the house which she opened and closed for herself. A chair +was regularly placed for her at the table; she slept at the foot of my +brother's bed, and perched herself on his shoulder when he took a stroll +in the garden. She could distinguish the sound of his bell from any +other in the house, and was greatly disturbed if the servant delayed in +answering his call. + +"One summer my sister Helen and her two boys were staying with Charles, +and in the midst of the visit he was called away on business, and was +absent for several weeks. Now, Carl and Teddy were dear little fellows, +but full of mischief; and in their uncle's absence they so teased and +tormented poor Miess, taking advantage of her amiable disposition, that +she was forced at length to keep out of their way. About a week before +Charles came home she had kittens, which she carefully hid behind a +heavy book-case in the library. + +"The morning of his return he had the cat in his lap petting and +caressing her as usual, and then went out for an hour. As soon as he was +gone, pussy brought her kittens one by one from their hiding-place and +laid them on the rug in the corner of the room where she had nursed and +tended all her young families before. Now she must have reasoned in this +way: 'My good, kind master has come home, and those dreadful boys who +have pinched my ears and tied things to my tail, and teased and +frightened me almost to death, will be made to behave themselves. All +danger to me and to my babies is over. Why must the pretty dears be +hidden away in that musty place? Of course master wants to see them, and +they are well worth looking at. The thing for me to do is to bring them +out of that dark hole and put them where I always have put my kittens +before.'" + +"Wise old Miess!" said Mollie. "Mamma, please tell the girls how she +saved uncle's pet canary from a strange cat." + +"Yes, dear. Miess was so obedient and well trained that her master often +trusted her in the room while he gave the bird his airing, and Bobby +became so accustomed to the cat's presence that he hopped fearlessly +about the floor close to pussy's rug, and more than once lighted on her +back; but one day your uncle discovered Miess on the table with the bird +in her mouth. For an instant he thought her cat nature had got the upper +hand, and that Bobby's last moment had come; then he discovered a +strange cat in the room and knew that his good cat had saved the +canary's life. As soon as the intruder was driven out, Bobby fluttered +away safe and sound." + +"Wasn't that nice of Miess, Auntie?" said Susie. "I have thought of a +story for you to tell us this afternoon--the story of the barn-cat that +wanted so much to become a house-cat. Don't you remember that story you +used to tell us long ago?" + +"Oh, yes!" Mollie said; "her name was Furry-Purry, and she lived with +Granny Barebones, and there was Tom--Tom--some thing; what _was_ his +name? Tell us that, Aunt Ruth, do!" + +"Isn't it open to the objection you made to Mollie's choice a while ago, +Susie?" she asked. "I remember it went with 'The Three Bears' and 'Old +Mother Pig' and 'The Little Red Hen.'" + +"No, Auntie, I think not; it's different, somehow." + +"Very well, then, if you are sure you haven't outgrown it." + +"Is it a true story?" Nellie Dimock wanted to know. + +"It is made out of a true story, Nellie. A young cat which was born and +brought up in a barn became dissatisfied with her condition in life, and +made up her mind to change it. She chose the house of a friend of mine +for her future home, and presented herself every morning at the door, +asking in a very earnest and humble way to be taken in. When driven away +she went sadly and reluctantly, but in a few moments was back again +waiting patiently, quietly, hour after hour, day after day. If noticed +or spoken to, she gave a plaintive mew, looked cold and hungry, but +showed no signs of discouragement. She didn't once try to steal into the +house, as she might have done, but waited patiently for an invitation. + +"And when one morning she brought a mouse and laid it on the door-step, +and looking up, seemed to say: 'Kind lady, if you will take me for your +cat, see what I will do for you,' my friend could no longer refuse. The +door was opened, the long-wished-for invitation was given, and very +soon the little barn-cat became the pet and plaything of the family. She +proved a valuable family cat, and her descendants, to the fourth +generation, are living in my friend's family to-day. + +"Out of these materials I have dressed up the story of + +HOW FURRY-PURRY BECAME GOLD ELSIE. + +"The door of the great house stood open and Furry-Purry looked in. + +"Furry-Purry was a small yellow cat striped down the back with a darker +shade of the same color. Her paws, the lower part of her body, and the +spot on her breast were white. + +"This is what the little cat saw, looking through the open door into the +great house:-- + +"A pleasant room hung with pictures, the floor covered with a soft +carpet, where all kinds of bright-colored flowers seemed to be growing, +and, in the sunniest corner, lying in an arm-chair piled with cushions, +a large tabby cat. + +"Just then a gust of wind closed the door, and Furry-Purry ran round the +house to the barn and remained all day hidden in her hole under the +boards. + +"That night there was a storm, and several cats in the neighborhood +crept into the barn for safety. There was old Mrs. Barebones, a cat with +a bad cough, which was thought to be in a decline; Tom Skip-an'-jump, a +sprightly young fellow with a tenor voice which he was fond of using on +moonlight nights; and Robber Grim, a fierce, one-eyed creature--the pest +of the neighborhood--with a great head and neck and flabby, hanging +cheeks and bare spots on his tawny coat where the fur had been torn out +in his fierce battles. + +"The thunder roared overhead and the lightning, shining through the +cracks, played on the barn floor and showed the cats sitting gravely in +a circle. Only Tom Skip-an'-jump, who still kept his kittenish tricks, +went frisking after his tail and turning somersaults in the hay. +Presently he tumbled over Furry-Purry and bit her ear. + +"'Come, play!' said he: 'it's a jolly time for puss-in-the-corner.' + +"'Tom,' said Furry-Purry, 'I never shall play again. I am very unhappy. +I have seen Mrs. Tabitha Velvetpaw lying on a silk cushion, while I make +my bed in the hay. She walks on a lovely soft carpet, and I have only +this barn floor. O Tom, I want to be a house-cat.' + +"'A house-cat!' repeated Tom disdainfully. 'They sleep all day. They +get their tails pulled and their ears pinched by horrid monsters with +only two legs to walk on, and nights--beautiful moonlight nights when we +barn-cats are roaming the alleys and singing on the roofs and having a +good time generally--they are locked in cellars and garrets and made to +watch rat-holes. Oh, no! not for Tom.' + +"He was off with a whisk of his tail to the highest beam in the barn, +looking down on them with the greenest of green eyes, and singing,-- + + 'Some love the home + Of a lazy drone, + And a bed on a cushioned knee; + But in wild free ways + I will spend my days, + And at night on the roofs I'll be. + + Oh, 'tis my delight, + On a moonlight night'-- + +"'Don't listen to him, my dear,' said Mrs. Barebones, the consumptive +cat; 'he's a wild, thoughtless creature, quite inexperienced in the ways +of the world. Heed the counsels of one whose sands of life are almost +run and who, before she goes to the land of cats, would fain warn a +youthful friend and, if possible, avert her from her own sad fate. This +racking cough (ugh! ugh!) and this distressing _cat_-arrh, (snuff! +snuff!) with which you see me afflicted were brought on by the hardships +and exposure incident to the life of a barn-cat: midnight rambles, my +dear (ugh!), in frost and snow; days when not so much as a mouse's tail +has passed my hungry jaws, and winter nights when my coat was too thin +to keep out the cold. And all these sufferings, past and present, are in +consequence of my being a barn-cat.' + +"'Now, may the dogs get me, if I ever heard such a string of nonsense!' +said Robber Grim. 'Don't believe a word she says. She's an old granny. +She's got the fidgets. She wants a dose of catnip-tea. Don't believe Tom +Skip-an'-jump, either. What does _he_ know about war? He never was shot +at. Look at me! I'm Robber Grim! I'm an old one, I am! I've got good +blood in my veins. My great-grandfather was a catamount and his +grandmother was a tiger-cat. I've been in a hundred battles. I've had +one eye knocked out and an ear bit off. I left a piece of my tail in a +trap. I've been scalded with hot water and peppered all over with shot. +_I'll_ teach you how to get a living without being a house-cat. I hate +houses and the people who live in them, and I do them all the mischief +I can. I eat up their chickens and I suck their eggs. I climb in at the +pantry window and skim their milk. Once when the cook left the kitchen +door open I snatched the beefsteak from the gridiron and made off with +the family dinner. They hate me--they do. They've tried to kill me a +dozen times; but I'm Robber Grim, ha! ha! and I've got nine lives!' + +"At this instant there came a flash of lightning, followed by a peal of +thunder that shook the barn to its foundations, and every cat fled in +terror to its hole. + +"The next morning Mrs. Tabitha Velvetpaw took a stroll round the garden +and down the lane a little way, where the catnip grew. The ground was +wet after the shower, and she was daintily picking her way along, very +careful not to soil her beautiful feet, of which she was justly proud, +when suddenly there glided from behind a tree and stood directly in her +path a small yellow cat. + +"'Oh, my paws and whiskers!' exclaimed Mrs. Tabitha, surprised out of +her usual dignity. + +"'If you please,' said Furry-Purry,--for it was she,--'I have made bold +to come out and meet you to ask your advice. I am a poor little +barn-cat, and I was contented with my lot till I saw you yesterday in +your beautiful home; but now I feel that I was intended for a higher +sphere. Tell me--oh, tell me, Mrs. Velvetpaw, how I may become a +house-cat!' + +"'Well, did I ever!' said Mrs. Velvetpaw. 'The idea!' and she moved a +step or two away from poor Furry-Purry, her manner, as well as her +words, expressing astonishment and disdain. + +"'I know it seems presuming, Mrs. Velvetpaw, but'-- + +"'Presuming! I should say so. What is this generation of cats coming to, +when a low creature reared in a barn--a paw-paw (pauper) cat, as I may +say--dare lift her eyes to those so far above her?' + +"'I have heard my mother say "a cat may look at a king,"' said +Furry-Purry. + +"'Go away, you low-born creature! How dare you quote your mother to me? +Go away, this instant! I am ashamed to be seen talking with you! What if +my friend Mrs. Silvercoat or Major Mouser should happen to pass! Begone, +I say! scat!' + +"'O Mrs. Tabitha,' said the poor little cat, 'don't send me away! I +can't go back to that barn. Indeed, indeed, after spending this short +time in your company, I can never endure to live with Tom Skip-an'-jump +and Mrs. Barebones and that horrid Robber Grim. If you refuse to help me +I will go straight to Growler's kennel. When he has worried me to death, +won't you be sorry you drove me to such a fate? Dear, dear Mrs. +Velvetpaw, your face is kinder than your words. Oh, pity the sorrows of +a poor little cat!' + +"Now, Mrs. Tabitha was not at heart an ill-natured puss; and when she +saw Furry-Purry's imploring face, and listened to her eloquent appeal, +she was moved with compassion. + +"'Rather than see you go to the dogs,' said she, 'I will lend a paw to +help you. But what can I do, you silly thing?' + +"'Mrs. Velvetpaw, you have lived a long time in this neighborhood?' + +"'All my life, Yellow Cat.' + +"'And you know every body?' + +"'If you mean in the first rank of society--yes. Your Barebones, and +Hop-an'-jumps, and creatures of that vulgar herd, are quite out of my +_cat_egory.' + +"'Perhaps you know of some house-cat dead or gone away?' + +"'And if I do?' + +"'You might put me in her place, you know.' + +"'Yellow Cat,' said Mrs. Tabitha, severely. + +"'If you please, my name is Furry-Purry.' + +"'Well, Furry-Purry, then. Your presumption can only be pardoned in +consideration of your ignorance of the usages of society. House-cats, +you must know, hold their position in families by hereditary descent. +My place, for instance, was my mother's and my grandmother's before me. +We are prepared by birth and education for the position we occupy. Have +you considered how utterly unfitted you are for the life to which you +aspire? I am sorry to disappoint you, but I fear your hopes are vain. +There is, indeed, a vacancy in the brick house opposite. Cćsar--a +venerable cat--died last week. He was much admired for his gentlemanly +and dignified deportment. "Who shall come after the king?"' + +"'I, Mrs. Tabitha, I'-- + +"'You, indeed!' she interrupted, scornfully. + +"'Oh, yes, if you will but condescend to give me instructions. I am +quick to learn. The short time I have been so happy as to be in your +company I have gained much knowledge. I am sure I can imitate the +_mew_-sic of your voice. I know I can gently wave my tail, and touch my +left whisker with my paw as you do. When I leave you I shall spend every +moment till we meet again in practising your airs and graces, till I +make them all my own. Dear friend,--if you will let me call you +so,--help me to King Cćsar's place.' + +"There was much that was flattering to Mrs. Velvetpaw in this speech. + +"'Well,' said she, 'I will see what can be done. There, go home now, and +the first thing to be done is to make yourself perfectly clean. Wash +yourself twelve times in the day, from the end of your nose to the tip +of your tail. Take particular pains with your paws. A cat of refinement +is known by the delicacy and cleanliness of her feet. Farewell! After +three days, meet me here again.' + +"You can imagine how faithfully Furry-Purry followed these +directions--how with her sharp tongue she smoothed and stroked every +hair of her pretty coat, and washed her face again and again with her +wet paws. + +"'You are wretchedly thin!' Mrs. Tabitha said at their next meeting. +'That fault can only be remedied by a generous diet. You must look me +full in the face when I talk to you. Really, you have no need to be +ashamed of your eyes, for they are decidedly bright and handsome. When +you walk, don't bend your legs till your body almost touches the ground. +That gives you a wretchedly hang-cat appearance. Tread softly and +daintily, but with dignity and grace of carriage. There must be other +bad habits I have not mentioned.' + +"'I am afraid I spit sometimes.' + +"'Don't do that--it is considered vulgar. Don't bristle your tail. Don't +show your claws except to mice. Keep such control over yourself as never +to be surprised out of a dignified composure of manner.' + +"Just here, without the slightest warning, there rushed from the thicket +near them a large fierce-looking dog. Up went Mrs. Velvetpaw's back in +an arch. Every hair of her body stood on end. Sharp-pointed claws +protruded from each velvet foot, and, hissing and spitting, she tumbled +over Furry-Purry in her haste, and scrambled to the topmost branch of +the pear-tree. The little cat followed, imitating her guide in every +particular. As for the dog, which was in pursuit of game, he did not +even look at them; and when he was out of sight they came down from the +tree, Mrs. Tabitha descending with the dignified composure she had just +recommended to her young friend. She made no allusion to her hurried +ascent. + +"'To-morrow night,' said she, 'as soon as it is dark, meet me in the +backyard of the brick house.' + +"Half glad and half frightened, Furry-Purry walked by her side the next +evening, delighting in the soft green turf of the yard and the +sweet-smelling shrubs against which she ventured to rub herself as they +passed. Mrs. Tabitha led her round the house to a piazza draped with +clustering vines. + +"'Come here to-morrow,' said she. 'Walk boldly up the steps and seat +yourself in full view of that window. Look your prettiest--behave your +best. Assume a pensive expression of countenance, with your eyes +uplifted--so. If you are driven away, go directly, but return. Be +strong, be brave, be persevering. Now, my dear, I have done all I can +for you, and I wish you good luck,' + +"The next morning a little girl living in the brick house, whose name +was Winnie Gay, looked out of the dining-room window. + +"'Come quick, mamma!' she called; 'here's a cat on our piazza--a little +yellow cat, and she's looking right up at me. May I open the door?' + +"'No, indeed!' said Mrs. Gay; 'we want no strange cats here.' + +"'But she looks hungry, mamma. She has just opened her mouth at me +without making a bit of noise. Can't I give her a saucer of milk?' + +"'Come away from the window, Winnie, and don't notice her. You will only +encourage her to come again. There, pussy, run away home; we can't have +you here.' + +"'Now, mamma, you have frightened her. See how she keeps looking back. +I'm afraid you've hurt her feelings. Dear little pussy! I wish I might +call you back.' + +"Furry-Purry was not discouraged at this her first unsuccessful attempt. +The child's blue eyes beamed a welcome, and the lady's face was gentle +and kind. + +"'If I catch a mouse,' thought the cat, 'and bring it to them to show +what I can do, perhaps I shall gain their favor.' Then she put away all +the fine airs and graces Mrs. Velvetpaw had taught her, and became the +sly, supple, watchful creature nature had made her. By a hole in the +granary she crouched and waited with unwearied patience one, two, almost +three, hours. Then she gave a sudden spring, there was one sharp little +shriek from the victim, a snap of pussy's jaws, and her object was +accomplished. She appeared again on the piazza, and, laying a dead mouse +on the floor, crouched beside it in an attitude of perfect grace, and +looked beseechingly in Mrs. Gay's face. + +"'Well, you _are_ a pretty creature!' that lady said, 'with your soft +white paws and yellow coat,' + +"'May I have her for my cat, mamma?' Winnie said. 'I thought I never +should love another cat when dear old Cćsar died; but this little thing +is such a beauty that I love her already. May I have her for mine?' + +"But while Mrs. Gay hesitated, Furry-Purry, who could not hear what +they said, and who, to tell the truth, was in a great hurry to eat her +mouse, ran off with it to the barn. The next morning, however, she came +again, and Mr. Gay, who was waiting for his breakfast, was called to the +window. + +"'My cat has come again, papa, with another mouse--a monstrous one, +too.' + +"'That isn't a mouse,' Mr. Gay said, looking at the plump, silver-gray +creature Furry-Purry carefully deposited on the piazza-floor. 'Bless me! +I believe it is that rascal of a mole that's gnawed my hyacinth and +tulip bulbs. I offered the gardener's boy two dollars if he would catch +the villain. To whom does that cat belong, Winnie? She's worth her +weight in gold.' + +"'I don't believe she belongs to anybody, papa; but I think she wants +to belong to us, for she keeps coming and coming. _May_ I have her for +mine? I am sure mamma will say yes if you are willing.' + +"'Why not?' said he. 'Run for a saucer of milk, and we will coax her +in.' + +"We who are acquainted with Furry-Purry's private history know how +little coaxing was needed. + +"As soon as the door was opened she walked in, and, laying the dead mole +at Mr. Gay's feet, rubbed herself against his leg, purred gently, looked +up into his face with her round bright eyes, and, in very expressive cat +language, claimed him for her master. When he stooped to caress her, and +praised and petted her for the good service she had rendered him, the +happy creature rolled over and over on the soft carpet in an ecstasy of +delight. + +"Then Winnie clapped her hands for joy. + +"'You are our own cat,' she said. 'You shall have sugar and cream to +eat. You shall lie on Cćsar's silk cushion; and because you are yellow, +and papa says you are worth your weight in gold, your name shall be Gold +Elsie,' + +"So Furry-Purry became a family cat. + +"The first time she met Mrs. Velvetpaw after this change in her life, +that excellent tabby looked at her with evident admiration. + +"'How handsome you have grown!' said she; 'your eyes are topaz, your +breast and paws are the softest velvet, your coat is spun gold. My dear, +you are the belle of cats,' + +"'Dear Mrs. Velvetpaw,' said Gold Elsie, 'my beauty and my prosperity I +owe in large measure to you. But for your wise counsels I should still +be a'-- + +"'Hush! don't speak the word. My dear, never again allude to your +origin. It is a profound secret. You are received in the best society. +Mrs. Silvercoat tells me it is reported that your master sought far and +wide to find a worthy successor to King Cćsar, and that he esteems +himself specially fortunate in that, after great labor and expense, he +procured _you_. The ignorance you sometimes exhibit of the customs of +genteel society is attributed to your foreign breeding.' + +"'Mrs. Tabitha, I feel at times a strong desire to visit my old friends +in the barn once more.' + +"'Let me entreat you, my dear Miss Elsie, never again to think of it.' + +"'But there is poor Mrs. Barebones almost gone with a consumption. I +should like to show her some kindness.' + +"'Her sufferings are ended. She has passed to the land of cats,' + +"'Poor Mrs. Barebones! and Robber Grim? Do you happen to have heard any +thing of him?' + +"Silently Mrs. Tabitha beckoned her to follow, and, leading the way to +the orchard, pointed to a sour-apple tree, where Gold Elsie beheld a +ghastly sight. By a cord tied tightly about his neck, his jaws +distended, his one eye starting from its socket, hung Robber +Grim--stiff, motionless, dead. + +"They hurried away, and presently Gold Elsie timidly inquired after her +former playmate, Tom Skip-an'-jump. + +"'Don't, my dear!' said Mrs. Velvetpaw; 'really, I can not submit to be +farther _cat_echized. If you are truly grateful to me, Elsie, for the +service I have rendered you, and wish to do me credit in the high +position to which I have raised you, you must, you certainly must, break +every tie that binds you to your former life.' + +"'I will, Mrs. Tabitha, I will,' said the little cat; and never again in +Mrs. Velvetpaw's presence did she mention Tom Skip-an'-jump's name," + +"And didn't she ever see him again?" Nellie Dimock wanted to know. "I am +sure there was no harm in Tom." + +"Well, but you know she couldn't go with _that set_ any more after she +had got into good society," said Mollie Elliot. + +"Mollie has caught Mrs. Velvetpaw's exact tone," said Florence Austin, +at which all the girls laughed. + +"Well, I don't care," Mollie answered; "she was a nice little cat, and +deserved all her good fortune." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +TOMMY TOMPKINS' YELLOW DOG. + + +"I have a letter to read to you this afternoon, girls," said Miss Ruth; +"also the story of a yellow dog. The letter is from a friend of mine who +spends her summers in a quiet village in Maine, in a fine old mansion +overlooking green fields and a beautiful lake with hills sloping down to +it on every side. Here is the letter she wrote me last June:-- + +"'We have come back again to our summer home--to the old house, the +broad piazza, the high-backed chairs, and the blue china. The clump of +cinnamon roses across the way is one mass of spicy bloom, and soon its +fragrance will be mingled with that of new-mown hay. There is nothing +new about the place but Don Quixote, the great handsome English mastiff. +Do you know the mastiff--his lion-like shape, his smooth, fawn-colored +coat, his black nose, and kind, intelligent eyes, their light-hazel +contrasting with the black markings around them? If you do, you must +pardon this description. + +"'I am very fond of Don, and he of me. He belongs to our cousin, whose +house is but one field removed from ours; but he is here much of the +time. He evidently feels that both houses are under his protection, and +passes his nights between the two. Often we hear his slow step as he +paces the piazza round and round like a sentinel. He is only fifteen +months old, and of course feels no older than a little dog, though he +weighs one hundred and thirty pounds, and measures six feet from nose to +tail. + +"'He can't understand why he isn't a lap-dog, and does climb our laps +after his fashion, putting up one hind leg and resting his weight upon +it with great satisfaction. We have good fun with him out of doors, +where his puppyhood quite gets the better of his dignity, and he runs in +circles and fetches mad bounds of pure glee. + +"'One day, lying in my hammock, with Don on the piazza at my feet, I put +his charms and virtues together in verses, and I send them to you as the +most succinct account I can give of my new pet. As I conned them over, +repeating them half-aloud, at the frequent mention of his name Don +raised his head with an intelligent and appreciative look. Here are the +verses. I call them + + +DOG-GEREL. + + 'Don! Don! beautiful Don! + Graceful and tall, with majestic mien, + Fawn-colored coat of the softest sheen, + The stateliest dog that the sun shines on, + Beautiful Don! + + Don! Don! frolicsome Don! + Chasing your tail at a game of tag, + Dancing a jig with a kitchen rag, + Rearing and tearing, and all for fun, + Frolicsome Don! + + Don! Don! affectionate Don! + Looking your love with soft kind eyes, + Climbing our laps, quite forgetting your size; + With kissing and coaxing you never are done, + Affectionate Don! + + Don! Don! chivalrous Don! + Stalking all night piazza and yard, + Sleepless and watchful, our sentinel guard, + Squire of dames is the name you have won, + Chivalrous Don! + + Don! Don! devotional Don! + When the Bible is opened you climb to your place, + And listen with solemn, immovable face, + Nor frolic nor coax till the chapter is done, + Devotional Don! + + Don! Don! wonderful Don! + Devotional, faithful, affectionate one, + If owning these virtues when only a pup, + What will you be when you are grown up? + Wonderful Don!' + +"And now by way of contrast," said Miss Ruth as she folded the letter, +"I have a story to tell you of a poor little forlorn, homely, +insignificant dog, of low birth and no breeding, which was picked up on +the street by a boy I know, and which made for himself friends and a +good home by seizing the first opportunity that offered to do his duty +and protect the property of those who had taken him in. I have no doubt +that Don Quixote, intelligent, faithful, kind, with not a drop of +plebeian blood in his noble body, will fulfill all the expectations of +his friends, and we shall hear of many a brave and gallant deed of his +performing; but when you have heard what Tommy Tompkins has to tell, I +think you will say that not even Don Quixote could have done himself +more credit under the circumstances than + + +TOMMY TOMPKINS' YELLOW DOG. + +"Tommy shall tell the story as he told it to me:-- + +"'Yes, marm, he's my dog. His name's Grip. My father paid five dollars +for that dog. You look as if you thought he wasn't worth it; but I +wouldn't take twice the money for him, not if you was to pay it over +this minute. I know he ain't a handsome dog. I don't think yellow is a +pretty color for a dog, do you? and I wish he had a little more of a +tail. Liz says he's cur-tailed (Liz thinks it's smart to make puns), but +he'll look a great deal better when his ear gets well and his hair grows +out and covers the bare spots--don't you think so? But father says, +"Handsome is that handsome does," and nobody can say but that our dog +did the handsome thing when he saved over two hundred dollars in money +and all mother's silver spoons and lots of other things from being +stolen--hey, Grip? We call him Grip 'cause he hung on to that fellow so +till the policeman got in to take him. + +"'What fellow? Why, the burglar, of course. Didn't you read about it in +the newspaper? There was a long piece published about it the day after +it happened, with headings in big letters: "The house No. 35 Wells +Avenue, residence of Thomas Tompkins, the well-known dealer in hardware, +cutlery, etc., was entered last night by burglars. Much valuable +property saved through the courage and pluck of a small dog belonging to +the family." They didn't get that part right, for he didn't belong to us +then. You just wait, and I'll read the whole piece to you. I've got it +somewhere in my pockets. You see, I cut it out of the paper to read to +the boys at school. + +"'You'd rather I told you about it? Well. Lie down, Grip! Be quiet! +can't you? He don't mean any thing by sniffing round your ankles in that +way; anyhow, he won't catch hold unless I tell him to; but you see, +ever since that night he wants to go for every strange man or woman that +comes near the place. Liz says "he's got burglars on the brain." + +"'I guess I'll begin at the beginning and tell you how I came by him. +One night after school I'd been down to the steamboat landing on an +errand for father, and along on River Street there was a crowd of +loafers round two dogs in a fight. This dog was one of 'em, and the +other was a bulldog twice his size. The bulldog's master was looking on, +without so much as trying to part 'em; but nobody was looking after the +yellow dog: he didn't seem to have any master. Well, I want to see fair +play in every thing. It makes me mad to see a fellow thrash a boy half +his size, or a big dog chew up a little one. So I steps up and says to +the bulldog's master, "Why don't you call off your dog?" but he only +swore at me and told me to mind my own business. + +"'Well, I know a trick or two about dogs, and I ran into a grocer's shop +close by and got two cents' worth of snuff, and I let that bulldog have +it all right in his face and eyes. Of course he had to let go to sneeze; +and I grabbed the yellow dog and ran. It was great fun. I could hear +that dog sneezing and coughing, and his master yelling to me, but I +never once held up or looked behind me till I was half-way up Brooks +Street. + +"'Then I set the yellow dog down on the sidewalk and looked him over. +My! he's a beauty now to what he was then, for he's clean and well-fed +and respectable looking; but then he was nothing but skin and bone, and +covered all over with mud and dirt, and one ear was torn and one eye +swelled shut, and he limped when he walked, and--well, never mind, old +Grip! you was all right inside, wasn't you? + +"'Well, I never dreaded any thing more in all my life than taking that +dog home. Mother hates dogs. She never would have one in the house, +though I've always wanted a dog of my own. I knew Liz would call him a +horrid little monster, and Fred would poke fun at me--and, oh, dear! I'd +rather have gone to the dentist's or taken a Saturday-night scrub than +go into that dining-room with Grip at my heels. + +"'But it had to be done. They were all at supper, and mother took it +just as I was afraid she would. If she only would have waited and let +me tell how I came by the dog, I thought maybe she would have felt sorry +for the poor thing; but she was in such a hurry to get his muddy feet +off the dining-room carpet that she wouldn't listen to a single word I +said, but kept saying, "Turn him out! turn him out!" till I found it was +no use, and I was just going to do as she said when father looked up +from his supper, and says he: "Let the boy tell his story, mother. Where +did you get the dog, Tommy?" "'We were all surprised, for father hardly +ever interfered with mother about us children--he's so taken up with +business, you know, he hasn't any time left for the family. But I was +glad enough to tell him how I came by the dog; and he laughed, and said +he didn't see any objection to my keeping him over night. I might give +him some supper and tie him up in the shed-chamber, and in the morning +he'd have him taken round to Police-station C, where, if he wasn't +claimed in four days, he'd be taken care of. + +"'I knew well enough how they'd take care of him at Station C. They'd +shoot him--that's what they do to stray dogs without any friends. But +anyhow, I could keep him over night, for mother would think it was all +right, now father had said so. So I took him to the shed-chamber and +gave him a good supper,--how he did eat!--and I found an old mat for him +to lie on, and got a basin of warm water and some soap, and washed him +as clean as I could and rubbed him dry, and made him warm and +comfortable: and he licking my hands and face and wagging his stump of +a tail and thanking me for it as plain as though he could talk. + +"'But oh, how he hated to be tied up! Fact is, he made such a fuss I +stayed out there with him till past my bed-time; and when at last I had +to go I left him howling and tugging at the string. Well, I went to +sleep, and, after a while, I woke up, and that dog was at it still. I +could hear him howl just as plain, though the shed-chamber was at the +back of the house, ever so far from my room. I knew mother hadn't come +upstairs, for the gas was burning in the halls, as she always turned it +off the last thing; and I thought to myself: "If she hears the dog when +she comes up, maybe she'll put him out, and I never shall see him +again." And before I knew what I was about I was running through the +hall and the trunk-room, and so out into the shed. It was pitch dark +out there, but I found my way to Grip easy enough by the noise he made +when he saw me; and it didn't take long to untie the string and catch +him up and run back with him to my room. I knew he would be as still as +a mouse in there with me. You were lonesome out there in the shed, +weren't you, Grip? + +"'What would mother say? Well, you see, I meant to keep awake till she +came upstairs and tell her all about it; but I was so tired I dropped +asleep in a minute, and the first thing I knew I was dreaming that I was +running up Brooks Street with Grip in my arms, and the bull-dog close +after us, and just as he was going to spring mother screamed, and +somebody kept saying, "'St, boy! 'st, boy! stick to him, good dog! +stick to him!" And then I woke up, and mother really was screaming, and +'twas Fred who was saying, "Stick to him! stick to him!" And the gas was +lit in the hall, and there was a great noise and hubbub out there, and I +rushed out, and there was a man on the floor and the yellow dog had him +by the throat. Father stood in the door-way with his pistol cocked, and +he said in a quiet kind of way (just as father always speaks when he +means business): "If you stir you are a dead man!" But I should like to +know how he could stir with that grip on his throat! + +"'Then there came a banging and ringing at our front door, and Fred ran +to open it, and in rushed our policeman--I mean the one that takes our +street on his beat. He had heard the noise outside, you see, and, for a +wonder, was on hand when he was wanted; and he just went for that fellow +on the floor and clapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists as quick as +you could turn your hand over; and when he got a look at him he says: +"Oh, it's you, Bill Long, is it? We've been wanting you for some time at +the lodge (that was his name for the police-station). Well, get up and +come along!" + +"'But I called the dog off. + +"'We didn't one of us go to bed again that night. Father and Fred looked +through the house, and father said it was the neatest piece of work in +the burglary line he ever saw done--real professionals, they were. There +was two of 'em. They'd taken plenty of time. The forks and the spoons +and the two hundred dollars in money was all done up in neat packages, +and they'd been through father's desk and the secretary drawers; and +they'd had a lunch of cold chicken and mince-pie, and left the marks of +their greasy hands on the best damask napkins Bridget had ironed that +day and left to air by the kitchen range. And then, you see, while one +stayed below to keep watch, the other went up to finish the job; and he +would have finished it, too, and both would have got away with all the +things if it hadn't have been for that dog. Look at him! will you? I +believe he understands every word I say as well as you do. + +"'Well, right at the door of father's room, Grip took him. How did he +lay the fellow on his back? We suppose he was creeping into the room on +his hands and knees,--they often do, father says,--and the dog made a +rush at him in front and gripped him in the throat, and the weight of +the dog threw him backward; and once down, Grip kept him there--see? + +"'Next morning at breakfast father said: "Tommy, how came the dog in the +upper hall last night? I told you to tie him up in the shed-chamber." +Then I had to own up, and tell how I went late in the evening and +brought him to my room because he howled so. I said I was real sorry, +and father said he would try to forgive me, seeing it all turned out +well, and if Grip hadn't been there we should have lost so much money. +And says I: "Father, don't you mean to take him round to Station C this +morning?" "No, I don't," says father. Then mother said she didn't know +but she'd about as soon lose the silver as to keep such a dog as that +in the house, and Fred said if I must have a dog, why didn't father get +me a black-and-tan terrier--"or a lovely pug," says Liz; and between 'em +they got me so stirred up I didn't know what to do. I said I didn't want +a black-and-tan, and I'd throw a pug out of the window! And if nobody +wanted to keep Grip, we'd go off together somewhere and earn our living, +and I guessed the next time burglars got into the house and carried off +all the money and things because we weren't there to stop 'em, they'd be +sorry they 'd treated us so. Then I looked out of the window and winked +hard to keep from crying. Wasn't I a silly? + +"'For they were only teasing me, and every one of them wanted to keep +Grip. Well, that's all. No, it isn't quite all either; for one morning +a man came to the house and wanted to see father--horrid man with a red +face and a squint in one eye. I remembered him right away. He was one of +the crowd looking on at the dog-fight down in River Street. He said he'd +lost a dog, a very valuable dog, and he'd heard we'd got him. Father +asked what kind of a dog, and he said yellow, and went on describing our +Grip exactly, till I couldn't hold in another minute for fear father +would let him have the dog. So I got round behind father's chair and +whispered: "Buy him, father! buy him!" + +"'Fred called me a great goony, and said if I'd kept still father could +have got the dog for half what he paid for him. Just because Fred is +sixteen he thinks he knows every thing, and he's always lording it over +me. He says I'll never make a business man--I ain't sharp enough. But I +think five dollars is cheap enough for a dog that can tackle a burglar +and scare off tramps and pedlars--don't you?'" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +ONE DAY IN A MODEL CITY. + + +"I will tell you, to-day," said Miss Ruth, after the members of her +Society were quietly settled at their work, "about a race of little +people who lived thousands and thousands of years ago. When the great +trees were growing, out of which the coal we use was made, this race +inhabited the earth as they do now in great numbers. We know this +because their bodies are found perfectly preserved in pieces of coal and +amber. Amber, you know, is a kind of gum that drops from certain trees +and hardens, becoming very transparent and of a pretty yellow color. It +is supposed that the little creatures found imbedded in it came to +their death in running up the trunks of these trees, their feet sticking +in the soft gum, and drop by drop trickling down on them till they were +fast imprisoned in a beautiful transparent tomb. + +"I remember seeing once at a museum a small black ant preserved in +amber, and he looked so natural and lifelike, so like the ants we see +running about to-day, that it was hard to realize that he came to his +death so long, so very long ago; in fact, before this earth of ours was +ready for the creation of man. What strange sights those little +bead-eyes of his must have seen! + +"When our ancestors were rude barbarians, living in caves and in holes +they dug in the ground, the little people dwelt in cities built with +wonderful skill and ingenuity; and while our forefathers were leading a +rude, selfish life,--herding together, it is true, but with no organized +government or fixed principles of industry and good order, living each +one for himself, the strong oppressing the weak,--the little folks were +ruled by a strict civil and military code. They lived together as +brethren, having all things in common--were temperate, cleanly, +industrious, civilized. + +"Well, there are plenty of their descendants living all about us to-day, +and I want you to become better acquainted with them, for they are very +wise and cunning in their ways. Whenever you cross a meadow, or even +when you are walking on the public road, unless you take heed to your +steps, the chances are that you set your foot more than once on a little +heap of loose sand that we call an ant-hill. The next time you discover +the accident--I am sure you will not do it on purpose--wait a few +moments and see what will happen. What you have done is to block up the +main entrance to an underground city, sending a quantity of loose earth +down the avenue, which the inhabitants must at great labor remove. + +"Let us hope none of the little people were at that instant either +leaving or entering the city by that gate, for if so, they were either +killed outright or badly hurt. Soon you will see one and another citizen +pushing his way through the _débris_, running wildly and excitedly +about, as though greatly frightened and distressed at the state of +things. Then more carefully surveying the ruins, apparently consulting +together as to what is best to be done, until, a plan of action having +been devised and settled upon, if you wait long enough, you will see a +band of workers in an orderly, systematic manner begin to repair the +damage. All this happens every time you tread on an ant-hill. If a +passing animal breaks down the embankment,--a horse or a cow,--of course +the injury done is much greater. In such a case every worker in the city +is put to hard labor till the streets are cleared, the houses rebuilt, +and all traces of the disaster removed. + +"I am sure you will be interested to know what goes on from morning till +night in one of these ant-cities, and I have written out on purpose to +read to you this afternoon an account of one day's proceedings. I call +my paper + + +LIFE IN AN ANT-HILL; OR, ONE DAY IN A MODEL CITY. + +"At sunrise the doors and gates were opened, and every body was awake +and stirring, from the queen in her palace to the servants who brought +in the meals and kept things tidy about the houses; and then, in +accordance with a good old custom handed down from generation to +generation, the first thing every body did on getting out of bed was to +take a bath. Such a washing and scrubbing and sponging off and rubbing +down as went on in every house, you can imagine. It made no difference +what kind of work one was going about,--plastering, brick-laying, or +digging of ditches,--like a sensible fellow, he went fresh and clean to +it every day. + +"Of course the queen-mother and the little princes and princesses, with +a palace full of servants to wait on them, had all these offices of the +toilet performed for them; but what do you think of common working +folks going about from house to house to help each other wash up for the +day? Fancy having a neighbor step in bright and early to wash your face +and hands for you, or give you a sponge-bath, or a nice dry rub! + +"After the wash came milking-time. Now, all the cows were pastured +outside the city, and the servants who had the care of them hurried off +as fast as they could, because the milk was needed for breakfast, +especially for the babies. A beautiful road led to the milking-ground, +broad and level, and so clean and well kept that not a stick or stone or +rut or mud-hole was to be found in it from beginning to end. And this +was true of all the streets and avenues, lanes and alleys, about the +city. + +"I don't know how they managed to keep them in such good +condition--whether they appointed street commissioners or a committee on +highways; but I wish those who have the care of the roads in Greenmeadow +would take a lesson from them, so that two little girls I know needn't +be kept from church so many Sundays in the spring because the mud is +deep at the crossings. + +"But I must tell you about the cows. There were a great many of them +quietly feeding in their pleasant pasture, and they were of several +different kinds. I don't know by what names their masters called them, +but I do know these gentle creatures were to them just what the pretty +Alderneys and Durhams are to us, and that they were treated with all the +kindness and consideration the wise farmer gives to his domestic +animals. There was one kind, a little white cow with queer crooked horns +and quite blind. These they made pets of, not putting them out to +pasture with the rest of the herd, but allowing them to walk the streets +and go in and out of the houses at their pleasure, treating them much as +we treat our cats and dogs. + +"While the milking was going on, every cow was stroked and patted and +gently caressed, and the good little creatures responded to this +treatment by giving down their milk without a kick or a single toss of +the horns. Such nice milk as it was--as sweet and as rich as honey! and +the babies who fed on it got as fat as little pigs. + +"By the time breakfast was over, the sun was well up, and all in the +city went about the day's business. There was much building going on, +for the place was densely populated and was growing rapidly. Great +blocks were rising, story upon story, every part going on at the same +time, with halls and galleries and closets and winding staircases, all +connected and leading into each other, after a curious and wonderful +fashion. Of course it took a great many workmen to construct these +buildings--carpenters, masons, bricklayers, plasterers, besides +architects and engineers; for the houses were all built on scientific +principles, and there were under-ground passages to be built that +required great skill and practical knowledge in their construction. + +"The mortar and bricks were made outside the city gates, and all day +gangs of workers journeyed back and forth to bring in supplies. They +were hurrying, bustling, busy, but in good order and at perfect +understanding with each other. If one stopped to exchange greetings with +an acquaintance, to hear a bit of gossip perhaps, or to tell the latest +news, he would pick up his load in a great hurry and start off at a +round trot, as though he meant to make up for lost time. More than one +overburdened worker was eased of a part of his load, some good-natured +comrade adding it to his own. Thousands of bricks and as many loads of +mortar were brought into the city by these industrious people every day, +and their work was done quietly, thoroughly, and with wonderful +quickness and precision. + +"All this while there was plenty of indoor work going on; and the +queen's body-guard, the babies' nurses, the attendants on the princes +and princesses, the waiters and tenders, the sweepers and cleaners--all +were as busy as you please. It was a pretty sight to see the nurses +bring the babies out-of-doors for a sun-bath. The plump little +things--some of them wrapped in mantles of white or yellow silk, others +with only their skins to cover them--were laid down in soft spots on the +grass, where they were watched with the tenderest care by their +foster-mothers. If they were hungry, they had but to open their mouths +and there was plenty of food ready for them. If so much as a breath of +wind stirred the grass, or a little cloud obscured the sun, every nurse +snatched a baby and scampered back with it to the nursery, lest it +should take cold. + +"At noon the queen, attended by her body-guard, made a royal progress +through the city. She was of a portly presence, had pretty silky hair, +and was dressed plainly in dark velvet. The little princesses wore +ruffles and silk mantillas, of all the colors of the rainbow; but the +queen-mother had far more important business to attend to than the +adornment of her person, and in her self-devotion to her commonwealth +had long ago, of her own free will, laid aside flounces and furbelows. +What a good motherly body she was! and how devoted her subjects were to +her! Every-where she went she was followed by an admiring crowd. No home +was too humble for her to enter, and under each roof she was received +with the liveliest demonstrations of loyalty and delight. The happy +people thronged about her. They skipped, they danced, they embraced +each other in their joy. At times it was hard to restrain them within +proper bounds of respect to the royal person; but the guard well +understood their duties. They watched her every step, shielding and +protecting her with respectful devotion. They formed a barrier about her +when she rested, offered her refreshment at her first symptom of +weariness, and presently conducted her in regal state back to the +palace, hastening her progress at the last, that she might be spared the +sight of a sad little cavalcade just then approaching the gate. + +"There had been an accident to the workers employed in excavating an +under-ground road. A portion of the earth-works had caved in, and two +unfortunates had been buried in the ruins. Their companions, after hours +of arduous and indefatigable labor, had succeeded in recovering the +bodies, and were bringing them home for burial; while a third +victim--still living, but grievously crushed and wounded--was borne +tenderly along, with frequent stoppages by the way as his weakness +required. A crowd of sympathizing neighbors and friends went out to meet +the wonderful procession. Strong, willing arms relieved the weary +bearers of their burden, and the sufferer was conveyed to his home, +where his poor body was cleansed, and a healing ointment of wonderful +efficacy and power applied to his wounds. Meanwhile the corpses were +decently disposed outside the gates, awaiting burial; graves were +prepared in the cemetery, and at sunset the funeral took place. + +"But the day was not to end with this sad ceremony; for at twilight a +sentinel ran in with the glad news that two well-beloved citizens, sent +on an embassy to a distant country, and who had remained so long away +that they had been given up for dead, were returning: in fact, were at +that moment coming up the avenue to the gate. Then was there great +rejoicing, the whole city turning out to welcome them; and the poor +travelers, footsore and weary, and ready but now to lie down and die by +the road-side, so spent were they by the perils and hardships they had +undergone, suddenly found themselves within sight of home, surrounded by +friends, companions, brothers, who embraced them rapturously, praising +them for their fortitude and bravery, pitying their present weakness, +caressing, cheering, comforting them. So they were brought in triumph +back to their beloved city, where a banquet was prepared in honor of +their return. + +"So general and engrossing was the interest felt in this event, that a +public calamity had well-nigh followed. The attendants on the princes +and princesses (usually most vigilant and faithful), in the excitement +of the occasion, forgot their charge, and the young folks instantly +seized the opportunity to rush out of the city by a side gate; and when +they were discovered were half-way across the meadow, and making for the +wood beyond. In this wood (very dark and dreary) great danger, possibly +death, would have overtaken them; but the silly things, impatient of the +wholesome restraint in which, by order of the government, they were held +till they should arrive at years of discretion, thought only of gaining +their freedom, and were pushing on at a great pace, frisking and +frolicking together as they went. They were, however, seen in time to +avert the catastrophe, speedily brought back to duty, and given +decidedly, though respectfully, to understand that, though scions of a +royal race, they were still to consider themselves under tutors and +governors. + +"Then all was quiet. The gates were closed, the good little people laid +themselves down to sleep, the sentinels began their watch, and night +settled down upon the peaceful city. Presently the moon rose, lighting +its single shapely dome, the deserted road lately trod-den by so many +busy feet, and the dewy meadow where the cattle were resting. + +"And now I wish we might say goodnight to the simple, kindly people +whose occupations we have followed for a day, leaving them in the +assurance that many such days were to follow, and that they were long to +enjoy the peace and prosperity they so richly deserved. How pleasant to +think of them building their houses, tending their flocks, taking care +of the little ones, waiting upon their good queen, in the practice of +all those virtues that make a community happy and prosperous! But, alas! +this very day the chieftains of a neighboring tribe had met and planned +an assault upon this quiet city that was to result in great loss of +property and life, and of that which to them was far more precious than +either. + +"There was not the shadow of an excuse for the invasion. The hill +people--a fierce, brave tribe, trained under a military government, and +accustomed to fighting from their youth--had no quarrel with the +citizens of the plain, who had no mind to fight with their neighbors or +to interfere with any one's rights. But the hill people were +slave-holders, and, whenever their establishments wanted replenishing, +they sent out an army to attack some neighboring city; and if they +gained the victory (as they were pretty sure to do, for they were a +fierce, brave race), they would rush into every house in the city and +carry off all the babies they could find, to be brought up as slaves. + +"And this is what they had planned to do to the pretty city lying asleep +in the moonlight on a July evening. + +"They started about noon--a large body of infantry, making a fine show; +for they wore polished armor as black as jet, that shone in the sun, and +every one of them carried a murderous weapon. The advance guard was +made up of the biggest and bravest, while the veterans, and the young +soldiers who lacked experience, brought up the rear. + +"They had a long wearisome march across a rocky plain and up a steep +hill. Then there was a river to cross, and on the other side a stretch +of desert land, where the hot sun beat upon their heads, and where it +must have been hard to keep up the rapid pace at which they marched. But +they pressed on, and woe to him who stumbled and fell! for not a soldier +was allowed to stop an instant to help his fallen comrade. The whole +army swept on and over him, and there was no straggling from the close +ranks or resting for one instant till the day's journey was +accomplished. + +"The last stage of the journey was through a dreary wood. Here they +were exposed to many unseen dangers. Beasts of prey sprang out upon and +devoured them. A big bird swooped down and carried aloft some poor +wretch whose fate it was to fill the hungry maw of a baby bird. And many +an unfortunate, getting entangled in a soft gray curtain of silk that +hung across the path, struggled vainly to extricate himself, till the +hairy monster which had woven the snare crept out of his den and cracked +his bones and sucked the last drop of his blood. + +"It was night when, weary and dusty, the army reached the borders of the +wood. But they forgot both their fatigue and their losses by the way +when they saw before them in the middle of a green meadow, its dome +glittering in the light of the setting sun, the pretty, prosperous city +they had braved all these dangers to rob. + +"They rested that night, but were on the march soon after sunrise. A few +rushed forward to surprise the sentinels on guard, while the main body +of the army advanced more slowly, in solid phalanx, their brave +coats-of-mail catching the early rays of the sun. + +"Meanwhile the peaceful inhabitants, all unconscious of coming disaster, +pursued their usual occupations--waiting on the queen-mother, milking +the kine, building houses, cleaning the streets. Then came the alarm: +'The foe is at the gate!' and you should have seen of what brave stuff +the little folks were made; how each one left his occupation or dropped +his implement of labor, and from palace, hall, and hut, ran out to +defend the beloved city. Only the queen's body-guard remained and a few +of the nurses left in charge of the babies. + +"And it was wonderful to mark how their courage gave them strength. +Their assailants were of a taller, stronger race than they; but the +little folks had the advantage in numbers, were quiet and light in their +movements, and possessed a double portion of the bravery good patriots +feel in the defence of the commonwealth. + +"They threw themselves face to face and limb to limb upon their +assailants. With their living bodies they raised a wall across the track +of the army, and, as they came once and again, and yet again, they drove +them back. Hundreds were slain at every onslaught, but hundreds +instantly filled their places. There were plenty of single combats. One +would throw himself upon his antagonist and cling there till he was cut +in pieces and fell to the ground, and another and another would spring +to take his place to meet the same fate. Dozens fought together--heads, +legs, and bodies intertwining in an indistinguishable mass, each held in +a savage grip that only loosened in death. A dozen devoted themselves to +certain death for the chance of killing a single antagonist. Surely such +desperate bravery, such generous heroism, deserved to gain a victory! + +"But there was a sudden rush, a break in the ranks, and, lo! the little +people were running back to the city,--back in all haste,--if, by any +possibility, they might save from the victor's clutch the treasures they +prized most. But what availed their efforts? The enemy was close behind +them, forcing their way through the main entrance and the side gates, +till the whole army was pouring into the devoted city. + +"Can you imagine the scene that followed? The queen-mother and the young +princes and princesses were left undisturbed in their apartments, but +into every other house in the city, the rude soldiers rushed, searching +for the poor babies. Many of them their nurses had hidden away, hoping +that in the confusion their hiding-places would not be discovered; but +the cunning fellows--old hands some of them at the business--seemed to +know just where to look. Hundreds and hundreds of little ones were +captured that day. The faithful attendants clasped and clung to them, +suffering themselves to be torn in pieces before giving them up, but the +sacrifice was in vain. + +"The moon shone down that night upon a ghastly scene. The dead and +dying strewed the ground, and the avenues leading to the city were +choked with the slain. Hundreds of homes were made desolate, that only +the night before were full of peaceful content. + +"Meanwhile, the conquering army, laden with spoils, after another +difficult and toilsome journey had reached their home. The captive +babies were consigned to the care of slaves, procured long ago in a +similar way, and who, apparently contented and happy, for they knew no +other life, devoted all their energies to the service of their captors. + +"Well, it is an old story. Ever since the world began the strong have +oppressed the weak,--and ants or men, for greed or gold, will do their +neighbors wrong." + +"Well," said Mollie, as Miss Ruth laid down the last sheet of her +manuscript, "if you hadn't told us beforehand that it was ants you were +going to read about I should certainly have thought they were people. +Don't they act for all the world just like folks? and who would ever +think such little creatures could be so wise!" + +"What I want to know," said Susie, "is, If the ant-cities are +underground, how can any one see what goes on in them?" + +"That is easily managed," Miss Ruth answered. + +"A nest is taken up with a quantity of the earth that surrounds it, then +it is cut down from the top--as you would halve a loaf of bread--and the +divided parts are placed in glass cases made purposely to receive them. +Of course, the little people are greatly disturbed for a time, and no +wonder; but they soon grow accustomed to the new surroundings and go on +with their every-day employments as if nothing had happened. The sides +of the case make a fine firm wall for their city; they are furnished +with plenty of food and building material, and soon they can be seen +busy at work clearing their streets, building houses, feeding the +babies, and quite contented and happy in their glass city. If, after +months of separation, an ant from one half of the divided nest should be +put into the other he would be recognized at once and welcomed with joy; +but if a stranger were introduced he would be attacked and probably +killed." + +"We had a great time with the ants at our house last summer," said Eliza +Jones: "little mites of red things, you know, and they _would_ get into +the cake-chest and the sugar-bucket, and bothered ma so she had to keep +all the sweet things on a table with its legs in basins of water. They +couldn't get over that, you see." + +"Why not?" Mollie asked. "Can't they swim?" + +"Ours couldn't; lots of them fell in the water and were drowned." + +"Ants are usually quite helpless in the water," Miss Ruth said, "though +a French writer who has made the little folks a study, tells a story of +six soldier ants who rescued their companions from drowning. He put his +sugar-basin in a vessel of water, and several adventurous ants climbed +to the ceiling and dropped into it. Four missed their aim and fell +outside the bowl in the water. Their companions tried in vain to rescue +them, then went away and presently returned accompanied by six +grenadiers, stout fellows, who immediately swam to their relief, seized +them with their pincers and brought them to land. Three were apparently +dead, but the faithful fellows licked and rubbed them quite dry, rolling +them over and over, stretching themselves on them, and in a truly +skillful and scientific manner sought to bring back life to their +benumbed bodies. Under this treatment three came to life, while one only +partly restored was carefully borne away. 'I have seen it' is Du Pont de +Nervours's comment on what he thinks may be considered a marvelous +story, though it seems no more wonderful to me than many well-attested +facts in the lives of the little people." + +"It's all wonderful," Susie said. "It seems as though they must think +and reason and plan just as we do. Don't you think so, Auntie?" + +"Indeed I do, Susie. One who has long studied their ways ranks them next +to man in the scale of intelligence, and says the brain of an ant--no +larger perhaps than a fine grain of sand--must be the most wonderful +particle of matter in the world." + +"But they can't talk, Auntie?" + +"I am not so sure of that. Their voices may be too fine and high-pitched +for our great ears to hear. I fancy there is a deal of conversation +carried on in the grass and the bushes and the trees, that we know +nothing about." + +"How funny! What did you mean, Auntie, when you said the queen laid off +all her flounces and furbelows." + +"I was rather fancifully describing her wings, dear, which she takes off +herself when she enters the nest, having no further use for them. There +are three kinds of ants in every nest: perfect males and females, and +the workers. There are many different races of ants, from the great +white ant of Africa--a terror to the natives, though in some respects +his good friend--down to the little red-and-yellow meadow ants so common +among us. The ants I have told you about, the Rufians and the Fuscans, +are natives of America, and are found in New England. The big black ant +so common here, sometimes called the jet ant, is a carpenter and a +wood-carver. His great jaws bore through the hardest wood, and his +pretty galleries and winding staircases penetrate through the beams and +rafters of many an old mansion. Not long ago I accidentally killed a +carpenter ant, and in a few minutes a comrade appeared who slowly, and +apparently with great labor and fatigue, bore away the body. I felt as +though I were looking on at a funeral. + +"I wish I had time to tell you about the agricultural ant of Texas, and +the umbrella ants of Florida, who cut bits of leaf from the orange-trees +and march home with them in procession, holding each leaf in an upright +position. Fancy how odd they must look! But we have talked long enough +for this time about the little people, and I am sure you all agree with +King Solomon that they are 'exceeding wise.'" + +"I never will step on an ant-hill again if I can possibly help it," said +Susie. "It's too bad to make those hard-working folks so much trouble. + +"And I mean to put my ear close down to the ground," said Nellie Dimock, +"and listen and listen, so as to hear the ants talk to each other." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE STORY OF OLD STAR. + + +"Say, Sam!" said Roy Tyler, as the two boys were driving old Brindle +home from pasture the next evening, "don't you wish she'd tell us some +stories about horses? I'm tired of hearing about cats and ants." + +"Well, I don't know," Sammy answered; "'twas funny about old Robber +Grim. There's just such an old cat round our barn, catchin' chickens and +suckin' eggs. I've fired more rocks at that feller--hit him once in the +hind leg an' he went off limpin'." + +"Well, I want a horse story, and I know she'd just as soon tell one as +not, if somebody would only ask her. Those girls will be wantin' +another cat story if we don't start something else. Girls always do like +cats," said Roy, a little scornfully. "Say, Sam, you ask her, will you?" + +"Why don't you ask her yourself?" + +"Oh, I don't know. I tried to yesterday, but somehow I couldn't get it +out." + +"Well, I'll tell you what I will do," said good-natured Sammy. "You come +round to-night after I get my chores done up, and we'll go together and +have it over with." + +"All right; I'll come," said Roy. + +They found Miss Ruth alone, for it was Thursday night and the minister's +family were at the prayer-meeting. The September evening was chilly, and +she was sitting before an open fire. + +"You do the talking," Roy whispered at the door, and accordingly Sammy, +after fidgeting in his seat a little, opened the subject. + +"Roy wants me to ask you," he began, and then stopped at a punch in the +side from Roy's knuckles, and began again: "Me and Roy would like--if it +wouldn't be too much trouble, and you'd just as soon as not--to have you +tell us a horse story next time." Then in a loud whisper aside to Roy: +"You _did_ ask me! You know you did." + +"Well, you needn't put it all on me, if I did," Roy answered, in the +same tone. + +Miss Ruth appeared not to notice this by-play. + +"A horse story," she said pleasantly; "yes, why not?" + +"You see," Sammy continued, "we like to hear about cats well enough, and +that ant battle was first-rate--I'd like to have seen it, I know; but +Roy, he says the girls might be writin' notes askin' you to tell more +cat stories and--and--well"-- + +"Yes, I see," she said; "too much of a good thing. Well, I will tell no +more cat stories, and it shall be all horse next Wednesday. Will that +suit you, Sammy? And Roy, do you like horses very much?" + +"Yes, 'm," said Roy, bashfully. + +"He says," said Sammy, rather enjoying the office of spokesman, "when he +grows up he means to have a fast trotter. I'd like to own a good horse +myself," continued Sam. + +"I know a boy about your age," said Miss Ruth, "whose father gave him, +for a birthday present, a Canadian pony; a funny looking little beast, +not much larger than a big dog, but strong enough to carry double +Herbert's weight." + +"Like the Shetland ponies at the show?" + +"Yes; but larger, and not so costly. He is a thick-set, shaggy fellow, +always looking as if he were not half-groomed, with his coat all rough +and tumbled, his legs covered with thick hair, his mane hanging on both +sides of his neck, and his forelock always getting into his bright +little eyes." + +"What color?" said Roy. + +"Dark brown; not handsome, but so affectionate and intelligent that you +would love him dearly. He is as frolicsome as a kitten, and I laughed +and laughed again to see him racing round the yard, hardly able to see +for the shag of hair tumbling over his eyes, playing queer tricks and +making uncouth gambols, more like a big puppy than a small horse. To be +sure he has a will of his own, and has more than once--just for +fun--thrown his young master over his head; but he always stands stock +still till the boy is on his back again, and as Herbert says: 'It is +only a little way to fall from his back to the ground.'" + +"How fast will he go?" Roy asked. + +"Fast enough for a boy to ride. From five to seven miles an hour, +perhaps, and keep it up all day, if need be, for the Canadian horses +have great strength and endurance. The last time I saw Herbert he told +me a pretty story about Elf King." + +"Is that his name?" + +"Yes; isn't it a pretty name? Elf for fairy, you know, and King for the +head of the fairies. But perhaps I am keeping you, boys. Is there any +thing you ought to be doing at home?" + +"No, no!" both answered together, and Sammy answered that he did up all +his chores before he came away. + +"Very well; then I will tell you about Elf King's visit to the +blacksmith." + +"Instead of next Wednesday?" + +"Oh, dear, no! I have a long story for next Wednesday. This is very +short, and doesn't count; is just a little private entertainment thrown +in on our own account." + +Roy, who had all this time sat uncomfortably on the edge of his chair, +settled back, and Sammy made use of his favorite expression:-- + +"All right!" + +"When Elf King came into Herbert's possession he had never been shod; +but very soon he was taken to the village blacksmith and four funny +little shoes fitted to his feet, which, when he was accustomed to, he +liked very much. + +"One day the blacksmith saw the pony trotting up to his shop without a +halter. He supposed the little thing had strayed from home, and drove +him off, and when he refused to go, threw stones at him to make him run +away. But in a few moments back he came again. When the blacksmith went +out a second time to drive him off he noticed his feet and saw that one +shoe was missing. So he made a shoe, the pony standing by, quietly +waiting. When the new shoe was fitted Elf King pawed two or three times +to see if it felt comfortable, gave a pleased little neigh, as much as +to say, 'Yes, that's all right; thank you!' and started for home on a +brisk trot. + +"Think how surprised and pleased Herbert was when he went to the stable +to ride Elf King to the blacksmith's, to find that the sharp little +pony had taken the business into his own hands." + +"I tell you," said Roy, "that's a horse worth having. What do you +suppose that boy would take for him?" + +"More money than you could raise in a hurry," said Sammy. "Miss Ruth, if +you had a horse now that jibbed, would you lick him?" + +"That jibbed," she repeated doubtfully. + +"Why, yes; stopped in the road, you know; wouldn't go." + +"Oh, yes; now I understand. No, indeed, Sammy! If I had a horse +that--jibbed, I should be very patient with him and try to cure him of +the bad habit by kindness. I should know that beating would make him +worse." + +"Well, that's what I think, and the other day pa and I were huskin' corn +in the barn, and there was a horse jibbed on our hill, and the driver +got down and licked him with the butt end of his whip, and kicked him +with his great cowhide boots, and I asked pa if I might take out a +measure of oats and see if I couldn't coax that horse to take his load +up the hill--you see pa owned a jibber once and I knew how he used to +manage him. And pa said I might, only I'd better look out or the fellow +would use me as he was usin' the horse. But I wasn't afraid, for he was +half-drunk, and I knew I could clip it faster'n he could. + +"Well, sir, I went out there and I stood around a while, and says I, +'What'll you bet I can't get your horse to the top of the hill?' And he +said he wouldn't bet a red cent. 'Well,' says I,'will you let me try +just for fun?' and he said, 'Yes, I might try all day if I wanted to.' +And I got him to stand one side, where the horse couldn't see him, and I +went up to the horse's head and stroked his nose and gave him a handful +of oats, just a little taste, you know, and when he was kind of calmed +down I went a ways ahead holdin' out the measure of oats, and if that +horse didn't follow me up that hill just as quiet as an old sheep, and +the man he stood by and looked streaked, I tell you!" + +Sammy told his story with considerable animation and some forcible +gestures. + +"That was well done," said Miss Ruth, "and I hope the cruel fellow +profited by the lesson you gave him. I don't think I'm naturally +vindictive, but when I see a man beating a horse I find myself wishing +I was strong enough to snatch the whip from him and lay it well about +his own shoulders. But come, boys, the fire is down to coals--just right +for popping corn. Sammy, you know the way to the kitchen. Ask Lovina for +the corn-popper and a dish, and, Roy, you'll find a paper bag full of +corn in the cupboard yonder. Quick, now, and we'll have the dish piled +by the time Susie and Mollie are back from meeting." + +"Haven't we had a gay old time," said Roy, on the way home, "and ain't +you glad I put you up to coming, Sam Ray?" And Sammy admitted that he +was. + + * * * * * + +"Now, girls and boys," said Miss Ruth, on the next Wednesday afternoon, +"I am going to take you on a long journey,--in fancy, I mean,--over the +hills and plains and valleys, to the country of the Far West, with its +rolling prairies and big fields of wheat and corn. You shall be set down +in a green meadow, with a stream running through it, shallow and clear +at this time of year, but a little later, when the September rains have +filled it, rushing along full of deep, muddy water. + +"Under a big oak in about the middle of the pasture you will find an old +horse feeding. He is fat and sleepy looking, and has a kind face, and a +white spot on his forehead. This is Old Star, Farmer Horton's +family-horse. You may pat his neck and stroke his nose and feed him a +cookie or a bit of gingerbread,--I am afraid the old fellow hasn't teeth +enough left to chew an apple,--and then you may sit near him on the +grass, and while I read aloud to you, fancy that he is talking, and, if +you have plenty of imagination, you will get + + +THE STORY OF OLD STAR, TOLD BY HIMSELF. + +"I hope nobody thinks I am turned out in this pasture because I am too +old to work. Horses pass here every day drawing heavy loads, older by +half a dozen years than I am, poor broken-down hacks too, most of them, +while I--well, if it wasn't for a little stiffness in the joints and a +giving out of wind, now and then, I can't see but what I'm as well able +to travel as I ever was. + +"The fact is, I never was put to hard work. There were always horses +enough besides me on the place to do the farm work and the teaming--Tom +and Jerry and the colt, you know; not Filly's colt: he died, poor +thing, before he was a year old, of that disease with a long name that +carried off so many horses all over the country: but a great shambling +big-boned beast old master swapped a yoke of steers for, over to Skipton +Mills. We called him Goliath, he was so tall: strong as an elephant, +too: a powerful hand at a horse-rake and mowing-machine. Well, well, how +time flies, to be sure! He's been dead and gone these five years, and +Tom and Jerry, they were used up long ago--there's a deal of hard work +to be done on a farm of this size, I can tell you; and as to Filly, she +came to a sad end, for she got mired down in the low pasture, and had to +be hauled out with ropes, poor critter, and died of the wet and the +cold. + +"Well, as I was saying, I never was put to hard work. I was born and +raised on the place, and I do suppose--though I say it, who +shouldn't--that I was an uncommon fine--looking colt, dark chestnut in +color, and not a white hair on me except this spot in my forehead that +gave me my name. When I was three months old, master made a present of +me to his oldest boy on his sixteenth birthday, and every half-hour +Master Fred could spare from his work, he used to spend in dressing down +and feeding me and teaching me cunning tricks. I could take an apple or +a lump of sugar from his pocket, walk down the slope behind the barn on +two legs, with my forefeet on his shoulders, and shake hands, old master +used to say, 'just like a Christian.' + +"Master Fred set great store by me, as well he might. He's traveled +hundreds of miles on my back over the prairies, and we've been out +together many a dark night when he'd drop the lines on my neck and say, +"Well, Star, go ahead if you know the way, for not one inch can I see +before my nose." That was after he learned by experience that I knew +better than he did where to go, and when to stop going. For he lost his +temper and called me hard names one night, when I stopped short in the +middle of the road and wouldn't budge an inch for voice or whip, with +the wind blowing a gale, and the rain coming down in bucketsful. But +when a flash of lightning showed the bridge before us clean washed away, +and only a few feet between us and the steep bank of the river, Master +Fred changed his tune. Afraid! not I; but I'm willing to own I _was_ a +little scared the day we got into the water down by Cook's Cove, for +you see I was hitched to the buggy and the lines got tangled about my +legs, and there were chunks of ice and lots of driftwood floating about, +and the current sucking me down; but master had got to shore and stood +on the bank calling, "This way, Star, this way!" and when I heard his +voice I--well, I don't know how I managed to do it, but I turned square +round and swam upstream with the buggy behind me, and got safe and sound +to land. I've heard Master Fred say my back was covered with +river-grass, and I trembled all over with the fright and the hard pull. + +"But, dear me, all that happened long ago when master was courting old +Tim Bunce's daughter Martha, down Stony Creek Road. How that girl did +take to me! She used to say she knew the sound of my hoofs on the road, +of a still night, when we were a mile away; and she'd say over a little +rhyme she'd got hold of somehow:-- + + 'Star, Star, good and bright, + I wish you may and I wish you might + Bring somebody to me I want to see to-night.' + +"If she said that twice, looking straight down the road, she told us we +were sure to come. She was a plump rosy-cheeked girl when Master Fred +brought her to be mistress here, though you mightn't think it to see her +now, what with the cooking and the dairy-work and raising a big family +of children. But if you want to know what mistress was like twenty years +ago, you've only to look at our Ada. + +"Now, there's a girl for you, as good as she is pretty, and getting to +be a woman grown; though I remember, as though it happened yesterday, +her mother's coming out one spring day to where I was nibbling grass in +the door-yard, with her baby in her arms, and holding up the little +thing to me, and saying, 'This is Ada, Star,--you must be good friends +with Ada,' Friends! I should say so. Before that child was a year old, +she used to cry to be held on my back for a ride, and when she was +getting better of the scarlet fever, she kept saying, 'Me 'ant to tee +ole 'Tar,' till, to pacify her, they led me to the open window of the +room where she lay, and she reached her mite of a hand from the bed to +stroke my nose and give me the lump of sugar she had saved for me under +her pillow. + +"Bless the child! And it was just so with all the rest, Tim and Martha +and Fred and Jenny and baby May--there was a new baby in that house +every year. Those young ones would crawl over me, and sit on me, when I +was lying down in the stable; ride me, three or four at a time, without +bridle or saddle, and cling to my neck and tail when there was no room +left on my back. They shared their apples and gingerbread with me, and +brought me goodies on a plate sometimes so that I might eat my dinner, +they said, 'like the rest of the folks,' I fetched them to and from +school, and trotted every day to the post-office and the Corners to do +the family errands; and when our Ada was old enough to be trusted to +drive, the whole lot of them would pile into the carryall, and away we +would go for a long ride, through the lanes and the shady woods that +border the pond, stopping a dozen times for the girls to clamber out and +pick the wild posies and for the boys to skip stones or wade in the +water. For _I_ was in no hurry to go on. There was plenty of tender +grass to be cropped by the roadside, and the young leaves of the maples +and white birch were sweet and juicy. + +"'Take good care of them, Star,' mistress used to say, standing in the +door-way to see us off; 'you have a precious load, but we trust you, +kind, faithful old friend,' + +"And so she might. I knew I must just creep down the hills with those +children behind me, and never stop for a drink at Rocky Brook, though I +were ever so thirsty, because of the sharp pitch down to the +watering-trough. And though from having been scared nearly to death, +when I was a colt, by a wheelbarrow in the road, I always _have_ to shy +a little when I see one, our Ada will tell you, if you ask her, that in +the circumstances, I behaved very well. + +"_She_ behaved well. She always chose the well-traveled roads, and gave +me plenty of room to turn. Once, I remember, they all wanted to take a +short cut by way of an old corduroy road; and though, if master had been +driving, I should have made no objection, and, as like as not, with a +little jolting and pitching, we should have got safe over, I didn't feel +like taking the responsibility, with all those young ones along, of +going that way; so I tried to make our Ada understand the state of my +mind, and after a while she did; for she said: 'Well, Star, if you don't +want to draw us over those logs, I'm not going to make you,' Now, wasn't +that sensible? + +"Well, if I was proud and happy to be trusted with master's family on +week-days, think how I must have felt of a Sunday morning in the summer +time, with mistress dressed in her silk gown, and our Ada in muslin and +pink ribbons, and the boys in their best clothes, and master riding +along-side on Tom or Jerry, all going to meeting together. I liked +hearing the bells ring, and I liked being hitched under the maple-trees, +with all the neighbors' horses to keep me company. We generally dozed +while the folks were indoors, and woke up brisk and lively, and started +for home in procession. + +"But, dear! dear! there came a time when, with five horses on the farm, +not one could be had to give the children a ride or to do a stroke of +work, when master had to foot it to the Corners, and the two steers, Old +Poke and Eyebright, dragged mistress and the children to meeting in the +ox-cart. + +"For we were all down with the epizoötic, coughing and sneezing enough +to take our heads off, and so sick and low, some of us, that we couldn't +stand in our stalls, and a man with a red face, Master Fred had over +from Skipton Mills, pouring nasty stuff down our throats, and making us +swallow big black balls of medicine that hurt as they went down--as if +we hadn't enough to suffer before! But our Jenny came to the stable with +a piece of pork-rind, and a bandage she'd made out of her little +red-flannel petticoat, and she wanted Master Fred to put it on my neck; +for, says she: 'That's what ma put on me when I had the sore +throat,'--the blessed child! + +"Well, we all pulled through except Filly's colt. He keeled over one +morning, poor fellow! and was dragged out and buried under the oaks in +the high pasture. But for some reason, I didn't pick up as quick as the +others. The cough held on, and I was pestered for breath, and I didn't +get back my strength; and what I ate didn't seem to fatten me up much, +for Master Fred says one day, laughing, 'Well, Old Star, we've saved +your skin and bones, and that's about all!' However, I got round again, +only my legs had a bad habit of giving way under me, without the least +bit of warning. + +"Our Ada did all she could to keep me up, holding a tight rein, and +saying, 'Steady, Star! steady!' when she saw any signs of stumbling. But +trying to keep from it seemed to make me do it all the more, and down I +would come on my poor knees and spill those children out of the wagon, +like blackberries from a full basket. + +"One day, after this had happened, master told our Ada she was not to +drive me any more, and before I had got over feeling bad about that, +there came some thing a great deal worse; for I was standing by the pump +in the backyard one day, and master and mistress were in the porch, and +I heard him tell her he had had an offer from Jones the milkman, to buy +me. 'Twould be an easy place, and he'd promised to treat me well, and +he'd about made up his mind to take up with it; for he couldn't afford +to keep a horse on the place that--well, I don't care to repeat the rest +of the speech. 'Twas rather hard on me, but I haven't laid it up against +master. Fact is, he had a deal to worry him about that time, for he was +disappointed in the wheat crop, and the heavy rains had damaged his +corn, and he was feeling mighty poor. + +"But mistress was up in arms in a minute. 'What, sell Star!' says she, +'our good, faithful Star, who's been in the family ever since you were a +boy! and to Ki Jones to peddle milk round Skipton Mills and Hull +Station! O pa!' says mistress, says she, 'have we got down so low as +that? Why 't would break our Ada's heart, and mine too, to see Star +hitched to a milk-cart. Rather than have you do that, says she, 'I'll go +in rags, and keep the children on mush and molasses;' and she put her +apron to her eyes. + +"'Well, well, don't fret!' says master,--and I thought he looked kind o' +ashamed,--'I haven't sold him yet I've a notion to turn him out to +grass a while, and see what that'll do for him,' So the next day he put +me in this pasture. + +"You see that plank bridge yonder, over the creek? That's where our Ada +fell into the water. Master has put up a railing, and made all safe +since the accident happened. 'T was a risky place always, though the +children have crossed it hundreds of times, and none of them ever +tumbled over before. + +"But I hadn't been here a week, when one sunshiny afternoon our Ada came +through the pasture, on her way to visit the sick Simmonses--there's +always some of that tribe down with the chills. She came running up to +me--her little basket, full of goodies, on her arm,--stopped to talk a +minute and feed me an apple, and then passed along, while I went on +nibbling grass, till I heard a scream and a splash, and knew, all in a +minute, she must have fallen off the plank bridge into the water. Dear! +dear! what was to be done? I ran to the fence, and looked up and down +the road. Some men were burning brush at the far end of the next field. +I galloped toward them, and back again to the creek, and whinnied and +snorted, and tried my best to make them understand that they were +needed; but they didn't appear to notice, and I just made up my mind, +that if any thing was done to save our Ada from drowning, I was the one +to do it. + +"I made my way through the alder-bushes down by the bank, to a place +where the current sets close in shore. At first I couldn't see any +thing, then all at once, there floated on the muddy water close to me, +the little red shawl she wore, then a hand and arm, and her white face +and brown hair all streaming. I caught at her clothes, and though Ada is +a stout girl of her age, and the wet things added a deal to her weight, +I lifted her well out of the water. I remember thinking, 'If only my +poor legs don't give out, I shall do very well,' And they didn't give +out, for when help came--it seems those men in the field _had_ noticed +me, and came to see what was the matter--they found me all in a lather +of sweat, and my eyes starting out of their sockets, but with my feet +braced against a rock, keeping our Ada's head and shoulders well above +water. + +"They got her home as quick as they could, and put her to bed between +hot blankets, and the next day she was none the worse for her ducking, +though she carried the print of my teeth in her tender flesh for many a +day; for how was I to know where the child's clothes left off and her +side began. + +"Of course they made a great fuss over me. Mistress came running to meet +me, and put both arms around my neck, and said: 'O Star, you have saved +our darling's life!' and the little ones hugged and kissed me, and the +boys took turns rubbing me down; and I stood knee deep in my stall that +night in fresh straw, and besides my measure of oats, had a warm mash, +three cookies, and half a pumpkin-pie for my supper. + +"But master only patted my neck, and said: 'Well done, Old Star!' Master +Fred and I always did understand one another. + +"There hasn't been any thing more said about selling me to Ki Jones. In +the winter I have a stall at the south side of the stable, where I get +the sun at my window all day, and in summer I live in this pasture, with +shady trees, and cool water, and grass and clover-tops in plenty. I have +nothing to do the live-long day, but to eat and drink and enjoy myself; +but I do hope folks passing along the road don't think I'm turned out in +this field because I'm too old to work." + +"Good-by, Old Star!" said Mollie, as her aunt laid down the paper. "We +are much obliged for your nice story, and we hope you'll live ever so +many years. I wouldn't hint for the world that you aren't as smart as +you used to be." + +"Isn't he rather a self-conceited old horse?" said Nellie Dimock. + +"Well, yes; but that is natural. I suppose he has been more or less +spoiled and petted all his life." + +"When he told about going to meeting," Fannie Eldridge said, "it +reminded me of a story mamma tells, of an old horse up in Granby, that +went to church one Sunday all by himself." + +"How droll! How did it happen, Fannie?" + +"Why, he belonged to two old ladies who went to church always, and +exactly at such a time every Sunday morning Dobbin was hitched to the +chaise and brought round to the front door and Miss Betsey and Miss +Sally got in and drove to church. But one Sunday something hindered +them, and Dobbin waited and waited till the bell stopped ringing and +all the other horses which attended church had gone by; and at last he +got clear out of patience, and started along without them. Mamma says +the people laughed to see him trot up to the church-door and down to the +sheds and walk straight into his own place, and when service was over +back himself out and trot home again." + +"What did Miss Betsey and Miss Sally do?" + +"Oh, they had to stay at home. When they came out they saw the old +chaise ever so far off, going toward the church, and they felt pretty +sure old Dobbin was going to meeting on his own account. That is a true +story Miss Ruth, every word of it--mamma says so." + +"Our old Ned cheated us all last summer," said Florence Austin, "by +pretending to be lame. He really was made lame, at first, one day when +mamma was driving, by getting a stone in his foot, and she turned +directly and walked him all the way back to the stable. But when William +had taken out the stone, he seemed to be all right, and the next +afternoon mamma and Alice and I started for a drive. We got about a mile +out of town, when all at once Ned began to limp. Mamma and Alice got out +of the phaeton, and looked his feet all over, for they thought may be he +had picked up another stone; but they couldn't see the least thing out +of the way, only that he limped dreadfully as if it half-killed him to +go. Well, there was nothing to be done but to give up our drive; for we +couldn't bear to ride after a lame horse!" + +"I can't either!" Mollie interjected. + +"Well, he had been lately shod, and our coachman thought that perhaps a +nail from one of the shoes pricked his foot, so he started to take him +to the blacksmith's. But don't you think, as soon as Ned knew that +William was driving, he started off at a brisk trot and wasn't the least +bit lame I but the next time mamma took him out, he began to limp +directly, and kept looking round as much as to say: 'How can you be so +cruel as to make me go, when you must see every step I take hurts me?' +But when mamma came home with him again, William said: 'It's chatin' you +he is, marm.'" + +"And what did your mother do?" + +"Well, as soon as she made up her mind that he was shamming, she took no +notice of his little trick, but touched him up with the whip, and made +him go right along. He knew directly that she had found him out. Oh, he +is _such_ a knowing horse! The other day Alice was leading him through +the big gate, to give him a mouthful of grass in the door-yard. Alice +likes to lead him about. When he stepped on her gown, and she held it up +to him all torn, and scolded him, she said: 'O Ned! aren't you ashamed +of yourself? how could you be so clumsy and awkward?' and she said he +dropped his head and looked so sorry and ashamed, as if he wanted to +say: 'Oh, I beg pardon! I didn't mean to do it,' that she really pitied +him, and answered as if he had spoken: 'Well, don't worry, Ned; it's of +no consequence,' Ned is such a pet. Papa got him in Canada, on purpose +for mamma and Alice to drive; and it was so funny when he first +came--he didn't understand a word of English, not even whoa. He belonged +to a Frenchman way up the country, and had never been in a large town, +and acted so queer--like a green countryman, you know, turning his head +and staring at all the sights. And it's lovely to see him play in the +snow. He was brought up in the midst of it, you know. When there's a +snow-storm he's wild to be out of the stable, and the deeper the drifts, +the better pleased he is. He plunges in and rolls over and over, and +rears and dances. Oh, it is too funny to see him! But I beg pardon, Miss +Ruth! I didn't mean to talk so long about Ned." + +"We are all glad to hear about him," she said, and Susie added that it +was very interesting. + +"My Uncle John owned a horse," said Roy Tyler, "that opened a gate and +a barn-door to get to the oat-bin, and he shut the barn-door after him +too. I guess you can't any of you tell how he did that!" + +"He jumped the gate, and shoved his nose in the crack of the door and +pried it open," said Sammy. + +"No, he didn't. That wouldn't be _opening_ the gate, would it?" Roy +retorted. "And how did he shut it after him?" + +"I think you had better tell us, Roy," said Miss Ruth. + +"Well, he reached over the fence, and lifted the latch with his teeth, +that's how he opened the gate; and he shut it by backing up against it +till it latched itself. Then he pulled out the wooden pin of the +barn-door, and it swung open by its own weight--see?" + +"Well, pa had a horse that slipped his halter and shoved up the cover +of the oat-bin, when he got hungry in the night and wanted a lunch," +said Sammy; "and I read about a horse the other day which turned the +water-tap when he wanted a drink, and pulled the stopper out of the pipe +over the oat-bin, just as he 'd seen the coachman do, so the oats would +come down, and"-- + +"But really now," Ruth Elliot, interrupted, "interesting and wonderful +as all this is, we must stop somewhere. I have another story to tell +you, about a minister's horse, but it can wait over till next week. Lay +aside your work, girls; it is past five o'clock." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +TUFTY AND THE SPARROWS. + + +Florence Austin came early to the Society the next Wednesday afternoon, +and found Miss Ruth on the piazza, + +"I am glad to see you, Florence," she said. "I was just wishing for a +helper. Mollie and Susie have gone on an errand, and I am alone in the +house, and here is a whole family in trouble that I can't relieve." + +"What is the matter?" said the little girl. + +"A baby bird has fallen out of the nest, and I am too lame to-day to +venture down the steps; and papa and mamma are in great distress, and +the babies in the nest half-starved, and can't have their dinner +because the old birds dare not leave poor chippy a moment lest some +stray cat should get him. See the little thing down there in the grass +just under the woodbine!" + +Florence descended the piazza-steps at two jumps, and was back with the +young bird in her hand. + +"Now where shall I put him, Miss Ruth?" + +Ruth Elliot pointed out the nest. It was in the thickest growth of the +woodbine, just over their heads; and when Florence had climbed in a +chair, she had her first look at a nest of young birds. The little city +girl was delighted. + +"How cunning!" she exclaimed. "Oh, how awfully cunning! four in +all--three of them with their mouths wide open. No wonder this little +fellow got pushed out. Here, you droll little specimen, crowd in +somewhere! He isn't hurt at all, for he seems as lively as any of them." + +As Florence jumped down from the chair, Susie and Mollie and the Jones +girls came up the walk. + +"What are you two doing?" Mollie called out. + +"Florence has just restored a lost baby to his distressed family," her +aunt answered. "Come into the house, girls, and let papa and mamma +Chippy get over their fright and look after the babies. Florence, I am +greatly obliged to you. I should have felt very sorry if harm had come +to the little one, for I have watched that nest ever since the old birds +began to build." + +The little girl replied politely that she was glad she had been of use. + +"I know what chippies' nests are made of," said Mollie: "fine roots and +fibers, and lined beautifully with soft fine hair," + +"Did you watch the birds while they were making it, Mollie?" + +"No; but one night after tea, when Auntie and Susie and I were playing +at choosing birds,--telling which bird we liked best and why, you +know,--papa came along and said: 'I choose the chirping sparrow for my +bird'; and when we laughed at him and called for his reasons (because +chippies are such insignificant things, you know, and no singers), he +told us he liked them because they were tame and friendly, and because +they built such neat, pretty nests; and he pulled an old nest he had +saved in pieces, and showed us how it was put together." + +"Yes," said Susie; "and the other reason he gave for liking them best +was, that they got up early and rang the rising-bell for all the other +birds. That was such a funny reason for papa to give, for we all know he +dearly loves his morning nap." + +"Really, now, do the chippies get up first in the morning?" said +Florence. + +"With the first peep of day," Miss Ruth answered. "This morning I heard +their cheerful twitter before a ray of light had penetrated to my room; +and a welcome sound it was, for it told me the long night was over. One +dear little fellow sang two or three strains before he succeeded in +waking any body; then a robin joined in, in a sleepy kind of way; then +two or three wrens, and then a cat-bird; and, last of all, my little +weather-bird, which, from the topmost branches of the elm-tree, warbled +out to me that it was a pleasant day. Oh, what a sweet concert they all +gave me before the sun rose!" + +"I never heard of a weather-bird, Aunt Ruth." + +"Your Uncle Charlie gave him that name, Susie, when we were children. +His true name is Warbling Verio; but we used to fancy the little fellow +announced what kind of day it would be. If clear he called out: +'Pleasant day!' three times over, with a pause between each sentence and +a long-drawn-out Yes at the close; or, if it rained, he said 'Rainy day' +or 'Windy day,' describing the weather, whatever it might be, always +with an emphatic _Yes_. + +"One day he talked to me, but it was not about the weather. Things had +gone wrong with me all the morning. I had spoken disrespectfully to my +grandmother, and had been so cross and impatient with baby Walter that +mother had taken him from me, though she could ill spare the time to +tend him. Then I ran through the garden to a little patch of woods +behind the house, and sat on an old log, in a very bad humor. + +"Presently, high above my head in the branches of the walnut-tree, the +weather-bird began his monotonous strain. I paid no attention to him at +first, I was so taken up with my own disagreeable thoughts, till it came +to me all at once that he was not telling me it was a pleasant day, +though the sun was shining gloriously and a lovely breeze rustled the +green leaves. What was it the little bird was saying over and over +again, as plain as plain could be? 'NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY +GIRL! Y-E-S.' + +"I rubbed my eyes and pinched my arm, to make sure I was awake; for I +thought I must have dreamed it. But no, there it was again, sweet, sad, +reproachful: 'NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! Y-E-S,' + +"I jumped up in a rage, and called it a horrid thing; and when it +wouldn't stop, but kept on reproaching me with my evil behavior, I could +bear it no longer, but put my fingers in my ears and ran back to the +house and up to my own room, where I cried with anger and shame. But +solitude and reflection soon brought me to a better state of mind; and, +long before the day was over, I had confessed my fault and was forgiven. +But though I wanted very much to see a new water-wheel Charlie set up +that afternoon in the brook, I dared not go through the wood to get to +it, lest that small bird should still be calling, 'Naughty girl! Y-e-s.' + +"Charlie grumbled the next morning when I wakened him out of a sound +sleep by shouting gayly from my little bed in the next room that his +weather-bird was calling, 'Pleasant day!' 'Why, what _should_ he call,' +he wanted to know, 'with the sun shining in at both windows?' + +"I never told my brother how the bird had given voice to my accusing +conscience, nor has the lesson ever been repeated; for from that day to +this the Warbling Verio has made no more personal remarks to me." + +"There's a bird down in Maine" said Ann Eliza Jones, "they call the +Yankee bird, 'cause he keeps saying, 'All day +whittling--whittling--whittling.'" + +"Yes; and the quails there always tell the farmers when they must hurry +and get in their hay," said her sister. "When it's going to rain they +sing out: 'More wet! more wet!' and 'No more wet!' when it clears off." + +"Aunt Ruth," said Mollie, "please tell us about the funny little bantam +rooster who used to call to his wife every morning: 'Do--come +out--n-o-w!'" + +"Very well; but we are getting so much interested in this bird-talk that +we are making rather slow progress with our work. Suppose we all see how +much we can accomplish in the next ten minutes." + +Upon this Mollie caught up the block lying in her lap, Florence +re-threaded her needle, Nellie Dimock hunted up her thimble, which had +rolled under the table, and industry was the order of the day. + +And while they worked, Miss Ruth told the story of + + +THE WIDOW BANTAM. + +"She belonged to our next-door neighbor, and we called her the Widow +because her mate--a fine plucky little bantam rooster--was one day slain +while doing battle with the great red chanticleer who ruled the +hen-yard. + +"I took pity on the little hen in her loneliness, and singled her out +from the flock for special attention. She very soon knew my voice, would +come at my call, and used to slip through a gap in the fence and pay me +a visit every day. If the kitchen door were open she walked in without +ceremony; if closed, she flew to the window, tapped on the glass with +her bill, flapped her wings, and gave us clearly to understand that she +wished to be admitted. Once inside, she set up a shrill cackling till I +attended to her wants, and scolded me at the top of her voice if I kept +her long waiting. When she had eaten more cracked corn and Indian meal +than you would think so small a body could contain, she walked about in +a slow, contented way, and was ready for all the petting we chose to +give her. + +"She was a pretty creature, with a speckled coat and a comb the color of +red coral: very small, but lively and vigorous, and exhibiting in all +her movements both grace and stateliness. She would nestle in my lap, +take a ride on my shoulder, and walk the length of my arm to peck at a +bit of cake in my hand, regarding me all the while with a queer +sidelong glance, and croaking out her satisfaction and content. When she +was ready to go she walked to the kitchen door, and asked in a very +shrill voice to be let out. She continued these visits till late in the +fall, when she was shut up with the rest of our neighbor's flock for the +winter. + +"One bitter cold day in January we heard a faint cackle outside, and, +opening the kitchen door, found our poor widow in a sorry plight. One +foot was frozen, her feathers were all rough and dirty, her wings +drooping, her bright comb changed to a dull red. How she escaped from +the hen-house, surmounted the high fence, and hobbled or flew to our +door, we did not know; but there she was, half-dead with hunger and +cold. + +"We did what we could for her. I bathed and bandaged the swollen foot, +and made a warm bed for her in a box in the shed, from which she did not +offer to stir for many days. I fed her with bits of bread soaked in warm +milk, and Charlie said, nursed and tended her as if she had been a sick +baby. She was very gentle and patient, poor thing! and allowed me to +handle her as I pleased, always welcomed my coming with a cheerful +little cackle, and, as she got stronger, trotted after me about the shed +and kitchen like a pet kitten. + +"In the spring, when she was quite well again, I restored her to her +rightful owner. Perhaps she had grown weary of her solitary life, for +she seemed delighted to rejoin her old companions; but every day she +made us a visit, and at night came regularly to roost in the shed. + +"One morning we heard two voices instead of one outside our window, and +behold! Mrs. Bantam had taken another mate--a fine handsome fellow, so +graceful in form and brilliant in plumage that we at once pronounced him +a fit companion to our favorite hen. They were evidently on the best of +terms, croaking and cackling to each other, and exchanging sage opinions +about us as we watched them from the open door. I am sure she must have +told him all about her long illness the previous winter, and pointed me +out as her nurse, for he nodded and croaked and cast sidelong looks of +friendly regard in my direction. + +"But when Mrs. Bantam came into the kitchen for her luncheon she could +not induce Captain Bantam to follow. In vain she coaxed and cackled, +running in and out a dozen times to convince him there was nothing to +fear. He would not believe her nor budge one inch over the door-sill. +She lost patience at last, and rated him soundly; but as neither coaxing +nor scolding availed, and she was eating her meal with a poor relish +inside, while he waited unhappily without, we settled the difficulty by +putting the dish on the door-step, where they ate together in perfect +content. + +"But a more serious trouble came at bed-time, for Mrs. Bantam expected +to roost as usual in the shed, while the Captain preferred the old +apple-tree where the rest of the flock spent their nights. The funny +little couple held an animated discussion about it which lasted far into +the twilight--and neither would yield. The Captain was very polite and +conciliatory. He evidently had no mind to quarrel: but neither would he +give up the point. He occasionally suspended the argument by a stroll +into the garden, where, by vigorous scratching, he would produce a +choice morsel, to which he called her attention by an insinuating 'Have +a worm, dear?' She never failed to accept the offering, gulping it down +with great satisfaction, but was too old a bird to be caught by so +shallow a trick, for she would immediately return to her place by the +shed window, and resume her discourse. When she had talked herself +sleepy she ended the contest for that night by flying through the window +and settling herself comfortably in the old place, while the Captain +took his solitary way across the garden and over the fence to the +apple-tree. + +Every night for a week this scene occurred under the shed window; then, +by mutual consent, they seemed to agree to go their several ways without +further dispute. About sunset the Captain might be seen politely +escorting his mate to her chosen lodging-house, and, after seeing her +safely disposed of for the night, quietly betaking himself to his roost +in the apple-tree. + +"He was at her window early every morning crowing lustily. Charlie and I +were sure he said: 'Do--come--out--now! Do--come--out--n-o-w!' and were +vexed with the little hen for keeping him waiting so long. But his +patience never failed; and, when at last she flew down and joined him, a +prouder, happier bantam rooster never strutted about the place. All day +long he kept close at her side, providing her with the choicest tidbits +the garden afforded, and watching her with unselfish delight while she +swallowed each dainty morsel. In the middle of the day they rested under +the currant-bushes, crooning sleepily to each other or taking a quiet +nap. + +"One day we missed them both, and for three weeks saw them only at +intervals, Mrs. Bantam always coming alone, eating a hurried meal, and +stealing away as quickly as possible; while the Captain wandered about +rather dejectedly, we thought, in the society of the other hens. + +"But one bright morning we heard Mrs. Bantam clucking and calling with +all her old vigor; and there she was at the kitchen-door, the prettiest +and proudest of little mothers, with three tiny chicks not much larger +than the baby chippies you saw in the nest, Florence, but wonderfully +active and vigorous for their size. We named them Bob and Dick and +Jenny, and, as they grew older, were never tired of watching their +comical doings. Their mother, too, afforded us great amusement, while we +found much in her conduct to admire and praise. She was a fussy, +consequential little body, but unselfishly devoted, and ready to brave +any danger that threatened her brood. Charlie and and I learned more +than one useful lesson from the bantam hen and her young family. + +"One of these lessons we put into verse, which, if I can remember, I +will repeat to you. We called it + + +CHICKEN DICK THE BRAGGER. + + 'Scratch! scratch! + In the garden-patch, + Goes good Mother Henny; + Cluck! cluck! + Good luck! Good luck! + Come, Bob and Dick and Jenny! + + A worm! a worm! + See him squirm! + Who comes first to catch it! + Quick! quick! + Chicken Dick, + You are the chick to snatch it! + + "Peep! peep! + While you creep, + My long legs have won it! + Cuck-a-doo! + I've beat you! + Don't you wish you'd done it?" + + Dick! Dick! + That foolish trick + Of bragging lost your dinner; + For while to crow + You let it go, + Bob snatched it up--the sinner! + + Bob! Bob! + 'T was wrong to rob + Your silly little brother, + And in the bush + To fight and push, + And peck at one another. + + But Bobby beat, + And ate the treat.-- + Dear children, though you're winners, + Be modest all; + For pride must fall, + And braggers lose their dinners.' + +"And now I will tell you an adventure of young Dick's, in which a habit +he had of crowing on all occasions proved very useful to him. He grew to +be a fine handsome fellow, and was sold to a family who lived on the +meadow-bank. + +"There was a big freshet the next autumn, the water covering the meadows +on both sides of the river, and creeping into cellars and yards and +houses. It came unexpectedly, early one morning, into the enclosure +where Dick, with his half-dozen hens, was confined, and all flew for +refuge to the roof of the neighboring pig-pen. But the incoming flood +soon washed away the supports of the frail building, and it floated +slowly out into the current to join company with the wrecks of +wood-piles and rail fences, the spoils from gardens and orchards, in the +shape of big yellow pumpkins and rosy apples, bobbing about in the +foaming muddy stream, and all the other queer odds and ends a freshet +gathers in its course. + +"From his commanding position, Dick surveyed the scene, and thought it a +fitting occasion to raise his voice. He stretched himself to the full +height of his few inches, flapped his wings, and crowed--not once or +twice, but continually. Over the waste of waters came his shrill +'Cock-a-doodle-doo!' All the cocks along the shore answered his call; +all the turkeys gobbled, and the geese cackled. His vessel struck the +heavy timber of a broken bridge, and lurched and dipped, threatening +every moment to go to pieces. The waves splashed and drenched them, and +the swift current carried them faster and faster down to the sea. It was +all Dick and his little company could do to keep their footing, and +still the plucky little fellow stood and crowed. + +"A neighbor who was out in his boat gathering drift-wood, recognizing +Dick's peculiar voice, went to the rescue, and, taking this strange +craft in tow, brought the little company, with their gallant leader, +drenched and draggled but still crowing lustily, safe to land. + +"And that is all I can tell you about Dick, for it is five o'clock, and +time to put up our work." + +"I like every kind of bird," said Florence Austin at the next meeting of +the Society, "except the English sparrows. They are a perfect nuisance!" + +"Why, what harm do they do?" Nellie asked. + +"Harm!" said Florence; "you don't know any thing about it here in the +country. We had to cut down a beautiful wisteria-vine that climbed over +one side of our house because the sparrows would build their nests in +it, and made such a dreadful noise in the morning that nobody on that +side of the house could sleep. And they drive away all the other birds. +We used to have robins hopping over our lawn, and dear little +yellow-birds used to build their nests in the pear-trees; but since the +sparrows have got so thick, they have stopped coming. My father says the +English sparrow is the most impudent bird that ever was hatched. He +actually saw one snatch away a worm a robin had just dug up. I believe I +hate sparrows!" + +"I don't," said Nellie. "I have fed them all winter. They came to the +dining-room window every morning, and waited for their breakfast; and a +funny little woodpecker, blind of one eye, came with them sometimes." + +"They do lots of good in our gardens," said Mollie, "digging up grubs +and beetles. Papa told us so." + +"There's nobody in this world so bad," said Susie, sagely, "but that you +can find something good to say about them." At which kindly speech Aunt +Ruth smiled approval. + +"I think," she said, "this will be a good time to tell you a story +about an English sparrow and a canary-bird I will call it + + +TUFTY AND THE SPARROW. + +"One morning in April a young canary-bird whose name was Tufty escaped +through an open window carelessly left open while he was out of his +cage, and suddenly found himself, for the first time in his life, in the +open air. He alighted first on an apple-tree in the yard, and then made +a grand flight half-way to the top of the elm-tree. + +"The sun was bright and the air so still that the light snow which had +fallen in the night yet clung to the branches and twigs of the tree, and +Tufty examined it with interest, thinking it pretty but rather cold as +he poked it about with his bill, and tucked first one little foot, and +then the other, under him to keep it warm. Presently he heard an odd +little noise below him, and, looking down, saw on the trunk of the tree +a bird about his own size, with wings and back of a steel-gray color, a +white breast with a dash of dull red on it, and a long bill, with which +he was making the noise Tufty had heard by tapping on the tree. + +"'Good-morning!' said Tufty, who was of a friendly and social +disposition, and was beginning to feel the need of company. + +"'Morning!' said the woodpecker, very crisp and shorthand not so much as +looking up to see who had spoken to him. + +"If you had heard this talk you would have said Tufty called out: 'Peep! +peep!' and the woodpecker--but that's because you don't understand +bird-language. + +"'What are you doing down there?' said Tufty, continuing the +conversation. + +"'Getting my breakfast,' said the woodpecker. + +"'Why, I had mine a long time ago!' said Tufty. + +"He didn't in the least understand how that knocking on the tree was to +bring Mr. Longbill's morning meal; but he was afraid to ask any more +questions, the other had been so short with him. + +"Just then he heard a hoarse voice overhead saying, 'Come along! come +along!' and, looking up, saw a monstrous black creature sailing above +the tops of the trees. It was only a crow on his way to the swamp, and +he was trying to hurry up his mate, that always would lag behind in that +corn-field where there wasn't so much as a grain left; but Tufty, which +by this time you must have discovered was a very ignorant bird, thought +the black monster was calling _him_, and piped back feebly: 'I can't! I +can't!' and was all of a tremble till Mr. Crow was quite out of sight. + +"He sat quiet, looking a little pensive, for the fact was, he was +beginning to feel lonely, when there flew past him a flock of brown +birds chirping and chattering away at a brisk rate. 'Now for it!' +thought Tufty, 'here's plenty of good company;' and he spread his wings +and flew after them as fast as he could. But he could not keep up with +them, but, panting and weary, alighted on the roof of a house to rest. +And here he saw such a pretty sight; for on a sunny roof just below him +were two snow-white pigeons. One was walking about in a very +consequential way, his tail-feathers spread in the shape of a fan, and +turning his graceful neck from side to side in quite a bewitching +fashion. Just as Tufty alighted, the pretty dove began to call: 'Come, +dear, come! Do, dear, do!' in such a sweet, soft, plaintive voice, as if +his heart would certainly break if his dear _didn't_ come, that Tufty, +who in his silly little pate never once doubted that it was he the +lovely white bird was pining for, felt sorry to disappoint him, and +piped back: 'Oh, if you please, I should like to ever so much! but you +see I must catch up with those brown birds over there;' and, finding his +wind had come back to him, he flew away. The pigeon, which had not even +seen him, and had much more important business to attend to than to +coax an insignificant little yellow-bird, went on displaying all his +beauties, and crooning softly, 'Do, dear! do! do! do!' + +"Tufty had no trouble in finding the brown birds, for long before he +came to the roof of the barn where they had alighted he heard their loud +voices in angry dispute; and they made such an uproar, and seemed so +fractious and ill-tempered, that Tufty felt afraid to join them, but +lingered on a tree near by. + +"Presently one of them flew over to him. She was a young thing--quite +fresh and trim-looking for a sparrow. + +"'Good-morning!' she said, hopping close to him and looking him all over +with her bright little eyes, + +"'Good-morning!' said Tufty, as brisk as you please. + +"'Now, I wonder where you come from and what you call yourself,' said +the sparrow. 'I never saw a yellow-bird like you before. How pretty the +feathers grow on your head!' and she gave a friendly nip to Tufty's +top-knot. + +"Tufty thought she was getting rather familiar on so short an +acquaintance, but he answered her politely, told her his name, and that +he came from the house where he had always lived, and was out to take an +airing. + +"'I want to know!' said the sparrow. 'Well, my name is Brownie. Captain +Bobtail's Brownie, they call me, because Brownie is such a common name +in our family. It's pleasant out-of-doors, isn't it? Oh, never mind the +fuss over there!'--for Tufty's attention was constantly diverted to the +scene of the quarrel--'they are always at it, scolding and fighting. +Come, let's you and I have a good time!' + +"'What is the fuss about?' said Tufty. + +"'A nest,' said Brownie, contemptuously. 'Ridiculous, isn't it? Snow on +the ground, and not time to build this two weeks; but you see, _he_ +wants to keep the little house on top of the pole lest some other bird +should claim it, and _she_ wants to build in the crotch of the +evergreen, and the neighbors are all there taking sides. She has the +right of it--the tree is much the prettier place; but dear me! she might +just as well give up first as last, for he's sure to have his +way--husbands are such tyrants!' said Captain Bobtail's Brownie, with a +coquettish turn of her head; 'but come, now, what shall we do?' + +"'I'm too cold to do any thing,' said Tufty, dolefully. + +"The sun was hidden by a cloud and a cold wind was blowing, and the +house-bird, accustomed to a stove-heated room, was shivering. + +"'Take a good fly,' said Brownie; 'that will warm you,' + +"'But I'm hungry,' piped Tufty. + +"'All right!' said Brownie. 'I know a place where there's a free lunch +set out every day for all the birds that will come--bread-crumbs, seeds, +and lovely cracked corn. Come along! you'll feel better after dinner,' + +"So they flew, and they flew, and Brownie was as kind as possible, and +stopped for a rest whenever Tufty was tired, and chatted so agreeably +and pleasantly, that before they reached their journey's end Tufty had +quite fallen in love with her. Then, too, the sun was shining again, +and the brisk exercise of flying had set the little bird's blood in +motion, so that he was warm again, but oh, so hungry! + +"They came at last to a brown cottage with a broad piazza, and it was on +the roof of this piazza that a feast for the birds was every day spread. +But as they flew round the house Tufty became very much excited. + +"'Stop, Brownie!' he cried; 'let me look at this place! Surely I've been +here before. That red curtain, that flower-stand in the window, +that--Oh! oh! there's my own little house! Why, Captain Bobtail's +Brownie, you've brought me home!' + +"Now, all this time Tufty's mistress had been in great trouble. As soon +as she discovered her loss she ran out-of-doors, holding up the empty +cage and calling loudly on her little bird to return. But he was high up +in the elm-tree watching the woodpecker, and, if he heard her call, paid +no attention to it. Very soon he flew after the sparrows, and she lost +sight of him. Not a mouthful of breakfast could the poor child eat. + +"'I shall never see my poor little Tufty again, mamma!' she said. 'I saw +him flying straight for the swamp, and he never can find his way back!' +and she cried as if her heart would break. + +"In the middle of the forenoon her brother Jack called to her from the +foot of the stairs:-- + +"'What will you give me, Kittie,' he said, 'if I will tell you where +Tufty is?' + +"'O Jack! do you know? Have you seen him? Where? where?' cried the +little girl, coming downstairs in a great hurry. + +"'Be quiet!' said Jack. 'Now, don't get excited; your bird is all right, +though I'm sorry to say he's in rather low company,' And he led her to +the dining-room window that looked into the garden, and there, sure +enough, was Tufty on a lilac-bush. Brownie was there too. She was +hopping about and talking in a most earnest and excited manner. It was +easy to see that she was using all her powers of persuasion to coax +Tufty not to go back to his old home, but to help her build a little +house out-of-doors, where they could set up housekeeping together. + +"Kittie knew just what to do. She ran for the cage and for a sprig of +dried pepper-grass (of all the good things she gave her bird to eat, he +liked pepper-grass best), and, standing in the open door-way, called: +'Tufty! Tufty!' He gave a start, a little flutter of his wings, and +then, with one glad cry of recognition, and without so much as a parting +look at poor Brownie, flew straight for the door, and alighted on the +top of his cage. + +"'How strangely things come about, mamma?' Kittie said that evening as +they talked over this little incident. 'Jack has laughed at me all +winter for feeding the sparrows, and called them hateful, quarrelsome +things, and said I should get nicely paid next summer when they drove +away all the pretty song-birds that come about the house. And now, don't +you see, mamma, one of the sparrows I have fed all winter--I knew her +right away by a funny little dent in her breast--has done me such good +service? Why, I am paid a hundred thousand times over for all I have +ever done for the sparrows.'" + +"And what became of poor Brownie?" Nellie asked. "I almost hoped Tufty +would stay out with her, she was such a good little sparrow." + +"She lingered about the garden for a while, making a plaintive little +noise; but when the family of Brownies came to dinner she ate her +allowance, and flew away with them, apparently in good spirits. But +Tufty moped for a day or two, and, as long as he lived, showed great +excitement at the sight of a flock of sparrows; and it is my private +opinion that, if a second opportunity had been given him, Kittie Grant's +Tufty would have gone off for good and all with Captain Bobtail's +Brownie." + +Susie Elliot walked part of the way home with Florence Austin, and the +two little girls, who were fast becoming intimate friends, talked over +the events of the afternoon. + +"How much your auntie knows about animals and birds!" said Florence; +"she seems almost as fond of them as if they were people." + +"Yes," Susie answered; "she was always fond of pets, papa says; and, +ever since she has been ill, she has spent a great deal of time watching +them and studying their ways. I think it makes her forget the pain," + +"Is it the pain that keeps her awake at night, Susie? You know she said +this afternoon she was glad to hear the chippy-birds, because then she +knew the long night was over; and she looked so white, and couldn't get +down those three little easy steps to pick up the baby-bird. But she +walks about the garden sometimes with a crutch, doesn't she?" + +"Oh, yes! and she's better than when she first came here to live, only +she never can be well, you know. Today is one of her poor days; but she +used to be so ill that she was hardly ever free from pain. You never +would have known it, though, she was always so cheerful and doing +something to give us good times." + +"Can't she ever be made well, Susie? There's doctors in town, you know, +who cure _every thing_," said the little girl. + +Susie shook her head. + +"Papa says she has an incurable disease;" and then seriously--"I think +if Jesus were here he would put his hands on auntie and make her well." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +PARSON LORRIMER'S WHITE HORSE. + + +"And now for the story of the minister's horse," Mollie Elliot said, +when Miss Ruth's company of workers had assembled on the next Wednesday +afternoon. "I suppose he was an awfully good horse, which set an example +to all the other horses in the parish to follow. Say, Auntie, wasn't +he?" + +"When my grandmother was a little girl," Ruth Elliot began, "she lived +with her father and mother in a small country town among the New +Hampshire hills: and of all the stories she told in her old age about +the quiet simple life of the people of Hilltown, the one her +grandchildren liked best to hear was + + +THE STORY OF PARSON LORRIMER'S WHITE HORSE. + +"Parson Lorrimer had lived thirty years in Hilltown before he owned a +horse. He began to preach in the big white meeting-house when he was a +young man, and, as neither he nor his people wanted a change, when he +was sixty years old he was preaching there still. It was a scattered +parish, with farm-houses perched on the hill-sides and nestled in the +valleys; and the minister, in doing his work, had trudged over every +mile of it a great many times. He made nothing of walking five miles to +a meeting on a December evening, with the thermometer below zero, or of +climbing the hills in a driving snow-storm to visit a sick parishioner. +He was a tall, spare man, healthy and vigorous, with iron-gray hair, a +strong kind face, and a smile in his brown eyes that made every baby in +Hilltown stretch out its arms to him to be taken. + +"Not a chick or child had Parson Lorrimer of his own. He had never +married, but lived in the old parsonage, a stately mansion, with rooms +enough in it to accommodate a big family, with only an elderly widow and +her grown-up son to minister to his wants and to keep him company. His +study was at the back of the house, and looked out upon the garden and +orchard, so that the smell of his pinks and roses came to him as he +wrote, and the same robins, year by year, built their nests within reach +of his hand in the branches of the crooked old apple-tree that shaded +his window. + +"The minister was fond of caring for living creatures, both small and +great, and every domestic animal about the place knew it. The cat +jumped fearlessly to his knee, sure of a welcome. The cow lowed after +him if he showed himself at the window. The little chicks fluttered to +his shoulder when he appeared in the door-yard, and the old sow with her +litter of pigs kept close at his heels as he paced the orchard, +pondering next Sunday's sermon. + +"He remembered them all. There was always a handful of grain for the +chickens in the pocket of his study-gown, a ripe pumpkin in the shed for +Sukey; and the good man would laugh like a school-boy, as the funny +little baby-pigs rolled and tumbled over each other for the apples he +tossed them. A great, good, gentle man, learned and wise in theology and +knowledge of the Scriptures, with tastes and habits as simple as a +child. + +"But I must hurry on with my story, or you will think I am telling you +more about the parson than his horse. The good man realized, one day, +that he was not as young as he used to be, and that climbing Harrison +Hill on a July afternoon and walking five miles in a drizzling rain +after a preaching service were not so easy to do as he had found them a +dozen years before. So he wisely concluded to call in the aid of four +strong legs in carrying on his work, and that is how he came to buy a +horse. + +"The people of Hilltown heartily approved of this plan, and several were +anxious to help him. + +"Deacon Cowles had a four-year-old colt, raised on the farm, 'a real +clever steady-goin' creetur, that he guessed he could spare--might be +turned in for pew-rent;' and Si Olcott didn't care if he traded off his +gray mare on the same conditions. She was about used up for farm-work, +but had considerable go in her yet--could jog round with the parson for +ten years to come. + +"The minister received these offers with politeness, and promised to +think of them; and then one day after a brief absence from home, set +every body in the parish talking, by driving into town seated in an open +wagon, shining with fresh paint and varnish, and drawn by a horse the +like of which had never been seen in Hilltown before. + +"He was of a large and powerful build, and most comely and graceful in +proportion, with a small head, slender legs, and flowing mane and tail. +In color, he was milk-white, while his nose and the inside of his +pointed ears were of a delicate pink. He held his head high, stepping +proudly and glancing from side to side in a nervous, excited way; but he +had a kind eye, and the watching neighbors saw him take an apple from +the hand of his new master, after they turned in at the parsonage gate. +In answer to all questions, the parson said he had purchased the horse +at Winterport, of a seafaring man, that he was eight years old, and his +name was Peter. But to neither man nor woman in Hilltown did he ever +tell the sum he paid in yellow gold and good bank-notes for the white +horse, + +"A few days after the purchase, Parson Lorrimer attended a funeral, and +when the service at the house was ended, and he had shaken hands all +round with the mourners, and exchanged greetings with neighbors and +friends, he stepped out to the side-yard, where he had fastened his +horse, and drove round the house to take his place before the hearse; +for in Hilltown it was the custom for the minister to lead the +procession to the burying-ground. + +"It was Peter's first appearance in an official capacity, and he stepped +with sufficient dignity into the street, where a long line of wagons and +chaises, led off by the mourners' coach and the big black hearse, waited +the signal to start, while in the door-yard and along the sidewalk were +ranged the foot-passengers; for at a funeral in Hilltown everybody went +to the grave. + +"A passing breeze caught a piece of paper lying in the road, and +flirted it close to Peter's eyes. He gave a tremendous leap sideways, +and it was a marvel no one was struck by his flying heels, then +gathering himself together he ran. How he did run! The good folks +scattered right and left with amazing quickness, considering their +habits of life; for in the slow little town, every body took things fair +and easy, and the white horse dashed past the string of wagons, the +mourners' equipage, and the tall black hearse. There was a cloud of +dust, a rattling of wheels, a clatter of hoofs, and Peter and the parson +were far down the road. The people gazed after their departing spiritual +guide in speechless astonishment. The mourners' heads were thrust far +out of the coach windows. Even the sleepy farm-horses pricked up their +ears: while old Bill, the sexton's clumsy big-footed beast, which for +fifteen years had carried the dead folks of Hilltown to their graves, +and had never before been known, on these solemn occasions to depart +from his slow walk, made a most astonishing departure; for, taking his +driver unawares, he suddenly started after the flying white steed, +breaking into a lumbering gallop, that set plumes nodding, curtains +flapping, and glasses rattling, and made the huge unwieldly vehicle +lurch and bob about in a way to threaten a shocking catastrophe. + +"A vigorous twitch of the lines, and a loud 'Whoa, now, Bill! Whoa, I +tell ye!' soon brought the sexton's beast to a stand-still. I am sure he +must have shared his master's surprise at such unseeming conduct, who +wondered 'What in time had got into the blamed crittur!' But neither +voice nor rein checked Peter's speed. On he flew, down the hill past the +post-office, the meeting-house, and the tavern. It was a straight road, +and his driver kept him to it. Fortunately there were no collisions, and +at the last long ascent his pace slackened and he turned of his own +accord in at the parsonage gate. + +"At the village store and the tavern that evening, Peter's evil behavior +was talked about. + +"'He's a sp'iled horse,' Jonathan Goslee, the minister's hired man, +said, 'though you can't make parson think so. He's dead sure to run +ag'in. A horse knows when he's got the upper hand, jest as well as a +child, and he'll watch his chance to try it over ag'in, you see if he +don't.' + +"But the next time Peter shied and tried to run, it was the minister +who got the upper hand; and when the short excitement was over, and the +horse quiet and subdued, he was driven back to within a few paces of the +object of his fright. A neighbor was called to stand at his head, while +his master took down the flaming yellow placard that had caused all the +trouble, and slowly and cautiously brought it to him, that he might see, +smell, and touch it, talking soothingly to him and petting and caressing +him. When he had become accustomed to its appearance, and had learned by +experience that it was harmless, it was nailed to the tree again and +Peter passed it the second time without trouble. + +"'If I'd owned the horse,' the minister's helper said, when he told this +story, 'I s'pose I should have _licked_ him by,--but I guess, in the +long run, parson's way was best.' + +"This was one of many lessons Peter received to correct his only serious +fault. He was willing and swift, intelligent and kind, but so nervous +and timid, and made so frantic by his fear of any unknown object, that +he was constantly putting the minister's life and limbs in jeopardy. But +he had a wise, patient teacher, and he was apt to learn. + +"My grandmother was fond of telling some of the means adopted to bring +about the cure;--how one day after Peter had shied at sight of a +wheelbarrow, the parson trundled the obnoxious object about the yard for +half an hour in view of the stable window, then emptied a measure of +oats in it, and opened the stable door; how the horse trotted round and +round, drawing each time a little nearer, then came close, snorted and +wheeled,--his master standing by encouraging him by hand and +voice,--until, unable longer to resist the tempting bait, he put his +pink nose to the pile and ate first timidly, then with confidence. After +that, the old lady said, Peter felt a particular regard for wheelbarrows +in general, hoping in each one he happened to pass to find another +toothsome meal. + +"He suffered at first agonies of terror at sight of the long line of +waving, flapping garments he had to pass every Monday in his passage +from the big gate to the stable; but, through the minister's devices, +grew so familiar with their appearance, that he took an early +opportunity of making their closer acquaintance, and mouthed the +parson's ruffled shirt, and took a bite of the Widow Goslee's dimity +short-gown. + +"And so the kindly work went on. Peter gained trust and confidence every +day, learning little by little that his master was his friend, that +under his guidance no harm came to him, no impossible task was given to +him; until at length confidence cast out fear, and the white horse +became as docile and obedient as he had always been willing and strong. + +"These qualities, on one occasion, stood him in good stead; for the +parsonage barn and stable one night burned to the ground. Peter's stall +was bright with the red light of the fire, and the flames crackled +overhead in the barn-loft when the parson led out his favorite, +trembling in every limb, his eyes wild with terror, but perfectly +obedient to his master's hand. It was as if he had said: 'I must go, +even through this dreadful fire, if master leads the way.' + +"There was a Fourth of July celebration in the next parish, and Parson +Lorrimer was invited to deliver the oration. He rode over on horseback, +took the saddle from Peter's back, and turned him loose in a pasture +where other of the guests' horses were grazing. A platform was erected +on the green, with seats for the band, the invited guests, and the +speaker of the day; while the people gathered from both parishes were +standing about in groups waiting for the exercises to commence. Flags +were flying, bells ringing, and a field-piece, that had seen service in +the War of the Revolution, at intervals belched out a salute in honor of +the day. The band was playing a lively tune, when suddenly there was a +stir and a dividing to the right and left of the crowd gathered about +the stand, and through the lane thus formed came the minister's white +horse. + +"He trotted leisurely up, stopped before the platform, and made a bow, +then began to dance, keeping time to the music, and going round and +round in a space quickly cleared for him by the lookers-on. I don't know +whether it was a waltz the band was playing, or if horses were taught to +waltz so long ago; but whatever kind of dance it was,--gallopade, +quickstep, or cotillion,--Peter, in his horse-fashion, danced it well. +Faster and faster played the music, and round and round went the pony. +The people laughed and shouted, and Peter made his farewell bow and +trotted soberly out of the ring, in the midst of a great shout of +applause. + +"How did Parson Lorrimer feel? Of all that amused and wondering crowd, +not one was more taken by surprise than he--both at this exhibition of +Peter's accomplishments and at the tale it told of his early days; for +it was impossible to doubt that at some time in his life he had been a +trained horse in a circus. From the field near by he had recognized the +familiar strains that used to call him to his task, and had leaped the +fence and made his way to where the crowd was gathered, to play his +pretty part on the village green, before the sober citizens of +Centerville and Hilltown, as he had played it hundreds of times before, +under the canvas, to the motley crowd drawn together by the attractions +of the ring. + +"Of course the minister felt sorry and ashamed when he learned, in this +public way, of the low company Peter had kept in his youth. Whenever a +traveling circus had stopped at Winterport, Parson Lorrimer had not +failed to warn his young people from the pulpit to keep their feet from +straying to this place of sinful amusement. But mingled with his +chagrin, I think he must have felt a little pride in the ownership of +the beautiful creature, so intelligent to remember, and so supple of +limb to perform, the unaccustomed task. + +"He took pains to narrate more fully than he had thought necessary +before, how he had come in possession of the animal. He had gone, he +said, on business to Winterport, and on the wharf, early one morning, +had met a man in the dress of a sailor leading the white horse. In +answer to inquiries, the stranger said he had taken the horse In payment +of a debt, and was about to ship him on board a trading-vessel then +lying in the dock, bound to the East Indies. Would he sell, the minister +asked, on this side of the water? Yes, if he could get his price. While +they talked, Parson Lorrimer caressed the horse, who responded in so +friendly a way that the minister, who had lost his heart at first sight +to the beautiful creature, then and there made the purchase, waiting +only till the banks were open to pay over the money. He had asked few +questions; had known, he said, by Peter's eyes that he was kind, and by +certain unmistakable marks about him that he came of good stock. Of the +stranger, he had seen nothing from that day, and could not even remember +his name. + +"'I always knew,' Jonathan Goslee said, 'that the critter had tricks +and ways different from common horses, I've catched him at 'em +sometimes. One day I found him with his bran-tub bottom upwards, amusin' +himself tryin' to stand with all four legs on it at once. And he'll +clear marm's clothes-line at a leap as easy as you'd jump over a pair of +bars. But I never happened to catch him practisin' his +dancin'-lesson--must have done it, though, on the sly, or he couldn't +have footed it so lively that day over to Centerville. Well, sometimes I +think--and then ag'in I don't know. If that there sailor feller stole +the horse he sold in such a hurry to parson, why didn't the owner make a +hue and cry about it, and follow him up? 'Twould have been easy enough +to track the beast to Hilltown. And then ag'in, if 'twas all fair and +square, and he took the horse for a debt, why didn't he sell him to a +show company for a fancy price, instead of shippin' him off to the Indys +in one of them rotten old tubs, that as like as not would go under +before she'd made half the voyage. But there, we never shall get to the +bottom facts in the case, any more than we shall ever know how much +money parson paid down for that horse,' + +"And they never did. + +"My grandmother remembered Parson Lorrimer as an old man, tall and +straight, with flowing white hair, a placid face, and kind, dim eyes +that gradually grew dimmer, till their light faded to darkness. For the +last four years of his life he was totally blind, She remembered how he +used to mount the pulpit-stairs, one hand resting upon the shoulder of +his colleague, and, standing in the old place, with lifted face and +closed eyes, carry on the service, repeating chapter and hymns from +memory, his voice tremulous, but still sweet and penetrating. + +"She remembered going to visit the old man in his study. It was +summer-time, and he sat in his arm-chair at the open window, and on the +grass-plat outside--so near that his head almost touched his master's +shoulder--the old white horse was standing; for they had grown old +together, and together were enjoying a peaceful and contented old age. +Every bright day for hours Peter stood at the window, and in the +winter-time, when he was shut in his stable, the old man never failed to +visit him. + +"But one November afternoon, Parson Lorrimer being weary laid himself +down upon his bed, where presently the sleep came to him God giveth to +his beloved. + +"The evening after his funeral a member of the household passing the +study-door was startled at seeing in the pale moonlight a long, ghostly +white face peering in at the window. + +"It was only Peter, that had slipped his halter and wandered round to +the old place looking for his master. He allowed them to lead him back +to his stable, but every time the door was opened he whinnied and turned +his head. As the days passed and the step he waited for came no more, +hope changed to patient grief. His food often remained untasted; he +refused to go out into the sunshine; and so, gradually wasting and +without much bodily suffering, he one day laid himself down and his life +slipped quietly away. + +"He was buried outside the grave-yard, at the top of the hill, as near +as might be to the granite head-stone that recorded the virtues of 'Ye +most faithful Servant and Man of God Silus Timothy Lorrimer Who for 52 +Yrs did Minister to This Ch and Congregation in Spiritual Things. + + 'The faithful Memory of The Just + Shall Flourish When they turn To Dust.' + +"Peter has no head-stone to mark his grave, but his memory is green in +Hilltown. The old folks love to tell of his beauty, his intelligence, +and his life-long devotion to his master; and there is a tradition +handed down and repeated half-seriously, half in jest, that when +Gabriel blows his trumpet on the resurrection morning, and the dead in +Hilltown grave-yard awake, Parson Lorrimer will lead his flock to the +judgment riding on a white horse." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE QUILTING. + + +The patchwork quilt was finished. The pieces of calico Miss Ruth from +week to week had measured and cut and basted together, with due regard +to contrast and harmony of colors, were transformed into piles of +gay-colored blocks; the blocks multiplied and extended themselves into +strips, and the strips basted together had kept sixteen little hands +"sewing the long seam" for three Wednesday afternoons. And now it was +finished, and the quilting had begun. + +Miss Ruth had decided, after a consultation with the minister's wife, +that the girls might do this most important and difficult part of the +business. She wanted the gift to be theirs from beginning to end--that, +having furnished all the material, they should do all the work. How +pleased and proud they were to be thus trusted, you can imagine, while +the satisfaction they took in the result of the summer's labor repaid +their leader a hundred-fold for her share in the enterprise. + +Never was a quilt so admired and praised. Of all the odds and ends the +girls had brought in, Ruth Elliot had rejected nothing, not even the +polka-dotted orange print in which Mrs. Jones delighted to array her +baby or the gorgeous green-and-red gingham of Nellie Dimock's new apron. + +It took two long afternoons of close work for the girls (not one of whom +had ever quilted before) to accomplish this task; but they did it +bravely and cheerfully. There were pricked fingers and tired arms and +cramped feet, and the big dictionary that raised Nellie Dimock to a +level with her taller companions must have proved any thing but an easy +seat; but no one complained. + +Let us look in upon the Patchwork Quilt Society toward the close of this +last afternoon. + +"I was sewing on this very block," Mollie Elliot is saying, leaning back +in her chair to survey her work, "when Aunt Ruth was telling us how +Captain Bobtail's Brownie brought Tufty home. + +"That pink-and-gray block over there in the corner," said Fannie +Eldridge, pointing with her needle, "was the first one I sewed on. I +made awful work with it, too; for when Dinah Diamond set herself on +fire with the kerosene lamp I forgot what I was about, and took ever so +many long puckery stitches that had to be picked out," + +"If I should sleep under that bed-quilt," said Sammy Ray (Sammy and Roy +had been invited to attend this last meeting of the Society), "what do +you suppose I should dream about?" + +No one could imagine. + +"A white horse and a yellow dog," the boy said, "'cause I liked those +stories best." + +"Yes," said Mollie; "and of course Nellie Dimock would dream about cats, +wouldn't you, Nell? and Roy Tyler about moths and butterflies, and +Florence Austin about birds, and I--well, I should dream of all the +beasts and the birds Aunt Ruth has told us about, all jumbled up +together." + +"I shall always remember one thing," Nellie Dimock said, "when I think +about our quilt." + +"What is that, Nellie?" + +"Not to step on an ant-hill if I can possibly help it, because it blocks +up the street, and the little people have to work so hard to cart away +the dirt." + +"I ain't half so afraid of worms as I used to be," Eliza Ann Jones +announced, "since I've found out what funny things they can do; and next +summer I'm going to make some butterflies out of fennel-worms," + +"Roy says," Sammy began, and stopped; for Roy was making forcible +objections to the disclosure. + +"Well, what does Roy say?" Miss Ruth asked, knowing nothing of the kicks +administered under the table. + +"He won't let me tell," said Sammy. + +"He's always telling what I say," said Roy. "Why don't he speak for +himself?" + +"Well, I never!" said Sammy. "I thought you was too bashful to speak, +and so I'd do it for you." + +"What was it, Roy?" + +"Why, I said, when I owned a horse, if he should happen to shy, you +know, I'd cure him of it just as that minister cured Peter." + +Here there was a pushing back of chairs and a stir and commotion, for +the last stitch was set to the quilting. Then the binding was put on, +and the quilt was finished; but the September afternoon was finished +too, and Lovina Tibbs lighted the lamps in the dining-room before she +rang the bell for tea. + +Lovina had exerted herself in her special department to make this last +meeting of the Society a festive occasion. She gave to the visitors +what she called "a company supper"--biscuits deliciously sweet and +light, cold chicken, plum-preserves, sponge-cake, and for a central dish +a platter containing little frosted cakes, with the letters "P.Q.S." +traced on each in red sugar-sand. + +When the feast was over, one last-admiring look given to "our quilt" and +the girls and boys had all gone home, Susie and Mollie sat with their +mother in Miss Ruth's room. + +"Auntie," said Susie, who for some moments had been gazing thoughtfully +in the fire, "I have been thinking how nice it would be if, when our +quilt goes to the home missionary, all the interesting stories you have +told us while we were sewing on it could go too. Then the children in +the family would think so much more of it--don't you see? I wish there +was some way for a great many more boys and girls to hear those +stories." + +"Why, that's just what Florence Austin was saying this afternoon," said +Mollie. "She said she wished all those stories could be printed in a +book." + +"You hear the suggestion, Ruth," Mrs. Elliot said. + +But Ruth smiled and shook her head, + +"They are such simple little stories," said she. + +"For simple little people to read--'for of such is the kingdom of +heaven.' Think, Ruth, if, instead of one Eliza Jones 'making butterflies +out of fennel-worms' next summer, and in that way getting at some +wonderful facts far more effectively than any book could teach her, +there should be a dozen, aria perhaps as many boys resolving, like Roy, +to use kindness and patience instead of cruelty and force in their +dealings with a dumb beast. But you know all this without my preaching. +Ten times one make ten, little sister." + +"If I thought my stones would do good," she said. + +"Come, I have a proposition to make," said the minister's wife. "You +shall write out the stories--you already have some of them in +manuscript--and I will fill in with the doings of the Patchwork Quilt +Society. Do you agree?" + +And that is how this book was written. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +The Girl Chum's Series + +ALL AMERICAN AUTHORS. +ALL COPYRIGHT STORIES. + +A carefully selected series of books for +girls, written by popular authors. These +are charming stories for young girls, well +told and full of interest. Their simplicity, +tenderness, healthy, interesting motives, +vigorous action, and character painting will +please all girl readers. + +HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING. +PRICE, 60 CENTS. + +BENHURST, CLUB, THE. By Howe Benning. + +BERTHA'S SUMMER BOARDERS. By Linnie S. Harris. + +BILLOW PRAIRIE. A Story of Life in the Great West. By Joy Allison. + +DUXBERRY DOINGS. A New England Story. By Caroline B. Le Row. + +FUSSBUDGET'S FOLKS. A Story For Young Girls. By Anna F. Burnham. + +HAPPY DISCIPLINE, A. By Elizabeth Cummings. + +JOLLY TEN, THE; and Their Year of Stories. By Agnes Carr Sage. + +KATIE ROBERTSON. A Girl's Story of Factory Life. By M.E. Winslow. + +LONELY HILL. A Story For Girls. By M.L. Thornton-Wilder. + +MAJORIBANKS. A Girl's Story. By Elvirton Wright. + +MISS CHARITY'S HOUSE. By Howe Benning. + +MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS. A Story For Young Girls. By Mary Spring Corning. + +MISS MALCOLM'S TEN. A Story For Girls. By Margaret E. Winslow. + +ONE GIRL'S WAY OUT. By Howe Benning. + +PEN'S VENTURE. By Elvirton Wright. + +RUTH PRENTICE. A Story For Girls. By Marion Thorne. + +THREE YEARS AT GLENWOOD. A Story of School Life. By M. E. Winslow. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York + + * * * * * + +The Girl Comrade's Series + +ALL AMERICAN AUTHORS. ALL COPYRIGHT STORIES. + +A carefully selected series of books for girls, written by popular +authors. These are charming stories for young girls, well told and full +of interest. Their simplicity, tenderness, healthy, interesting motives, +vigorous action, and character painting will please all girl readers. + +HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING. PRICE, 60 CENTS. + +A BACHELOR MAID AND HER BROTHER. By I.T. Thurston. + +ALL ABOARD, A Story For Girls. By Fanny E. Newberry. + +ALMOST A GENIUS. A Story For Girls. By Adelaide L. Rouse. + +ANNICE WYNKOOP, Artist. Story of a Country Girl. By Adelaide L. Rouse. + +BUBBLES. A Girl's Story. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +COMRADES. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +DEANE GIRLS, THE. A Home Story. By Adelaide L. Rouse. + +HELEN BEATON, COLLEGE WOMAN. By Adelaide L. Rouse. + +JOYCE'S INVESTMENTS. A Story For Girls. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +MELLICENT RAYMOND. A Story For Girls. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +MISS ASHTON'S NEW PUPIL. A School Girl's Story. By Mrs. S.S. Robbins. + +NOT FOR PROFIT. A Story For Girls. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +ODD ONE, THE. A Story For Girls. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +SARA, A PRINCESS. A Story For Girls. By Fannie E. Newberry. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. 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In which the Winnebagos take a thousand mile auto trip. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS LARKS AND PRANKS; or, The House of the Open Door. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The Trail of the Seven +Cedars. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD; or, Glorify Work. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over the Top with the +Winnebagos. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or, The Christmas Adventure at +Carver House. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN; or, Down Paddles. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York + + * * * * * + +The AMY E. BLANCHARD Series + +Miss Blanchard has won an enviable reputation as a writer of short +stories for girls. Her books are thoroughly wholesome in every way and +her style is full of charm. The titles described below will be splendid +additions to every girl's library. Handsomely bound in cloth, full +library size. Illustrated by L.J. Bridgman. Price, 60 cents per volume, +postpaid. + +THE GLAD LADY. A spirited account of a remarkably pleasant vacation +spent in an unfrequented part of northern Spain. This summer, which +promised at the outset to be very quiet, proved to be exactly the +opposite. Event follows event in rapid succession and the story ends +with the culmination of at least two happy romances. The story +throughout is interwoven with vivid descriptions of real places and +people of which the general public knows very little. These add greatly +to the reader's interest. + +WIT'S END. Instilled with life, color and individuality, this story of +true love cannot fail to attract and hold to its happy end the reader's +eager attention. The word pictures are masterly; while the poise of +narrative and description is marvellously preserved. + +A JOURNEY OF JOY. A charming story of the travels and adventures of +two young American girls, and an elderly companion in Europe, It is not +only well told, but the amount of information contained will make it a +very valuable addition to the library of any girl who anticipates +making-a similar trip. Their many pleasant experiences end in the +culmination of two happy romances, all told in the happiest vein. + +TALBOT'S ANGLES. A charming romance of Southern life. Talbot's Angles +is a beautiful old estate located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The +death of the owner and the ensuing legal troubles render it necessary +for our heroine, the present owner, to leave the place which has been in +her family for hundreds of years and endeavor to earn her own living. +Another claimant for the property appearing on the scene complicates +matters still more. The untangling of this mixed-up condition of affairs +makes an extremely interesting story. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent prepaid on receipt of price by the +publishers + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York + + * * * * * + +The Boy Allies +(Registered in the United States Patent Office) +With the Navy + +By ENSIGN ROBERT L. DRAKE + +Handsome Cloth Binding, Price 60 Cents per Volume + +Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, young American lads, meet each other +in an unusual way soon after the declaration of war. Circumstances place +them on board the British cruiser "The Sylph" and from there on, they +share adventures with the sailors of the Allies. Ensign Robert L. Drake, +the author, is an experienced naval officer, and he describes admirably +the many exciting adventures of the two boys. + +THE BOY ALLIES ON THE NORTH SEA PATROL; or, Striking the First Blow at +the German Fleet. + +THE BOY ALLIES UNDER TWO FLAGS; or, Sweeping the Enemy from the Seas. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE FLYING SQUADRON; or, The Naval Raiders of the +Great War. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE TERROR OF THE SEA; or, The Last Shot of +Submarine D-16. + +THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE SEA; or, The Vanishing Submarine. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALTIC; or, Through Fields of Ice to Aid the +Czar. + +THE BOY ALLIES AT JUTLAND; or, The Greatest Naval Battle of History. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH UNCLE SAM'S CRUISERS; or, Convoying the American +Army Across the Atlantic. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE SUBMARINE D-32; or, The Fall of the Russian +Empire. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE VICTORIOUS FLEETS; or, The Fall of the German +Navy. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d St., New York + + * * * * * + +The Boy Allies With +(Registered in the United States Patent Office) +the Army + +By CLAIR W. HAYES + +Handsome Cloth Binding, Price 60 Cents per Volume + +In this series we follow the fortunes of two American lads unable to +leave Europe after war is declared. They meet the soldiers of the +Allies, and decide to cast their lot with them. Their experiences and +escapes are many, and furnish plenty of the good, healthy action that +every boy loves. + +THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE; or, Through Lines of Steel. + +THE BOY ALLIES ON THE FIRING LINE; or, Twelve Days Battle Along the +Marne. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS; or, A Wild Dash Over the +Carpathians. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN THE TRENCHES; or, Midst Shot and Shell Along the +Aisne. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN GREAT PERIL; or, With the Italian Army in the Alps. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN; or, The Struggle to Save a +Nation. + +THE BOY ALLIES ON THE SOMME; or, Courage and Bravery Rewarded. + +THE BOY ALLIES AT VERDUN; or, Saving France from the Enemy. + +THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES; or, Leading the American +Troops to the Firing Line. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH HAIG IN FLANDERS; or, The Fighting Canadians of +Vimy Ridge. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH PERSHING IN FRANCE; or Over the Top at Chateau +Thierry. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE GREAT ADVANCE; or, Driving the Enemy Through +France and Belgium. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH MARSHAL FOCH; or, The Closing Days of the Great +World War. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d St., New York + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Miss Elliot's Girls, by Mrs Mary Spring Corning + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS *** + +***** This file should be named 14610-8.txt or 14610-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/6/1/14610/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Miss Elliot's Girls + +Author: Mrs Mary Spring Corning + +Release Date: January 6, 2005 [EBook #14610] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" +alt="Cover Illustration" +title="Cover Illustration" /> +</div> + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" +alt=""What's the matter?" said Charlie. "A great, horrid +green worm," said I." +title=""What's the matter?" said Charlie. "A great, horrid +green worm," said I." /> +</div> +<h3>"What's the matter?" said Charlie. "A great, horrid +green worm," said I.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS</h1> +<h3>STORIES OF</h3> +<h3>BEASTS, BIRDS, AND BUTTERFLIES</h3> + +<h2>By MRS. MARY SPRING CORNING</h2> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/002.jpg" +alt="" +title="" /> +</div> + + +<h5>A.L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS</h5> +<h5>NEW YORK</h5> + +<h5>COPYRIGHT 1886, BY</h5> +<h5>CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY.</h5> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS</h1> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> + <a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI.</b></a><br /> + </p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" /><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5" />CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h2>GREENY, BLACKY, AND SLY-BOOTS.</h2> + + +<p>Sammy Ray was running by the parsonage one day when Miss Ruth called to +him. She was sitting in the vine-shaded porch, and there was a crutch +leaning against her chair.</p> + +<p>"Sammy," she said, "isn't there a field of tobacco near where you live?"</p> + +<p>"Yes'm; two of 'em."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow morning look among the tobacco plants and find me a large +green worm. Have you ever seen a tobacco worm?"</p> + +<p>Sammy grinned.</p> + +<p>"I've killed more'n a hundred of<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6" /> 'em this summer," he said. "Pat Heeley +hires me to smash all I can find, 'cause they eat the tobacco."</p> + +<p>"Well, bring one carefully to me on the leaf where he is feeding; the +largest one you can find."</p> + +<p>Before breakfast the next morning Ruth Elliot had her first sight of a +tobacco worm.</p> + +<p>"Take care!" said Sammy, "or he'll spit tobacco juice on you. See that +horn on his tail? When you want to kill him, you jest catch hold this +way, and"—</p> + +<p>"But I don't want to kill him," she said. "I want to keep him in this +nice little house I have got ready for him, and give him all the tobacco +he can eat. Will you bring me a fresh leaf every, morning?"</p> + +<p>While she was speaking she had put <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7" />the worm in a box with a cover of +pink netting. On his way home Sammy met Roy Tyler, and told him (as a +secret) that the lame lady at the minister's house kept worms, and would +pay two cents a head for tobacco worms. "Anyway," said Sammy, "that's +what she paid me."</p> + +<p>If there was money to be got in the tobacco-worm business, Roy wanted a +share in it; and before night he brought to Miss Ruth, in an old tin +basin, eight worms of various sizes, from a tiny baby worm just hatched, +to a great, ugly creature, jet black, and spotted and barred with +yellow. The black worm Miss Ruth consented to keep, and Roy, lifting him +by his horn, dropped him on the green worm's back.</p> + +<p>"Now you have a Blacky and a Greeny," the boy said; and by these names +they were called.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8" />Roy and Sammy came together the next morning, and watched the worms at +their breakfast.</p> + +<p>"How they eat!" said Sammy; "they make their great jaws go like a couple +of old tobacco-chewers."</p> + +<p>"Yes; and if they lived on bread and butter 't would cost a lot to feed +'em, wouldn't it?" said Roy.</p> + +<p>"Look at my woodbine worm, boys," Miss Ruth said, as she lifted the +cover of another box. "Isn't he a beauty? See the delicate green, shaded +to white, on his back, and that row of spots down his sides looking like +buttons! I call him Sly-boots, because he has a trick of hiding under +the leaves. He used to have a horn on his tail like the tobacco worms."</p> + +<p>"Where that spot is, that looks like an eye?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9" />Yes; and one day he ate nothing and hid himself away, and looked so +strangely that I thought he was going to die; but the next morning he +appeared in this beautiful new coat."</p> + +<p>"How funny! Say, what is he going to turn into?"</p> + +<p>But Miss Ruth was busy house-cleaning. First she turned out her tenants. +They were at breakfast; but they took their food with them, and did not +mind. Then she tipped their house upside down, and brushed out every +stick and stem and bit of leaf, spread thick brown paper on the floor, +and put back Greeny and Blacky snug and comfortable.</p> + +<p>The next time Sammy and Roy met at the parsonage, three flower-pots of +moist sand stood in a row under the bench.</p> + +<p>"Winter quarters," Miss Ruth explained when she saw the boys looking <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10" />at +them; "and it's about time for my tenants to move in. Greeny and Blacky +have stopped eating, and Sly-boots is turning pale."</p> + +<p>"A worm turn pale!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed; look at him."</p> + +<p>It was quite true; the green on his back had changed to gray-white, and +his pretty spots were fading.</p> + +<p>"He looks awfully; is he going to die?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—and no. Come this afternoon and see what will happen."</p> + +<p>But when they came, Blacky and Sly-boots were not to be seen. Their +summer residence, empty and uncovered, stood out in the sun, and two of +the flower-pots were covered with netting.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't keep them, boys," Miss Ruth said; "they were in such haste +to be gone. Only Greeny is above ground."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11" />Greeny was in his flower-pot. He was creeping slowly round and round, +now and then stretching his long neck over the edge, but not trying to +get out. Soon he began to burrow. Straight down, head first, he went +into the ground. Now he was half under, now three quarters, now only the +end of his tail and the tip of his horn could be seen. When he was quite +gone, Sammy drew a long breath and Roy said, "I swanny!"</p> + +<p>"How long will he have to stay down there?"</p> + +<p>"All winter, Roy."</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow!"</p> + +<p>"Happy fellow! <i>I</i> say. Why, he has done being a worm. His creeping days +are over. He has only to lie snug and quiet under the ground a while; +then wake and come up to the sunshine some bright morning with a new +body <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12" />and a pair of lovely wings to spread and fly away with."</p> + +<p>"Why, it's like—it's like"—</p> + +<p>"What is it like, Sammy?"</p> + +<p>"Ain't it like <i>folks</i>, Miss Ruth?" Grandma sings:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'I'll take my wings and fly away<br /></span> +<span class="i4">In the morning,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Yes," she said; "it <i>is</i> like folks." Then glancing at her crutch, +repeated, smiling: "In the morning."</p> + +<p>When the woodbine in the porch had turned red, and the maples in the +door-yard yellow, the flower-pots were removed to the warm cellar, and +one winter evening Sammy Ray wrote Greeny's epitaph:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"A poor green worm, here I lie;<br /></span> +<span>But by-and-by<br /></span> +<span>I shall fly,<br /></span> +<span>Ever so high,<br /></span> +<span>Into the sky."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13" />He came often in the spring to ask if any thing had happened, and one +day Miss Ruth took from a box and laid in his hand a shining brown +chrysalis, with a curved handle.</p> + +<p>"What a funny little brown jug!" said Sammy.</p> + +<p>"Greeny is inside; close your hand gently and see if you feel him."</p> + +<p>"How cold!" said the boy; and then: "Oh! oh! he <i>is</i> alive, for he +kicks!"</p> + +<p>In June Greeny and Blacky came out of their shells, but no one saw them +do it, for it was in the night; but Sly-boots was more obliging. One +morning Miss Ruth heard a rustling, and lo! what looked like a great +bug, with long, slender legs, was climbing to the top of the box. Soon +he hung by his feet to the netting, rested motionless a while, and then +slowly, slowly unfolded his <a name="Page_14" id="Page_14" />wings to the sun. They were brown and white +and pink, beautifully shaded, and his body was covered with rings of +brown satin. Blacky and Greeny were not so handsome. They had +orange-spotted bodies, great wings of sober gray, and carried long +flexible tubes curled like a watch-spring, that could be stretched out +to suck honey from the flowers.</p> + +<p>At sunset Miss Ruth sent for the boys. She placed the uncovered box +where the moths waited with folded wings, in the open window. Up from +the garden came a soft breeze sweet with the breath of the roses and +petunias. There was a stir, a rustle, a waving of dusky wings, and the +box was empty.</p> + +<p>So Greeny and Blacky and Sly-boots "took their wings and flew away," and +the boys saw them no more.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" /><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15" />CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h2>THE PATCHWORK QUILT SOCIETY.</h2> + + +<p>The minister's wife came home from a meeting of the sewing society one +afternoon quite discouraged.</p> + +<p>"Only nine ladies present!" she said, "and very little accomplished; and +the barrel promised to that poor missionary out West, before cold +weather—I really don't see how it is to be done."</p> + +<p>"What work have you on hand?" Miss Ruth inquired.</p> + +<p>"We have just made a beginning," Mrs. Elliot answered with a sigh. +"There's half a dozen fine shirts to make, and a pile of sheets and +pillowcases, dresses and aprons for four little girls, table-cloths and +towels to hem, <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16" />and I know not what else. We always have sent a +bed-quilt, but this barrel must go without it. It's a pity, too, for +they need bedding."</p> + +<p>"Why, so it is," said Miss Ruth. "Susie,"—to a little girl sitting +close beside her,—"why can't some of you girls get together one +afternoon in the week and make a patchwork quilt to send in the barrel?"</p> + +<p>Susie put her head on one side and considered.</p> + +<p>"Where could we meet, Aunt Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Here in my room, Susie, if mamma has no objection."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," Mrs. Elliot said; "but are you well enough to undertake +it, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, Mary; I shall really enjoy it."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_17" id="Page_17" />And would you cut out the blocks for us, and show us how to keep them +from getting all <i>skewonical</i>, like the cradle-quilt I made for Amelia +Adeline?"</p> + +<p>Amelia Adeline was Susie's doll.</p> + +<p>"Yes; and I could tell you stories while you were working. How would +that do?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it would be splendid!" said the little girl. "There comes Mollie, +I guess, by the noise. Won't she be glad? Say, Mollie!—why, what a +looking object!"</p> + +<p>This exclamation was called forth by the appearance of the little girl, +who had been heard running at full speed the length of the piazza, and +now presented herself at the door of Miss Ruth's room, her face flushed, +her hair in the wildest confusion, and the skirt <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18" />of her calico frock +quite detached from the waist, hanging over her arm.</p> + +<p>"Wasn't it lucky that the gathers ripped?" she cried, holding up the +unlucky fragment. "If they hadn't, mamma, I should be hanging, head +down, from the five-barred gate in the lower pasture, and no body to +help me but the cows. You see, I set out to jump, and my skirt got +caught in a nail on the post."</p> + +<p>"O Mollie!" said her mother, "what made you climb the five-barred gate?"</p> + +<p>"'Cause she's a big tom-boy," said Lovina Tibbs, who had come from the +kitchen to call the family to supper. "Ain't yer 'shamed of yerself, +Mary Elliot?—a great girl like you, most ten years old, walkin' top o' +rail fences and climbin' apple-trees in the low pastur'!"</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not!" said Mollie, promptly.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_19" id="Page_19" />Hush, Mollie," said Mrs. Elliot. "Lovina, that will do. Wash your face +and hands, Mollie, and make yourself decent to come to supper."</p> + +<p>An hour later, seated in the hammock, the girls discussed their aunt's +plan.</p> + +<p>"We'll have the Jones girls," said Susie, "and Grace Tyler, and Nellie +Dimock, she's such a dear little thing; and I suppose we must ask Fan +Eldridge, because she lives next door, though I dread to have her come, +she gets mad so easy; but mamma wouldn't like to have us leave her out; +and then, let's see—oh! we'll ask Florence Austin, the new girl, you +know."</p> + +<p>"Would you?" said Mollie, doubtfully. "We don't know her very well, and +she dresses so fine and is kind of <i>citified</i>, you know. Ar'n't you +afraid she'll spoil the fun?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_20" id="Page_20" />No," said Susie, decidedly. "Mamma said we were to be good to her +because she's a stranger; and I think she's nice, too—not a bit proud, +though her father is so rich."</p> + +<p>"Well," Mollie assented, who, though thirteen months older than her +sister, generally yielded to Susie's better judgment; "let her come, +then. That makes six besides us, and Aunt Ruth said half a dozen would +be plenty. Sue, I think it's going to be real jolly, don't you?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" /><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21" />CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h2>THE STORY OF DINAH DIAMOND.</h2> + + +<p>Miss Ruth Elliot was the minister's sister. And two years before, when +she came to live in the parsonage, an addition of two rooms was built +for her on the ground floor because she was an invalid, and lame, and +could not climb the stairs.</p> + +<p>They were pretty rooms, with soft carpets, pictures on the walls, and in +the winter time the sun shining in all day at the south window and the +glass door. In summer with this door wide open and the piazza cool and +shady with woodbine and clematis, you would have agreed with the little +girls who made up Ruth Elliot's sewing circle, that first<a name="Page_22" id="Page_22" /> Wednesday +afternoon, that they were "just lovely!"</p> + +<p>All were there—the Jones' twins, Ann Eliza and Eliza Ann, tall girls as +like each other as two peas and growing so fast one could always see +where their gowns were let down; Grace Tyler with curly black hair and +rosy cheeks; Nellie Dimock, a little dumpling of a girl with big blue +eyes and a funny turned up nose; Fannie Eldridge, looking so sweet and +smiling, you would not suspect she could be guilty of the fault Susie +had charged her with; and Florence Austin, whose father had lately +purchased a house in Green Meadow, and with his family had come to live +in the country. Last of all, the minister's two little daughters, whom +you have already met.</p> + +<p>Ruth Elliot was sitting at a table covered with piles of bright calico +pieces cut <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23" />and basted for sewing, and when each girl had received a +block with all necessary directions for making it, needles were +threaded, thimbles adjusted, and the Patchwork Quilt Society was in full +session.</p> + +<p>"Now, Aunt Ruth," said Susie, "you promised to tell us a story, you +know."</p> + +<p>"Yes; tell us about Dinah Diamond, please," said Mollie.</p> + +<p>"You and Susie have heard that story before, Mollie."</p> + +<p>"That does not make a bit of difference, Auntie. The stories we like +best we have heard over and over again. Besides, the other girls haven't +heard it. Come, Aunt Ruth, please begin."</p> + +<p>And so, while all sat industriously at work, Ruth Elliot related to the +little girls</p> + +<p><b><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24" />THE TRUE STORY OF DINAH DIAMOND.</b></p> + +<p>"When I was a little girl," she began, "I had a present from a neighbor +of a black kitten. I carried her home in my apron, a little ball of +black fur, with bright blue eyes that turned yellow as she got bigger, +and a white spot on her breast shaped like a diamond. I remember she +spit and clawed at me all the way home, and made frantic efforts to +escape, and for a day or two was quite homesick and miserable; but she +soon grew accustomed to her surroundings, and was so sprightly and +playful that she became the pet of the house.</p> + +<p>"The first remarkable thing she did, was to set herself on fire with a +kerosene lamp. We were sitting at supper one evening, when we heard a +crash in the sitting-room, and rushing in, found the cloth that had +covered the center table <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25" />and a blazing lamp on the floor. It was the +work of an instant for my father to raise a window, wrap the lamp in the +table-cloth, and throw both into the street. This left the room in +darkness, and I don't think the cause of the accident occured to any of +us, till there rushed from under the sofa a little ball of fire that +flew round and round the room at a most astonishing pace.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, my kitten! my kitten!' I screamed. 'She's burning to death! Catch +her! Catch her! Put her out! Throw cold water on her! Oh, my poor, poor +Dinah!' and I began a wild chase in the darkness, weeping and wailing as +I ran. The entire family joined in the pursuit. We tumbled over chairs +and footstools. We ran into each other, and I remember my brother +Charlie and I bumped our heads together with a dread<a name="Page_26" id="Page_26" />ful crash, but I +think neither of us felt any pain. They called out to each other in the +most excited tones: 'Head her off there! Corner her! You've got her! No, +you haven't! There she goes! Catch her! Catch her!' while I kept up a +wailing accompaniment, 'Oh, my poor, precious Dinah! my burned up Dinah +Diamond,' etc.</p> + +<p>"Well, my mother caught her at last in her apron and rolled her in the +hearth rug till every vestige of fire was extinguished and then laid her +in my lap.</p> + +<p>"Don't laugh, Mollie," said tenderhearted Nellie Dimock—"please don't +laugh. I think it was dreadful. O Miss Ruth, was the poor little thing +dead?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, Nellie; and, wonderful to relate, she was very little hurt. +We supposed her fine thick coat kept the fire <a name="Page_27" id="Page_27" />from reaching her body, +for we could discover no burns. Her tongue was blistered where she had +lapped the flame, and in her wild flight she had lamed one of her paws. +Of course her beauty was gone, and for a few weeks she was that +deplorable looking object—a singed cat. But oh, what tears of joy I +shed over her, and how I dosed her with catnip tea, and bathed her paw +with arnica, and nursed and petted her till she was quite well again! My +little brother Walter ("That was my papa, you know," Mollie whispered to +her neighbor), who was only three years old, would stand by me while I +was tending her, his chubby face twisted into a comical expression of +sympathy, and say in pitying tones: 'There! there! poo-ittle Dinah! I +know all about it. How oo must huffer' (suffer). The <a name="Page_28" id="Page_28" />dear little fellow +had burned his finger not long before and remembered the smart.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to say that the invalid received his expressions of sympathy +in a very ungracious manner, spitting at him notwithstanding her sore +tongue, and showing her claws in a threatening way if he tried to touch +her. As fond as I was of Dinah, I was soon obliged to admit that she had +an unamiable disposition."</p> + +<p>"Why, Miss Ruth, how funny!" said Ann Eliza Jones. "I didn't know there +was any difference in cats' dispositions."</p> + +<p>"Indeed there is," Miss Ruth answered: "quite as much as in the +dispositions of children, as any one will tell you who has raised a +family of kittens. Well, Dinah made a quick recovery, and when her new +coat was <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29" />grown it was blacker and more silky than the old one. She was +a handsome cat, not large, but beautifully formed, with a bright, +intelligent face and great yellow eyes that changed color in different +lights. She was devoted to me, and would let no one else touch her if +she could help it, but allowed me to handle her as I pleased. I have +tucked her in my pocket many a time when I went of an errand, and once I +carried her to the prayer-meeting in my mother's muff. But she made a +serious disturbance in the midst of the service by giving chase to a +mouse, and I never repeated the experiment.</p> + +<p>"Dinah was a famous hunter, and kept our own and the neighbors' premises +clear of rats and mice, but never to my knowledge caught a chicken or a +bird. She had a curious fancy for catch<a name="Page_30" id="Page_30" />ing snakes, which she would kill +with one bite in the back of the neck and then drag in triumph to the +piazza or the kitchen, where she would keep guard over her prey and call +for me till I appeared. I could never quite make her understand why she +was not as deserving of praise as when she brought in a mole or a mouse; +and as long as she lived she hunted for snakes, though after a while she +stopped bringing them to the house. She made herself useful by chasing +the neighbors' hens from the garden, and grew to be such a tyrant that +she would not allow a dog or a cat to come about the place, but rushed +out and attacked them in such a savage fashion that after one or two +encounters they were glad to keep out of her way.</p> + +<p>"Once I saw her put a flock of turkeys to flight. The leader at first +re<a name="Page_31" id="Page_31" />solved to stand his ground. He swelled and strutted and gobbled +furiously, exactly as if he were saying, 'Come on, you miserable little +black object, you! I'll teach you to fight a fellow of my size. Come on! +Come on!' Dinah crouched low, and eyed her antagonist for a moment, then +she made a spring, and when he saw the 'black object' flying toward him, +every hair bristling, all eyes, and teeth, and claws, the old gobbler +was scared half out of his senses, and made off as fast as his long legs +would carry him, followed by his troop in the most admired disorder.</p> + +<p>"I was very proud of one feat of bravery Dinah accomplished. One of our +neighbors owned a large hunting dog and had frequently warned me that if +my cat ever had the presumption to attack his dog, Bruno would shake the +<a name="Page_32" id="Page_32" />breath out of her as easy as he could kill a rat. I was inwardly much +alarmed at this threat, but I put on a bold front, and assured Mr. Dixon +that Dinah Diamond always had come off best in a fight and I believed +she always would, and the result justified my boast.</p> + +<p>"It happened that Dinah had three little kittens hidden away in the +wood-shed chamber, and you can imagine under these circumstances, when +even the most timid animals are bold, how fierce such a cat as Dinah +would be. Unfortunately for Bruno he chose this time to rummage in the +wood-shed for bones. We did not know how the attack began, but suppose +Dinah spied him from above, and made a flying leap, lighting most +unexpectedly to him upon his back, for we heard one unearthly yell, and +out rushed Bruno with his un<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33" />welcome burden, her tail erect, her eyes +two balls of fire, and every cruel claw, each one as sharp as a needle, +buried deep in the poor dog's flesh. How he did yelp!—ki! ki! ki! ki! +and how he ran, through the yard and the garden, clearing the fence at a +bound, and taking a bee-line for home! Half-way across the street, when +Dinah released her hold and slipped to the ground, he showed no +disposition to revenge his wrongs, but with drooping ears and tail +between his legs kept on his homeward way yelping as he ran. Nor did he +ever give my brave cat the opportunity to repeat the attack, for if he +chanced to come to the house in his master's company, he always waited +at a respectful distance outside the gate.</p> + +<p>"It would take too long to tell you all the wonderful things Dinah did, +but I <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34" />am sure you all agree with me that she was a remarkable cat. She +came out in a new character when I was ill with an attack of fever. She +would not be kept from me. Again and again she was driven from the room +where I lay, but she would patiently watch her opportunity and steal in, +and when my mother found that she was perfectly quiet and that it +distressed me to have her shut out, she was allowed to remain. She would +lie for hours at the foot of my bed watching me, hardly taking time to +eat her meals, and giving up her dearly loved rambles out of doors to +stay in my darkened room. I have thought some times if I had died then +Dinah would have died too of grief at my loss. But I didn't die; and +when I was getting well we had the best of times, for I shared with her +all the dainty dishes prepared <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35" />for me, and every day gave her my +undivided attention for hours. It was about this time that I composed +some verses in her praise, half-printing and half-writing them on a +sheet of foolscap paper. They ran thus:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Who is it that I love so well?<br /></span> +<span>I love her more than words can tell.<br /></span> +<span>And who of all cats is the belle?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">My Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Whose silky fur is dark as night?<br /></span> +<span>Whose diamond is so snowy white?<br /></span> +<span>Whose yellow eyes are big and bright?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Black Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Who broke the lamp, and in the gloom<br /></span> +<span>A ball of fire flew round the room,<br /></span> +<span>And just escaped an awful doom?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Poor Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Who, to defend her kittens twain,<br /></span> +<span>Flew at big dogs with might and main,<br /></span> +<span>And scratched them till they howled with pain?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Brave Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36" /> +<span>Who at the table takes her seat<br /></span> +<span>With all the family to eat,<br /></span> +<span>And picks up every scrap of meat?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">My Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Who watched beside me every day,<br /></span> +<span>As on my feverish couch I lay,<br /></span> +<span>And whiled the tedious hours away?<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Dear Dinah.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>And when thou art no longer here,<br /></span> +<span>Over thy grave I'll shed a tear,<br /></span> +<span>For thou to me wast very dear,<br /></span> +<span class="i20">Black Dinah.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Did you really used to set a chair for her at the table and let her eat +with the folks?" Fanny Eldridge asked.</p> + +<p>"Well, Fannie, that statement must be taken with some allowance. +Occasionally when there was plenty of room she was allowed to sit by me, +and I assure you she behaved with perfect propriety. I kept a fork on +purpose for her, and <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37" />when I held it out with a bit of meat on it she +would guide it to her mouth with one paw and eat it as daintily as +possible. I never knew her to drop a crumb on the carpet. Indeed, I know +several boys and girls whose table manners are not as good as Dinah +Diamond's."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you mean me, Auntie," said Mollie. "Mamma is always telling +me I eat too fast, and I know I scatter the bread about sometimes when +I'm in a hurry."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mollie," said Miss Ruth, laughing, "I was <i>not</i> thinking of you, +but if the coat fits, you may put it on."</p> + +<p>"What became of Dinah at last, Miss Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"She made a sad end, Fannie, for as she grew older her disposition got +worse instead of better, until she became so cross and disagreeable that +she hadn't <a name="Page_38" id="Page_38" />a friend left but me. She would scratch and bite little +children if they attempted to touch her, and was so cruel to one of her +own kittens that we were raising to take her place—for she was too old +and infirm to be a good mouser—that we were afraid she would kill the +poor thing outright. One morning, after she had made an unusually savage +attack on her son Solomon, my mother said: 'We must have that cat +killed, and the sooner the better. It isn't safe to keep such an ugly +creature a day longer.' Dinah was apparently fast asleep on her cushion +in the corner of the kitchen lounge when these words were spoken. In a +few minutes she jumped down, walked slowly across the room and out at +the kitchen door, and we never saw her again."</p> + +<p>"Why, how queer! What became of her?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_39" id="Page_39" />We never knew. We inquired in the neighborhood, and searched the barn +and the wood-shed, and in every place we could think of where she would +be likely to hide, but we could get no trace of her, and when weeks +passed and she did not return we concluded that she was dead."</p> + +<p>"You don't think—<i>do</i> you think, Miss Ruth, that she understood what +was said and knew if she stayed she would have to be killed?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> do," said Mollie, positively. "I'm sure of it!—and so the poor +thing went off and drowned herself, or, maybe, died of a broken heart."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Nellie Dimock, "poor Dinah Diamond!"</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Mollie!" said Susie Elliot. "Cats don't die of broken +hearts."</p> + +<p>"She had been ailing for some days,"<a name="Page_40" id="Page_40" /> Miss Ruth explained, "refusing her +food and looking forlorn and miserable, and I am inclined to think +instinct taught her that her end was near. You know wild animals creep +away into some solitary place to die, and Dinah had a drop or two of +wild-cat blood in her veins. I fancy she hid herself in some hole under +the barn and died there. It was a curious coincidence, that she should +have chosen that particular time, just after her doom was pronounced, to +take her departure. But what grieved me most was that, excepting myself, +every member of the family rejoiced that she was dead.</p> + +<p>"Poor Dinah Diamond! She was beautiful and clever, and constant and +brave, but she lived unloved and died unlamented because of her bad +temper."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" /><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41" />CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h2>A SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY.</h2> + + +<p>"If I can't have the seat I want, I won't have any; and I think you are +real mean, Mollie Elliot! I ain't coming here any more."</p> + +<p>These were the words Miss Ruth heard spoken in loud angry tones as she +opened the door connecting her bedroom with the parlor, where the little +girls were assembled, and caught a glimpse of an energetic figure in +pink gingham running across the lawn that separated the minister's house +from his next door neighbor.</p> + +<p>"Now, Auntie," said Mollie, in answer to Miss Ruth's look of inquiry, "I +am not in the least to blame. I'll leave it <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42" />to the girls if I am. Fan +Eldridge is so touchy! She came in a minute ago and Nellie Tyler +happened to be sitting by me, and Fan marched up to her and says, 'I'll +take my seat if you please'; and I said, 'It's no more your seat than it +is Nellie's,' We don't have any particular seats, you know we don't, +Auntie, but sit just as it happens. Well, she declared it was her seat +because she had had it the last two afternoons, and I told Nellie not to +give up to her because she acted so hateful about it, and then she went +off mad. I'm sure I don't care; if she chooses to stay away she can."</p> + +<p>"You don't quite mean that, Mollie," her aunt said gravely. "The +Patchwork Society can't afford to lose one of its members, certainly not +for so small a difference as the choice of a seat. We must have Fanny +back, if I give up my <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43" />seat to her. But come into this room, girls. I +have something pretty to show you. Softly! or you will frighten him +away."</p> + +<p>There was a honeysuckle vine trained close to the window, in full bloom, +and darting in and out among the flowers, taking a sip now and then from +a honey-cup, or resting on a leaf or twig, was a large butterfly with +black-velvet wings and spots and bands of blue and red and yellow.</p> + +<p>"O you beauty!" said Miss Ruth. "Do you know, girls, of all the moths +and butterflies I have raised from the larvæ,—and I have had Painted +Ladies, and Luna Moths, and one lovely Cecropia which was the admiration +of all beholders,—my favorite has always been the Swallow-tailed? +Perhaps it was because he was my first love. I <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44" />was no older than you, +Nellie, when, half curious and half disgusted, I held at arm's length on +a bit of fennel-stalk, and dropped in an old ribbon-box Aunt Susan +provided for the purpose, the great green worm that, after various +stages of insect life, turned into just such a beautiful creature as you +see flying about among the flowers. Since then I have raised dozens of +them."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how you could have any thing to do with worms," said Eliza +Jones. "I hate them—the horrid, squirming things!"</p> + +<p>"So did I, Eliza, till I studied into their ways and learned what +wonderful things they can do; and now, I assure you, I have a high +respect and admiration for them."</p> + +<p>"Will you tell us about it?" Florence asked. "I've always wanted to know +just how worms turned into butterflies,"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_45" id="Page_45" />And I should like nothing better than to tell you," she answered. +"'Making butterflies,' as a dear little boy once defined my favorite +occupation, and telling those who are interested in such things how they +are made, is very delightful to me,"</p> + +<p>"Come, then, girls, hurry!" said Nellie: "the sooner we get to work the +sooner the story will begin. Good-by, Mr. Swallow-tail,—I wonder what +they call you so for,—we are going to hear all about you,"</p> + +<p>But when they returned to the other room they found Sammy Ray and Roy +Tyler on the piazza, close to the open door. Roy beckoned to his sister, +and they held a whispered conference during which the words, "You ask +her," energetically spoken by Roy, could be plainly heard by those +inside.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46" />Nellie turned presently, half laughing, but a little embarrassed.</p> + +<p>"The boys want to know if they can't come in," she said. "I tell them +it's ridiculous for boys to attend a sewing society, but they won't go +away till I've asked."</p> + +<p>Here the boys stepped forward and took off their hats. Their faces shone +with the scrubbing with soap and water they had given them, and both had +on clean collars. Sammy dived in his trowsers pocket and brought out a +couple of big brass thimbles and some needles stuck in a bit of flannel.</p> + +<p>"We are willing to help sew," said the boy, and bravely stood his +ground, though all the girls laughed, and even Miss Ruth looked amused +at the sight of these huge implements.</p> + +<p>"If we let you in at all, boys," she <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47" />said, "it must be as guests. What +do you say, girls? Suppose we put it to vote. As many of you as are in +favor of admitting Samuel Ray and Roy Tyler to the meeting of the +Patchwork Quilt Society, now in session, will please to signify it by +raising the right hand."</p> + +<p>Every hand was lifted.</p> + +<p>"It is a unanimous vote," she announced. "Walk in, boys. One more chair, +Susie. Now, then, are we ready?"</p> + +<p>But this was fated to be a day of interruptions, for while she was +speaking the door opened and in walked Lavina Tibbs, bearing a plate +piled high with something covered with a napkin.</p> + +<p>"Miss Elliot's compliments," she said, "and would the Bed-quilt Society +accept some gingerbread for luncheon?" She set the plate on the table, +removed <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48" />the napkin with a flourish, and added on her own account:—</p> + +<p>"It's jest out of the oven, an' if it ain't good I don't know how to +make soft gingerbread, that's all!"</p> + +<p>Good? If you had inhaled its delicious odor, and seen its lovely brown +crust and golden interior, you would have longed (as did every boy and +girl in the room) to taste it directly; and, having tasted, you would +have eaten your share to the last crumb. Miss Ruth gave Susie a +whispered direction, and the little girl brought from a corner cupboard +a pile of pink-and-white china plates, and napkins with pink borders to +correspond. The plates had belonged to Miss Ruth's grandmother, and were +very valuable; but Ruth Elliot believed that nothing was too good to be +used, and that the feast would be more enjoy<a name="Page_49" id="Page_49" />able for being daintily +served. But when all were helped, she still appeared to think some thing +was wanting, and, after looking round the circle, her glance rested upon +Mollie. The little girl had been unusually quiet ever since her dispute +with Fannie, for she knew very well, though not a word of reproof had +been spoken, that her aunt was not pleased with her. She dropped her +eyes before Miss Ruth's gaze, and grew red in the face; then suddenly +jumping up, she said:—</p> + +<p>"I'll go and ask Fan Eldridge to come back, shall I, Auntie? and she may +have any seat she likes; I'm sure I don't care."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear," Miss Ruth said, in the tone Mollie loved best to hear, "and +be quick, do! or the gingerbread will be cold."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50" />Fannie was standing idly at the window looking toward the parsonage, +already repenting of her hasty departure, when Mollie rushed in.</p> + +<p>"Come back, Fan, do! we all want you to," she said. "Mamma has sent in +some hot gingerbread, and Sam Ray and Roy Tyler are there, and auntie is +going to tell us about swallow-tailed butterflies, and she doesn't like +to begin without you. Come, now, do! and you may have my seat."</p> + +<p>The little girl needed no urging, but her mother interposed.</p> + +<p>"Fannie was greatly to blame," Mrs. Eldridge said. "She has told me all +about it, and I think she deserves to be punished by staying at home."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but please, Mrs. Eldridge," said Mollie, "let her off this time! It +was my fault as well as hers, for you see I provoked her by answering +back."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_51" id="Page_51" />Say you are sorry, Fannie."</p> + +<p>"Yes, truly, mamma, I am," said Fannie, with tears in her eyes; "and +I'll take any seat, or I'll stand up all the afternoon, if you'll only +let me go, and I <i>will</i> try to break myself of getting angry so easy; +see if I don't!"</p> + +<p>On the strength of these promises Mrs. Eldridge gave her consent, and +the little girls crossed the lawn hand-in-hand, in loving companionship. +So harmony was restored in the Society, and all ate their gingerbread +with a relish. Sammy and Roy would have liked better to have munched +their share on the piazza-steps, without plate or napkin. Under the +circumstances, however, they behaved very well; for, though Roy took +rather large mouthfuls, and Sammy licked his fingers when he thought no +one was looking, these <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52" />were small delinquencies, and you will be glad +to know that the girls were too well-bred to appear to notice. Mollie, +now fully restored to favor, was allowed to pass the finger-bowl, while +Susie collected the plates, distributed the work, and made every thing +snug and tidy in the room. Then Miss Ruth commenced the story of</p> + + +<p><b>THE SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY.</b></p> + +<p>"When I was ten years old, my brother Charlie and I spent a summer with +Aunt Susan, who lived in the old homestead some miles out of town.</p> + +<p>"One night after tea she sent us into the garden to gather some sprigs +of fennel for her to take to prayer-meeting—all the old ladies in +Vernon took dill or fennel to evening meeting. I had just put my hand to +the fennel-bush when I drew it back with a scream.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_53" id="Page_53" />'What's the matter?' said Charlie.</p> + +<p>"'A great, horrid green worm,' said I. 'I almost touched it!'</p> + +<p>"'Here, let me smash him!' said Charlie; 'where is he?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, don't touch him!' I cried; 'he might bite you. Oh, dear, I hate +worms! I wonder what they were made for!'</p> + +<p>"'That kind was made to turn into butterflies,' said Tim Rhodes.</p> + +<p>"Tim was working Aunt Susan's garden on shares that summer, and had +heard all we said, for he was weeding the onion-bed close by.</p> + +<p>"'What, that fellow!' said Charlie; 'will he turn into a butterfly?' and +we both of us looked at the caterpillar. He was about as long and as +thick as my little finger, of a bright leafy green, with black-velvet +rings dotted with <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54" />orange at even distances along his body. He lay at +full length on a fennel-stalk, and seemed to be asleep; but when Charlie +touched him with a little stick, instantly there shot out of his head a +pair of orange-colored horns, and the air was full of the pungent odor +of fennel.</p> + +<p>"'It smells like prayer-meeting,' said Charlie, and ran off to play; but +I wanted further information.</p> + +<p>"'Mr. Rhodes,' said I, 'how do you know this kind of worm makes +butterflies?'</p> + +<p>"'Because I've seen 'em do it, child. If you should put that fellow now +in a box with some holes in the top, so as he could breathe, and give +him plenty of fresh fennel to eat, in a week (or less time if he's full +grown) he'll wind himself up, and after a spell he'll hatch out <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55" />a +butterfly—a pretty one, too, I tell you,'</p> + +<p>"'I mean to try it,' I said; and I ran to the house and Aunt Susan gave +me an old ribbon-box, and Mr. Rhodes punched a few holes in the cover +with his pocket-knife; and after a little hesitation I picked the +fennel-stalk with the worm on it, and laid it carefully in the box, +making sure that the cover was tight. The box was then taken to the +house and deposited on a bench in the porch, for Aunt Susan objected to +entertaining this new boarder indoors.</p> + +<p>"I gave my worm his breakfast the next morning before I had my own, and, +forgetting my aversion, sat by the open box and watched him eat, as his +strong jaws made clean work with leaf and stem.</p> + +<p>"'He isn't so ugly, after all, Charlie,'<a name="Page_56" id="Page_56" /> I said; 'he is almost handsome +for a worm, with all those bright colors on him,'</p> + +<p>"Then Charlie caught a little of my enthusiasm, and said <i>he</i> meant to +keep a worm too. So he searched the fennel-bush and found three, and +tumbled them unceremoniously into the box.</p> + +<p>"'Now they'll have good times together,' said he; 'that fellow was awful +lonesome shut up by himself,'</p> + +<p>"At Aunt Susan's suggestion I improved my worm-house by removing the top +of the box and stretching mosquito-netting across, fastening it securely +along the edges lest my prisoners should escape. And it was well I took +this precaution; for, though for several days they made no attempt to +get away, and seemed to do nothing but eat and sleep, one morning I +found my largest <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57" />and handsomest worm in a very disturbed and restless +condition. He was making frantic efforts to escape. Up and down, round +and round, over and under his companions, who were still quietly +feeding, without a moment's pause, he was pushing his way. I watched him +till I was tired; but when I left him he was still on his travels.</p> + +<p>"In the afternoon, however, he had settled himself half-way up the side +of his house. His head was moving slowly from side to side, and a fine +white thread was coming out of his mouth. When I looked again he had +fastened himself to the box by the tip of his tail and by a loop of fine +silk passing round the upper part of his body. There he hung motionless +two, three, almost four, days. The green and orange and black faded +little by little, his body shrank to <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58" />half its size, and he looked +withered, unsightly, dead. I thought he <i>was</i> dead; but Tim Rhodes (who +all along had shown a friendly interest in my pursuit) took a look at my +poor dead worm,' and pronounced him all right.</p> + +<p>"'Keep a watch on him this afternoon,' said Tim,' and you'll see +something queer,'</p> + +<p>"So we did; and Aunt Susan was summoned to the porch by the news that +'the worm had split in the back and was coming out of his skin.' By the +time she had got on her glasses and was ready to witness this wonderful +sight, it was over. A heap of dried skin lay in the bottom of the box, +and a pretty chrysalis of a delicate green color hung in place of the +worm.</p> + +<p>"'O Auntie!' said Charlie, 'you ought to have seen him twist and <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59" />squirm +and make the split in his back bigger and bigger till it burst open and +tumbled off, just as a boy wriggles out of a tight coat, you know!'</p> + +<p>"After this came three weeks of waiting, during which the green +chrysalis turned gray and hard and the other worms, one by one, went +through the same changes, until four gray chrysalis were fastened to the +sides of the box.</p> + +<p>"Every day I looked, but nothing happened, until it seemed to me, tired +of waiting, that nothing ever <i>would</i> happen. But one bright morning I +forgot all my weariness when I found, clinging to the netting, a +beautiful creature like the one we saw on the honeysuckle this +afternoon, with a slender black body and wings spotted with yellow and +scarlet and lovely blue. When I opened the box he didn't try to <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60" />fly. He +was weak and trembling, and his wings were damp, but every moment they +grew larger and his colors brighter in the sunshine.</p> + +<p>"While Charlie and I stood watching him, we discussed, in our own way, a +problem that has puzzled wiser heads than ours—how three distinct +individuals (the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly) could be one +and the same creature, and how from a low-born worm that groveled and +crawled could be born this bright ethereal being—all light and beauty +and color—that seemed fitted only for the sky.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Susan listened to our talk a while and then repeated a text of +Scripture:—</p> + +<p>"'Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his +glorious body?'"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_61" id="Page_61" />While we talked the butterfly grew stronger and more beautiful, until +at last, spreading his wings to their widest extent, he darted high into +the air and we lost him. But from the day I took the green worm from the +fennel-bush in Aunt Susan's garden I date my introduction to a +delightful study which I have followed all my life as I have found +opportunity. So you see it is no wonder I am fond of the swallow-tailed +butterfly; and I have another reason, for once on a time I tamed one so +that it sucked honey from my finger."</p> + +<p>"Auntie, you are joking!"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, no. It was a poor little waif which, mistaking chimney heat for +warm spring weather, hatched himself out of season, and whose life I +prolonged by providing him with food."</p> + +<p>"The dear little thing! Tell us about it, please."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62" />Well, I had put away some chrysalids for the winter in a closet in my +sleeping-room, and one day my nurse—I was ill at the time—heard a +rustling in the box where they lay and brought it to me for +investigation; and, behold! when I opened it there was a full-grown +swallow-tail, who, waking too soon from his winter's nap, left the soft +bed of cotton where his companions lay sleeping side by side and, wide +awake and ready to fly, was impatiently waiting for some one to let him +out into the sunshine.</p> + +<p>"But the March sunshine was fitful and pale, and the cold wind would +have chilled him to death before night; so we resolved to keep him +indoors. We gave him the liberty of the room, and he fluttered about the +plants in the window, now and then taking a flight to the ceil<a name="Page_63" id="Page_63" />ing, +where, I am sorry to say, he bruised his delicate wings; but he seemed +to learn wisdom by experience, for after a while he contented himself +with a lower flight. Every day my bed was wheeled close to the window, +and I amused myself for hours watching my pretty visitor. He would +greedily suck a drop of honey, diluted with water, from the leaf of a +plant or from the end of my finger, and by sight or smell, perhaps by +both senses, soon learned where to go for his dinner.</p> + +<p>"And so he lived and thrived for a fortnight, and I had hopes of keeping +him till spring; but one cold night the furnace fire went out, and in +the morning my pretty swallow-tail lay dead on the window-sill. Wasn't +it a pity?</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Florence, "I like to hear about butterflies! Will you please +<a name="Page_64" id="Page_64" />tell us about some of the other kinds you have kept?"</p> + +<p>"Tell us about that big fellow you said every body made a fuss over. +Ce-ce—I can't remember what you called him."</p> + +<p>"Cecropia!" said Susie, promptly. "Yes, do, Auntie! if you are not +tired."</p> + +<p>If Ruth Elliot had been ever so weary I think she would have forgotten +it at sight of the interested faces of her audience; but in fact she was +not in the least tired, but was as pleased to tell as they were to +listen to the story of</p> + + +<p><b>THE CECROPIA MOTH.</b></p> + +<p>"One day in November," she said, "a man who used to do odd jobs about +the place for my father, and whom we always called Josh,—his name was +Joshua Wheeler,—left his work to bring to <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65" />the house and put into my +hand a queer-looking pod-shaped package firmly fastened to a stout twig. +It was of a rusty gray color and looked as much like a thick wad of +dirty brown paper as any thing I can think of.</p> + +<p>"'I found this 'ere cur'us lookin' thing,' he said, 'under a walnut-tree +on the hill yonder, where I was rakin' up leaves—an', thinks I, there's +some kind of a crittur stored away inside, an' Miss Ruth she's crazy +arter bugs an' worms an' sich like varmints, an' mebbe she'd like to see +what comes out o' this 'ere; so I've fetched it along.'</p> + +<p>"You may be sure I thanked him heartily and gave him a sixpence besides, +which I am afraid went to buy tobacco. 'Law, Doctor, don't I know it?' +Josh used to reply when my father urged him to break off a habit that +was <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66" />making a shaky old man of him at sixty; 'don't I know it's a +dretful bad habit; but then you see a body must have somethin' to be +a-chawin' on.'</p> + +<p>"But what was in the brown package? That was the question I puzzled my +brains over. I had never seen a cocoon in the least like it before, and +I had no book on entomology to help me. With the point of a needle I +carefully picked away the outer layer till I came to loose silken fibers +that evidently were the covering of an inside case. Whatever was there +was snugly tucked away in a little inner chamber with the key inside, +and I must wait with what patience I could command till he chose to open +the door.</p> + +<p>"I kept my precious cocoon all winter in a cold, dry place; but when +warm spring weather came it lay in state on my work-table, in a box +lined with cot<a name="Page_67" id="Page_67" />ton, where I could watch it all day long. Nothing +happened till one bright day in June I heard a faint scratching inside +the brown case. It grew louder and louder every moment. Evidently my +tenant was bestirring himself and, with intervals of rest, was scraping +and tearing away his silken wrappings. Presently an opening was made and +out of this were poked two bushy legs with claws that held fast by the +outside of his house, while the creature gradually pulled himself out.</p> + +<p>"First a head with horns; then a part of the body and two more legs; +then, with one tremendous effort, he was free!—an odd beast of no +particular color, looking exceedingly damp and disagreeable, with his +fat chunky body and short legs, like an exaggerated bumble-bee, only not +at all pretty. He was shaky <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68" />on his legs and half tumbled from his box +to the window-sill, along which he walked trembling till he came to the +tassel of the shade, just within his reach. This he grabbed with all +four claws, his wings hanging down.</p> + +<p>"'It's nothing but a homely old brown bug!' said my brother Charlie, +whom I had called to see the sight.</p> + +<p>"'No,' I said, "'it isn't a bug. I'm sure I don't know what it is,'</p> + +<p>"I was ready to cry with disappointment and vexation, for I had expected +great things from my brown chrysalis.</p> + +<p>"The tassel was gently swaying with the weight of the clumsy creature, +and in the warm sunshine which was gradually drying body and wings faint +colors began to show—a dull red, a dash of white, a wavy band of gray, +with patches of soft brown that began to look downy like feathers. Every +moment these col<a name="Page_69" id="Page_69" />ors grew more distinct and took new shapes. None of +them were bright, but they were beautifully blended and the whole body +was of the texture of the finest velvet.</p> + +<p>"But the wings! How can I describe to you how those thick, crumpled, +unsightly appendages grew and grew, changing in color from a dingy black +to a dark brown, with bands of gray and red? how the great white patches +took distinct form, and some were dashed with red and bordered with +black, and others eye-shaped with crescents of pale blue? It must have +taken an hour for all this to come about—for the great wings to unfurl +to their widest extent and the cecropia moth to show himself in all his +beauty to our admiring gaze.</p> + +<p>"The whole family had gathered to see the show. My father lingered, hat +and riding-whip in hand, though he had <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70" />a round of twenty miles to make +among his patients before night; and Aunt Susan, who was on a visit, +stood peering through her spectacles, too much absorbed to notice black +Dinah taking a nap in her work-basket and the kitten making sad havoc +with her knitting. Josh was called in from the wood-shed, and, with his +hat on the back of his head and hands deep in his pockets, gazed in +silence.</p> + +<p>"'Wal,' he said at length, 'if that don't beat all natur'! Look at the +size of that crittur, will you, and the hole he's jest crawled out of. +Why, he's as big as a full-grown bat, measures full seven inches across +from wing to wing. Wal, now, I'd gin consider'ble to know what's be'n +goin' on for a spell back in that leetle house where he's passed his +time; and I'll bet, Doctor, with all your larnin', <i>you</i> can't tell.'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" /><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71" />CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h2>FURRY-PURRY BECOMING GOLD ELSIE.</h2> + + +<p>Miss Ruth found on her table the next Wednesday afternoon a note very +neatly and carefully written, which read as follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><p>Miss RUTH,—Will you Please tell us Another Cat Story, becaus I + like them best. So does Fannie Eldridge she said So after You told + Worm stories.</p> + +<p> Miss Ruth I Have Named my Black Kitty After your Dinah Diamond, her + Last Name has to Be Spot Becaus her Spot is not a Diamond, this is + from your Friend.</p> + +<p> NELLIE DIMOCK.</p></blockquote> + +<p>"I hold in my hand," Miss Ruth said, when she had carefully perused this +<a name="Page_72" id="Page_72" />epistle, "a written request from two members of our Society for another +cat story. Susie and Mollie, have I any more cat stories worth telling?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, Auntie" said Mollie. "Don't you remember the pretty fairy +story you used to tell us about the good little girl who saved a cat +from being drowned by some bad boys, and carried her home? and she +turned out to be a fairy cat and gave that girl every thing she wished +for—cakes and candy, and a lovely pink silk frock packed in a nutshell +for her to wear to the party?"</p> + +<p>"O Mollie! that's too much of a baby story," said Susie. "Tell us about +the musical cat who played the piano by walking over the keys, and all +the people in the house thought it was a ghost."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Auntie; and the funny story <a name="Page_73" id="Page_73" />of the cat and the parrot—how the +parrot got stuck up to her knees in a pan of dough, and in her fright +said over every thing she had learned to say: 'Polly wants a cracker!' +'Oh, my goodness' sakes alive!' 'Get out, I say!' 'Here's a row!' 'Scat, +you beast!' and so on;—and how the cat got her out."</p> + +<p>"These are old stories, girls, and you have told them for me."</p> + +<p>"Our old cat Jane," said Eliza Ann Jones, "is a regular cheat. You see, +she <i>would</i> lie in grandma's chair. She used to jump in if grandma left +it only for a minute; and grandma wouldn't know she was there, and two +or three times sat right down on her. Why, it was just awful, and scared +poor grandma half to death. Well, ma whipped the old cat every time she +caught her in <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74" />the chair, and we thought she was cured of the habit; but +one day ma came into the room and there was nobody there but Jane, and +she was stretched on the rug and seemed to be fast asleep; but grandma's +chair was rocking away all by itself. Ma wondered what made the chair +go, so she thought she'd watch. She left the door on a crack and peeped +through, and as soon as the cat thought she was alone she jumped into +the chair and settled herself for a nap; but when ma made a little +noise, as if somebody were coming out, she hopped out and stretched +herself on the rug and made believe she was fast asleep. 'Twas her +jumping out so quick that set the chair rocking. Now, wasn't that cute?"</p> + +<p>"I never knew till the other day," said Florence Austin, "that cats +scatter crumbs to attract the birds, and then <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75" />watch for them and spring +out on the poor things when they are feeding."</p> + +<p>"What a shame! I wouldn't keep a cat who played such a cruel trick," +Mollie said.</p> + +<p>"My Dinah Spot doesn't catch birds or chickens," said Nellie Dimock; +"only mice."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Elliot had come in with a message to her sister while this talk +went on, and had lingered to hear Eliza's story of old Jane.</p> + +<p>"Girls," she said, "with your President's permission, I will tell you a +story about a cat. It is curious, because it proves that a cat remembers +and reasons much as a man or woman would in similar circumstances. Susie +and Mollie, I have told it to you before, but you will not mind hearing +it again.</p> + +<p>"When my brother Charles was a <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76" />young man he kept a bachelor +establishment in the country, and with other pets owned a beautiful gray +cat he had; brought with him from Germany. She was very intelligent and +docile, a great favorite with her master, and was allowed many +privileges in the house. She came in and out through a small door cut in +the side of the house which she opened and closed for herself. A chair +was regularly placed for her at the table; she slept at the foot of my +brother's bed, and perched herself on his shoulder when he took a stroll +in the garden. She could distinguish the sound of his bell from any +other in the house, and was greatly disturbed if the servant delayed in +answering his call.</p> + +<p>"One summer my sister Helen and her two boys were staying with Charles, +and in the midst of the visit he was <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77" />called away on business, and was +absent for several weeks. Now, Carl and Teddy were dear little fellows, +but full of mischief; and in their uncle's absence they so teased and +tormented poor Miess, taking advantage of her amiable disposition, that +she was forced at length to keep out of their way. About a week before +Charles came home she had kittens, which she carefully hid behind a +heavy book-case in the library.</p> + +<p>"The morning of his return he had the cat in his lap petting and +caressing her as usual, and then went out for an hour. As soon as he was +gone, pussy brought her kittens one by one from their hiding-place and +laid them on the rug in the corner of the room where she had nursed and +tended all her young families before. Now she must have reasoned in this +way: 'My good, kind <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78" />master has come home, and those dreadful boys who +have pinched my ears and tied things to my tail, and teased and +frightened me almost to death, will be made to behave themselves. All +danger to me and to my babies is over. Why must the pretty dears be +hidden away in that musty place? Of course master wants to see them, and +they are well worth looking at. The thing for me to do is to bring them +out of that dark hole and put them where I always have put my kittens +before.'"</p> + +<p>"Wise old Miess!" said Mollie. "Mamma, please tell the girls how she +saved uncle's pet canary from a strange cat."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear. Miess was so obedient and well trained that her master often +trusted her in the room while he gave the bird his airing, and Bobby +became <a name="Page_79" id="Page_79" />so accustomed to the cat's presence that he hopped fearlessly +about the floor close to pussy's rug, and more than once lighted on her +back; but one day your uncle discovered Miess on the table with the bird +in her mouth. For an instant he thought her cat nature had got the upper +hand, and that Bobby's last moment had come; then he discovered a +strange cat in the room and knew that his good cat had saved the +canary's life. As soon as the intruder was driven out, Bobby fluttered +away safe and sound."</p> + +<p>"Wasn't that nice of Miess, Auntie?" said Susie. "I have thought of a +story for you to tell us this afternoon—the story of the barn-cat that +wanted so much to become a house-cat. Don't you remember that story you +used to tell us long ago?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_80" id="Page_80" />Oh, yes!" Mollie said; "her name was Furry-Purry, and she lived with +Granny Barebones, and there was Tom—Tom—some thing; what <i>was</i> his +name? Tell us that, Aunt Ruth, do!"</p> + +<p>"Isn't it open to the objection you made to Mollie's choice a while ago, +Susie?" she asked. "I remember it went with 'The Three Bears' and 'Old +Mother Pig' and 'The Little Red Hen.'"</p> + +<p>"No, Auntie, I think not; it's different, somehow."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then, if you are sure you haven't outgrown it."</p> + +<p>"Is it a true story?" Nellie Dimock wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"It is made out of a true story, Nellie. A young cat which was born and +brought up in a barn became dissatisfied with her condition in life, and +made <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81" />up her mind to change it. She chose the house of a friend of mine +for her future home, and presented herself every morning at the door, +asking in a very earnest and humble way to be taken in. When driven away +she went sadly and reluctantly, but in a few moments was back again +waiting patiently, quietly, hour after hour, day after day. If noticed +or spoken to, she gave a plaintive mew, looked cold and hungry, but +showed no signs of discouragement. She didn't once try to steal into the +house, as she might have done, but waited patiently for an invitation.</p> + +<p>"And when one morning she brought a mouse and laid it on the door-step, +and looking up, seemed to say: 'Kind lady, if you will take me for your +cat, see what I will do for you,' my friend could no longer refuse. The +door was <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82" />opened, the long-wished-for invitation was given, and very +soon the little barn-cat became the pet and plaything of the family. She +proved a valuable family cat, and her descendants, to the fourth +generation, are living in my friend's family to-day.</p> + +<p>"Out of these materials I have dressed up the story of</p> + + +<p><b>HOW FURRY-PURRY BECAME GOLD ELSIE.</b></p> + +<p>"The door of the great house stood open and Furry-Purry looked in.</p> + +<p>"Furry-Purry was a small yellow cat striped down the back with a darker +shade of the same color. Her paws, the lower part of her body, and the +spot on her breast were white.</p> + +<p>"This is what the little cat saw, looking through the open door into the +great house:—</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_83" id="Page_83" />A pleasant room hung with pictures, the floor covered with a soft +carpet, where all kinds of bright-colored flowers seemed to be growing, +and, in the sunniest corner, lying in an arm-chair piled with cushions, +a large tabby cat.</p> + +<p>"Just then a gust of wind closed the door, and Furry-Purry ran round the +house to the barn and remained all day hidden in her hole under the +boards.</p> + +<p>"That night there was a storm, and several cats in the neighborhood +crept into the barn for safety. There was old Mrs. Barebones, a cat with +a bad cough, which was thought to be in a decline; Tom Skip-an'-jump, a +sprightly young fellow with a tenor voice which he was fond of using on +moonlight nights; and Robber Grim, a fierce, one-eyed creature—the pest +of the neighborhood—with a great head and neck and flabby, hanging +cheeks and bare spots on his tawny <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84" />coat where the fur had been torn out +in his fierce battles.</p> + +<p>"The thunder roared overhead and the lightning, shining through the +cracks, played on the barn floor and showed the cats sitting gravely in +a circle. Only Tom Skip-an'-jump, who still kept his kittenish tricks, +went frisking after his tail and turning somersaults in the hay. +Presently he tumbled over Furry-Purry and bit her ear.</p> + +<p>"'Come, play!' said he: 'it's a jolly time for puss-in-the-corner.'</p> + +<p>"'Tom,' said Furry-Purry, 'I never shall play again. I am very unhappy. +I have seen Mrs. Tabitha Velvetpaw lying on a silk cushion, while I make +my bed in the hay. She walks on a lovely soft carpet, and I have only +this barn floor. O Tom, I want to be a house-cat.'</p> + +<p>"'A house-cat!' repeated Tom dis<a name="Page_85" id="Page_85" />dainfully. 'They sleep all day. They +get their tails pulled and their ears pinched by horrid monsters with +only two legs to walk on, and nights—beautiful moonlight nights when we +barn-cats are roaming the alleys and singing on the roofs and having a +good time generally—they are locked in cellars and garrets and made to +watch rat-holes. Oh, no! not for Tom.'</p> + +<p>"He was off with a whisk of his tail to the highest beam in the barn, +looking down on them with the greenest of green eyes, and singing,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Some love the home<br /></span> +<span>Of a lazy drone,<br /></span> +<span>And a bed on a cushioned knee;<br /></span> +<span>But in wild free ways<br /></span> +<span>I will spend my days,<br /></span> +<span>And at night on the roofs I'll be.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Oh, 'tis my delight,<br /></span> +<span>On a moonlight night'—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"<a name="Page_86" id="Page_86" />'Don't listen to him, my dear,' said Mrs. Barebones, the consumptive +cat; 'he's a wild, thoughtless creature, quite inexperienced in the ways +of the world. Heed the counsels of one whose sands of life are almost +run and who, before she goes to the land of cats, would fain warn a +youthful friend and, if possible, avert her from her own sad fate. This +racking cough (ugh! ugh!) and this distressing <i>cat</i>-arrh, (snuff! +snuff!) with which you see me afflicted were brought on by the hardships +and exposure incident to the life of a barn-cat: midnight rambles, my +dear (ugh!), in frost and snow; days when not so much as a mouse's tail +has passed my hungry jaws, and winter nights when my coat was too thin +to keep out the cold. And all these sufferings, past and present, are in +consequence of my being a barn-cat.'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_87" id="Page_87" />'Now, may the dogs get me, if I ever heard such a string of nonsense!' +said Robber Grim. 'Don't believe a word she says. She's an old granny. +She's got the fidgets. She wants a dose of catnip-tea. Don't believe Tom +Skip-an'-jump, either. What does <i>he</i> know about war? He never was shot +at. Look at me! I'm Robber Grim! I'm an old one, I am! I've got good +blood in my veins. My great-grandfather was a catamount and his +grandmother was a tiger-cat. I've been in a hundred battles. I've had +one eye knocked out and an ear bit off. I left a piece of my tail in a +trap. I've been scalded with hot water and peppered all over with shot. +<i>I'll</i> teach you how to get a living without being a house-cat. I hate +houses and the people who live in them, and I do them all the <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88" />mischief +I can. I eat up their chickens and I suck their eggs. I climb in at the +pantry window and skim their milk. Once when the cook left the kitchen +door open I snatched the beefsteak from the gridiron and made off with +the family dinner. They hate me—they do. They've tried to kill me a +dozen times; but I'm Robber Grim, ha! ha! and I've got nine lives!'</p> + +<p>"At this instant there came a flash of lightning, followed by a peal of +thunder that shook the barn to its foundations, and every cat fled in +terror to its hole.</p> + +<p>"The next morning Mrs. Tabitha Velvetpaw took a stroll round the garden +and down the lane a little way, where the catnip grew. The ground was +wet after the shower, and she was daintily picking her way along, very +careful not to soil her beautiful feet, of <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89" />which she was justly proud, +when suddenly there glided from behind a tree and stood directly in her +path a small yellow cat.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, my paws and whiskers!' exclaimed Mrs. Tabitha, surprised out of +her usual dignity.</p> + +<p>"'If you please,' said Furry-Purry,—for it was she,—'I have made bold +to come out and meet you to ask your advice. I am a poor little +barn-cat, and I was contented with my lot till I saw you yesterday in +your beautiful home; but now I feel that I was intended for a higher +sphere. Tell me—oh, tell me, Mrs. Velvetpaw, how I may become a +house-cat!'</p> + +<p>"'Well, did I ever!' said Mrs. Velvetpaw. 'The idea!' and she moved a +step or two away from poor Furry-Purry, her manner, as well as her +words, expressing astonishment and disdain.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_90" id="Page_90" />'I know it seems presuming, Mrs. Velvetpaw, but'—</p> + +<p>"'Presuming! I should say so. What is this generation of cats coming to, +when a low creature reared in a barn—a paw-paw (pauper) cat, as I may +say—dare lift her eyes to those so far above her?'</p> + +<p>"'I have heard my mother say "a cat may look at a king,"' said +Furry-Purry.</p> + +<p>"'Go away, you low-born creature! How dare you quote your mother to me? +Go away, this instant! I am ashamed to be seen talking with you! What if +my friend Mrs. Silvercoat or Major Mouser should happen to pass! Begone, +I say! scat!'</p> + +<p>"'O Mrs. Tabitha,' said the poor little cat, 'don't send me away! I +can't go back to that barn. Indeed, indeed, after spending this short +time in your <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91" />company, I can never endure to live with Tom Skip-an'-jump +and Mrs. Barebones and that horrid Robber Grim. If you refuse to help me +I will go straight to Growler's kennel. When he has worried me to death, +won't you be sorry you drove me to such a fate? Dear, dear Mrs. +Velvetpaw, your face is kinder than your words. Oh, pity the sorrows of +a poor little cat!'</p> + +<p>"Now, Mrs. Tabitha was not at heart an ill-natured puss; and when she +saw Furry-Purry's imploring face, and listened to her eloquent appeal, +she was moved with compassion.</p> + +<p>"'Rather than see you go to the dogs,' said she, 'I will lend a paw to +help you. But what can I do, you silly thing?'</p> + +<p>"'Mrs. Velvetpaw, you have lived a long time in this neighborhood?'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_92" id="Page_92" />'All my life, Yellow Cat.'</p> + +<p>"'And you know every body?'</p> + +<p>"'If you mean in the first rank of society—yes. Your Barebones, and +Hop-an'-jumps, and creatures of that vulgar herd, are quite out of my +<i>cat</i>egory.'</p> + +<p>"'Perhaps you know of some house-cat dead or gone away?'</p> + +<p>"'And if I do?'</p> + +<p>"'You might put me in her place, you know.'</p> + +<p>"'Yellow Cat,' said Mrs. Tabitha, severely.</p> + +<p>"'If you please, my name is Furry-Purry.'</p> + +<p>"'Well, Furry-Purry, then. Your presumption can only be pardoned in +consideration of your ignorance of the usages of society. House-cats, +you must know, hold their position in fam<a name="Page_93" id="Page_93" />ilies by hereditary descent. +My place, for instance, was my mother's and my grandmother's before me. +We are prepared by birth and education for the position we occupy. Have +you considered how utterly unfitted you are for the life to which you +aspire? I am sorry to disappoint you, but I fear your hopes are vain. +There is, indeed, a vacancy in the brick house opposite. Cæsar—a +venerable cat—died last week. He was much admired for his gentlemanly +and dignified deportment. "Who shall come after the king?"'</p> + +<p>"'I, Mrs. Tabitha, I'—</p> + +<p>"'You, indeed!' she interrupted, scornfully.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, yes, if you will but condescend to give me instructions. I am +quick to learn. The short time I have been so happy as to be in your +company I have <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94" />gained much knowledge. I am sure I can imitate the +<i>mew</i>-sic of your voice. I know I can gently wave my tail, and touch my +left whisker with my paw as you do. When I leave you I shall spend every +moment till we meet again in practising your airs and graces, till I +make them all my own. Dear friend,—if you will let me call you +so,—help me to King Cæsar's place.'</p> + +<p>"There was much that was flattering to Mrs. Velvetpaw in this speech.</p> + +<p>"'Well,' said she, 'I will see what can be done. There, go home now, and +the first thing to be done is to make yourself perfectly clean. Wash +yourself twelve times in the day, from the end of your nose to the tip +of your tail. Take particular pains with your paws. A cat of refinement +is known by the delicacy and cleanliness of her <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95" />feet. Farewell! After +three days, meet me here again.'</p> + +<p>"You can imagine how faithfully Furry-Purry followed these +directions—how with her sharp tongue she smoothed and stroked every +hair of her pretty coat, and washed her face again and again with her +wet paws.</p> + +<p>"'You are wretchedly thin!' Mrs. Tabitha said at their next meeting. +'That fault can only be remedied by a generous diet. You must look me +full in the face when I talk to you. Really, you have no need to be +ashamed of your eyes, for they are decidedly bright and handsome. When +you walk, don't bend your legs till your body almost touches the ground. +That gives you a wretchedly hang-cat appearance. Tread softly and +daintily, but with dignity and grace of carriage. There <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96" />must be other +bad habits I have not mentioned.'</p> + +<p>"'I am afraid I spit sometimes.'</p> + +<p>"'Don't do that—it is considered vulgar. Don't bristle your tail. Don't +show your claws except to mice. Keep such control over yourself as never +to be surprised out of a dignified composure of manner.'</p> + +<p>"Just here, without the slightest warning, there rushed from the thicket +near them a large fierce-looking dog. Up went Mrs. Velvetpaw's back in +an arch. Every hair of her body stood on end. Sharp-pointed claws +protruded from each velvet foot, and, hissing and spitting, she tumbled +over Furry-Purry in her haste, and scrambled to the topmost branch of +the pear-tree. The little cat followed, imitating her guide in every +particular. As for the dog, which <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97" />was in pursuit of game, he did not +even look at them; and when he was out of sight they came down from the +tree, Mrs. Tabitha descending with the dignified composure she had just +recommended to her young friend. She made no allusion to her hurried +ascent.</p> + +<p>"'To-morrow night,' said she, 'as soon as it is dark, meet me in the +backyard of the brick house.'</p> + +<p>"Half glad and half frightened, Furry-Purry walked by her side the next +evening, delighting in the soft green turf of the yard and the +sweet-smelling shrubs against which she ventured to rub herself as they +passed. Mrs. Tabitha led her round the house to a piazza draped with +clustering vines.</p> + +<p>"'Come here to-morrow,' said she. 'Walk boldly up the steps and seat +<a name="Page_98" id="Page_98" />yourself in full view of that window. Look your prettiest—behave your +best. Assume a pensive expression of countenance, with your eyes +uplifted—so. If you are driven away, go directly, but return. Be +strong, be brave, be persevering. Now, my dear, I have done all I can +for you, and I wish you good luck,'</p> + +<p>"The next morning a little girl living in the brick house, whose name +was Winnie Gay, looked out of the dining-room window.</p> + +<p>"'Come quick, mamma!' she called; 'here's a cat on our piazza—a little +yellow cat, and she's looking right up at me. May I open the door?'</p> + +<p>"'No, indeed!' said Mrs. Gay; 'we want no strange cats here.'</p> + +<p>"'But she looks hungry, mamma. She has just opened her mouth at me +<a name="Page_99" id="Page_99" />without making a bit of noise. Can't I give her a saucer of milk?'</p> + +<p>"'Come away from the window, Winnie, and don't notice her. You will only +encourage her to come again. There, pussy, run away home; we can't have +you here.'</p> + +<p>"'Now, mamma, you have frightened her. See how she keeps looking back. +I'm afraid you've hurt her feelings. Dear little pussy! I wish I might +call you back.'</p> + +<p>"Furry-Purry was not discouraged at this her first unsuccessful attempt. +The child's blue eyes beamed a welcome, and the lady's face was gentle +and kind.</p> + +<p>"'If I catch a mouse,' thought the cat, 'and bring it to them to show +what I can do, perhaps I shall gain their favor.' Then she put away all +the fine airs and graces Mrs. Velvetpaw had <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100" />taught her, and became the +sly, supple, watchful creature nature had made her. By a hole in the +granary she crouched and waited with unwearied patience one, two, almost +three, hours. Then she gave a sudden spring, there was one sharp little +shriek from the victim, a snap of pussy's jaws, and her object was +accomplished. She appeared again on the piazza, and, laying a dead mouse +on the floor, crouched beside it in an attitude of perfect grace, and +looked beseechingly in Mrs. Gay's face.</p> + +<p>"'Well, you <i>are</i> a pretty creature!' that lady said, 'with your soft +white paws and yellow coat,'</p> + +<p>"'May I have her for my cat, mamma?' Winnie said. 'I thought I never +should love another cat when dear old Cæsar died; but this little thing +is such a beauty that I love her already. May I have her for mine?'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_101" id="Page_101" />But while Mrs. Gay hesitated, Furry-Purry, who could not hear what +they said, and who, to tell the truth, was in a great hurry to eat her +mouse, ran off with it to the barn. The next morning, however, she came +again, and Mr. Gay, who was waiting for his breakfast, was called to the +window.</p> + +<p>"'My cat has come again, papa, with another mouse—a monstrous one, +too.'</p> + +<p>"'That isn't a mouse,' Mr. Gay said, looking at the plump, silver-gray +creature Furry-Purry carefully deposited on the piazza-floor. 'Bless me! +I believe it is that rascal of a mole that's gnawed my hyacinth and +tulip bulbs. I offered the gardener's boy two dollars if he would catch +the villain. To whom does that cat belong, Winnie? She's worth her +weight in gold.'</p> + +<p>"'I don't believe she belongs to any<a name="Page_102" id="Page_102" />body, papa; but I think she wants +to belong to us, for she keeps coming and coming. <i>May</i> I have her for +mine? I am sure mamma will say yes if you are willing.'</p> + +<p>"'Why not?' said he. 'Run for a saucer of milk, and we will coax her +in.'</p> + +<p>"We who are acquainted with Furry-Purry's private history know how +little coaxing was needed.</p> + +<p>"As soon as the door was opened she walked in, and, laying the dead mole +at Mr. Gay's feet, rubbed herself against his leg, purred gently, looked +up into his face with her round bright eyes, and, in very expressive cat +language, claimed him for her master. When he stooped to caress her, and +praised and petted her for the good service she had rendered him, the +happy creature rolled over and over on the soft carpet in an ecstasy of +delight.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_103" id="Page_103" />Then Winnie clapped her hands for joy.</p> + +<p>"'You are our own cat,' she said. 'You shall have sugar and cream to +eat. You shall lie on Cæsar's silk cushion; and because you are yellow, +and papa says you are worth your weight in gold, your name shall be Gold +Elsie,'</p> + +<p>"So Furry-Purry became a family cat.</p> + +<p>"The first time she met Mrs. Velvetpaw after this change in her life, +that excellent tabby looked at her with evident admiration.</p> + +<p>"'How handsome you have grown!' said she; 'your eyes are topaz, your +breast and paws are the softest velvet, your coat is spun gold. My dear, +you are the belle of cats,'</p> + +<p>"'Dear Mrs. Velvetpaw,' said Gold Elsie, 'my beauty and my prosperity I +owe in large measure to you. But <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104" />for your wise counsels I should still +be a'—</p> + +<p>"'Hush! don't speak the word. My dear, never again allude to your +origin. It is a profound secret. You are received in the best society. +Mrs. Silvercoat tells me it is reported that your master sought far and +wide to find a worthy successor to King Cæsar, and that he esteems +himself specially fortunate in that, after great labor and expense, he +procured <i>you</i>. The ignorance you sometimes exhibit of the customs of +genteel society is attributed to your foreign breeding.'</p> + +<p>"'Mrs. Tabitha, I feel at times a strong desire to visit my old friends +in the barn once more.'</p> + +<p>"'Let me entreat you, my dear Miss Elsie, never again to think of it.'</p> + +<p>"'But there is poor Mrs. Barebones almost gone with a consumption. I +<a name="Page_105" id="Page_105" />should like to show her some kindness.'</p> + +<p>"'Her sufferings are ended. She has passed to the land of cats,'</p> + +<p>"'Poor Mrs. Barebones! and Robber Grim? Do you happen to have heard any +thing of him?'</p> + +<p>"Silently Mrs. Tabitha beckoned her to follow, and, leading the way to +the orchard, pointed to a sour-apple tree, where Gold Elsie beheld a +ghastly sight. By a cord tied tightly about his neck, his jaws +distended, his one eye starting from its socket, hung Robber +Grim—stiff, motionless, dead.</p> + +<p>"They hurried away, and presently Gold Elsie timidly inquired after her +former playmate, Tom Skip-an'-jump.</p> + +<p>"'Don't, my dear!' said Mrs. Velvetpaw; 'really, I can not submit to be +farther <i>cat</i>echized. If you are truly grateful to me, Elsie, for the +service<a name="Page_106" id="Page_106" /> I have rendered you, and wish to do me credit in the high +position to which I have raised you, you must, you certainly must, break +every tie that binds you to your former life.'</p> + +<p>"'I will, Mrs. Tabitha, I will,' said the little cat; and never again in +Mrs. Velvetpaw's presence did she mention Tom Skip-an'-jump's name,"</p> + +<p>"And didn't she ever see him again?" Nellie Dimock wanted to know. "I am +sure there was no harm in Tom."</p> + +<p>"Well, but you know she couldn't go with <i>that set</i> any more after she +had got into good society," said Mollie Elliot.</p> + +<p>"Mollie has caught Mrs. Velvetpaw's exact tone," said Florence Austin, +at which all the girls laughed.</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't care," Mollie answered; "she was a nice little cat, and +deserved all her good fortune."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" /><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107" />CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h2>TOMMY TOMPKINS' YELLOW DOG.</h2> + + +<p>"I have a letter to read to you this afternoon, girls," said Miss Ruth; +"also the story of a yellow dog. The letter is from a friend of mine who +spends her summers in a quiet village in Maine, in a fine old mansion +overlooking green fields and a beautiful lake with hills sloping down to +it on every side. Here is the letter she wrote me last June:—</p> + +<p>"'We have come back again to our summer home—to the old house, the +broad piazza, the high-backed chairs, and the blue china. The clump of +cinnamon roses across the way is one mass of spicy bloom, and soon its +fragrance <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108" />will be mingled with that of new-mown hay. There is nothing +new about the place but Don Quixote, the great handsome English mastiff. +Do you know the mastiff—his lion-like shape, his smooth, fawn-colored +coat, his black nose, and kind, intelligent eyes, their light-hazel +contrasting with the black markings around them? If you do, you must +pardon this description.</p> + +<p>"'I am very fond of Don, and he of me. He belongs to our cousin, whose +house is but one field removed from ours; but he is here much of the +time. He evidently feels that both houses are under his protection, and +passes his nights between the two. Often we hear his slow step as he +paces the piazza round and round like a sentinel. He is only fifteen +months old, and of course feels no older than a little dog, <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109" />though he +weighs one hundred and thirty pounds, and measures six feet from nose to +tail.</p> + +<p>"'He can't understand why he isn't a lap-dog, and does climb our laps +after his fashion, putting up one hind leg and resting his weight upon +it with great satisfaction. We have good fun with him out of doors, +where his puppyhood quite gets the better of his dignity, and he runs in +circles and fetches mad bounds of pure glee.</p> + +<p>"'One day, lying in my hammock, with Don on the piazza at my feet, I put +his charms and virtues together in verses, and I send them to you as the +most succinct account I can give of my new pet. As I conned them over, +repeating them half-aloud, at the frequent mention of his name Don +raised his head with an intelligent and appreci<a name="Page_110" id="Page_110" />ative look. Here are the +verses. I call them</p> + + +<p><b>DOG-GEREL.</b></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">'Don! Don! beautiful Don!<br /></span> +<span>Graceful and tall, with majestic mien,<br /></span> +<span>Fawn-colored coat of the softest sheen,<br /></span> +<span>The stateliest dog that the sun shines on,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Beautiful Don!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Don! Don! frolicsome Don!<br /></span> +<span>Chasing your tail at a game of tag,<br /></span> +<span>Dancing a jig with a kitchen rag,<br /></span> +<span>Rearing and tearing, and all for fun,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Frolicsome Don!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Don! Don! affectionate Don!<br /></span> +<span>Looking your love with soft kind eyes,<br /></span> +<span>Climbing our laps, quite forgetting your size;<br /></span> +<span>With kissing and coaxing you never are done,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Affectionate Don!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Don! Don! chivalrous Don!<br /></span> +<span>Stalking all night piazza and yard,<br /></span> +<span>Sleepless and watchful, our sentinel guard,<br /></span> +<span>Squire of dames is the name you have won,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Chivalrous Don!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111" /> +<span class="i4">Don! Don! devotional Don!<br /></span> +<span>When the Bible is opened you climb to your place,<br /></span> +<span>And listen with solemn, immovable face,<br /></span> +<span>Nor frolic nor coax till the chapter is done,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Devotional Don!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Don! Don! wonderful Don!<br /></span> +<span>Devotional, faithful, affectionate one,<br /></span> +<span>If owning these virtues when only a pup,<br /></span> +<span>What will you be when you are grown up?<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Wonderful Don!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"And now by way of contrast," said Miss Ruth as she folded the letter, +"I have a story to tell you of a poor little forlorn, homely, +insignificant dog, of low birth and no breeding, which was picked up on +the street by a boy I know, and which made for himself friends and a +good home by seizing the first opportunity that offered to do his duty +and protect the property of those who <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112" />had taken him in. I have no doubt +that Don Quixote, intelligent, faithful, kind, with not a drop of +plebeian blood in his noble body, will fulfill all the expectations of +his friends, and we shall hear of many a brave and gallant deed of his +performing; but when you have heard what Tommy Tompkins has to tell, I +think you will say that not even Don Quixote could have done himself +more credit under the circumstances than</p> + + +<p><b>TOMMY TOMPKINS' YELLOW DOG.</b></p> + +<p>"Tommy shall tell the story as he told it to me:—</p> + +<p>"'Yes, marm, he's my dog. His name's Grip. My father paid five dollars +for that dog. You look as if you thought he wasn't worth it; but I +wouldn't take twice the money for him, <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113" />not if you was to pay it over +this minute. I know he ain't a handsome dog. I don't think yellow is a +pretty color for a dog, do you? and I wish he had a little more of a +tail. Liz says he's cur-tailed (Liz thinks it's smart to make puns), but +he'll look a great deal better when his ear gets well and his hair grows +out and covers the bare spots—don't you think so? But father says, +"Handsome is that handsome does," and nobody can say but that our dog +did the handsome thing when he saved over two hundred dollars in money +and all mother's silver spoons and lots of other things from being +stolen—hey, Grip? We call him Grip 'cause he hung on to that fellow so +till the policeman got in to take him.</p> + +<p>"'What fellow? Why, the burglar, of course. Didn't you read about it <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114" />in +the newspaper? There was a long piece published about it the day after +it happened, with headings in big letters: "The house No. 35 Wells +Avenue, residence of Thomas Tompkins, the well-known dealer in hardware, +cutlery, etc., was entered last night by burglars. Much valuable +property saved through the courage and pluck of a small dog belonging to +the family." They didn't get that part right, for he didn't belong to us +then. You just wait, and I'll read the whole piece to you. I've got it +somewhere in my pockets. You see, I cut it out of the paper to read to +the boys at school.</p> + +<p>"'You'd rather I told you about it? Well. Lie down, Grip! Be quiet! +can't you? He don't mean any thing by sniffing round your ankles in that +way; anyhow, he won't catch hold unless I <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115" />tell him to; but you see, +ever since that night he wants to go for every strange man or woman that +comes near the place. Liz says "he's got burglars on the brain."</p> + +<p>"'I guess I'll begin at the beginning and tell you how I came by him. +One night after school I'd been down to the steamboat landing on an +errand for father, and along on River Street there was a crowd of +loafers round two dogs in a fight. This dog was one of 'em, and the +other was a bulldog twice his size. The bulldog's master was looking on, +without so much as trying to part 'em; but nobody was looking after the +yellow dog: he didn't seem to have any master. Well, I want to see fair +play in every thing. It makes me mad to see a fellow thrash a boy half +his size, or a big dog chew up a <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116" />little one. So I steps up and says to +the bulldog's master, "Why don't you call off your dog?" but he only +swore at me and told me to mind my own business.</p> + +<p>"'Well, I know a trick or two about dogs, and I ran into a grocer's shop +close by and got two cents' worth of snuff, and I let that bulldog have +it all right in his face and eyes. Of course he had to let go to sneeze; +and I grabbed the yellow dog and ran. It was great fun. I could hear +that dog sneezing and coughing, and his master yelling to me, but I +never once held up or looked behind me till I was half-way up Brooks +Street.</p> + +<p>"'Then I set the yellow dog down on the sidewalk and looked him over. +My! he's a beauty now to what he was then, for he's clean and well-fed +and <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117" />respectable looking; but then he was nothing but skin and bone, and +covered all over with mud and dirt, and one ear was torn and one eye +swelled shut, and he limped when he walked, and—well, never mind, old +Grip! you was all right inside, wasn't you?</p> + +<p>"'Well, I never dreaded any thing more in all my life than taking that +dog home. Mother hates dogs. She never would have one in the house, +though I've always wanted a dog of my own. I knew Liz would call him a +horrid little monster, and Fred would poke fun at me—and, oh, dear! I'd +rather have gone to the dentist's or taken a Saturday-night scrub than +go into that dining-room with Grip at my heels.</p> + +<p>"'But it had to be done. They were all at supper, and mother took it +just as I was afraid she would. If she only <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118" />would have waited and let +me tell how I came by the dog, I thought maybe she would have felt sorry +for the poor thing; but she was in such a hurry to get his muddy feet +off the dining-room carpet that she wouldn't listen to a single word I +said, but kept saying, "Turn him out! turn him out!" till I found it was +no use, and I was just going to do as she said when father looked up +from his supper, and says he: "Let the boy tell his story, mother. Where +did you get the dog, Tommy?" "'We were all surprised, for father hardly +ever interfered with mother about us children—he's so taken up with +business, you know, he hasn't any time left for the family. But I was +glad enough to tell him how I came by the dog; and he laughed, and said +he didn't see any objection to my keeping <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119" />him over night. I might give +him some supper and tie him up in the shed-chamber, and in the morning +he'd have him taken round to Police-station C, where, if he wasn't +claimed in four days, he'd be taken care of.</p> + +<p>"'I knew well enough how they'd take care of him at Station C. They'd +shoot him—that's what they do to stray dogs without any friends. But +anyhow, I could keep him over night, for mother would think it was all +right, now father had said so. So I took him to the shed-chamber and +gave him a good supper,—how he did eat!—and I found an old mat for him +to lie on, and got a basin of warm water and some soap, and washed him +as clean as I could and rubbed him dry, and made him warm and +comfortable: and he licking my hands and face and wagging <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120" />his stump of +a tail and thanking me for it as plain as though he could talk.</p> + +<p>"'But oh, how he hated to be tied up! Fact is, he made such a fuss I +stayed out there with him till past my bed-time; and when at last I had +to go I left him howling and tugging at the string. Well, I went to +sleep, and, after a while, I woke up, and that dog was at it still. I +could hear him howl just as plain, though the shed-chamber was at the +back of the house, ever so far from my room. I knew mother hadn't come +upstairs, for the gas was burning in the halls, as she always turned it +off the last thing; and I thought to myself: "If she hears the dog when +she comes up, maybe she'll put him out, and I never shall see him +again." And before I knew what I was about I was running through the +hall <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121" />and the trunk-room, and so out into the shed. It was pitch dark +out there, but I found my way to Grip easy enough by the noise he made +when he saw me; and it didn't take long to untie the string and catch +him up and run back with him to my room. I knew he would be as still as +a mouse in there with me. You were lonesome out there in the shed, +weren't you, Grip?</p> + +<p>"'What would mother say? Well, you see, I meant to keep awake till she +came upstairs and tell her all about it; but I was so tired I dropped +asleep in a minute, and the first thing I knew I was dreaming that I was +running up Brooks Street with Grip in my arms, and the bull-dog close +after us, and just as he was going to spring mother screamed, and +somebody kept saying, "'St, boy! 'st, boy! stick to him, good <a name="Page_122" id="Page_122" />dog! +stick to him!" And then I woke up, and mother really was screaming, and +'twas Fred who was saying, "Stick to him! stick to him!" And the gas was +lit in the hall, and there was a great noise and hubbub out there, and I +rushed out, and there was a man on the floor and the yellow dog had him +by the throat. Father stood in the door-way with his pistol cocked, and +he said in a quiet kind of way (just as father always speaks when he +means business): "If you stir you are a dead man!" But I should like to +know how he could stir with that grip on his throat!</p> + +<p>"'Then there came a banging and ringing at our front door, and Fred ran +to open it, and in rushed our policeman—I mean the one that takes our +street on his beat. He had heard the noise <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123" />outside, you see, and, for a +wonder, was on hand when he was wanted; and he just went for that fellow +on the floor and clapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists as quick as +you could turn your hand over; and when he got a look at him he says: +"Oh, it's you, Bill Long, is it? We've been wanting you for some time at +the lodge (that was his name for the police-station). Well, get up and +come along!"</p> + +<p>"'But I called the dog off.</p> + +<p>"'We didn't one of us go to bed again that night. Father and Fred looked +through the house, and father said it was the neatest piece of work in +the burglary line he ever saw done—real professionals, they were. There +was two of 'em. They'd taken plenty of time. The forks and the spoons +and the two hundred dollars in money <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124" />was all done up in neat packages, +and they'd been through father's desk and the secretary drawers; and +they'd had a lunch of cold chicken and mince-pie, and left the marks of +their greasy hands on the best damask napkins Bridget had ironed that +day and left to air by the kitchen range. And then, you see, while one +stayed below to keep watch, the other went up to finish the job; and he +would have finished it, too, and both would have got away with all the +things if it hadn't have been for that dog. Look at him! will you? I +believe he understands every word I say as well as you do.</p> + +<p>"'Well, right at the door of father's room, Grip took him. How did he +lay the fellow on his back? We suppose he was creeping into the room on +his hands and knees,—they often do, <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125" />father says,—and the dog made a +rush at him in front and gripped him in the throat, and the weight of +the dog threw him backward; and once down, Grip kept him there—see?</p> + +<p>"'Next morning at breakfast father said: "Tommy, how came the dog in the +upper hall last night? I told you to tie him up in the shed-chamber." +Then I had to own up, and tell how I went late in the evening and +brought him to my room because he howled so. I said I was real sorry, +and father said he would try to forgive me, seeing it all turned out +well, and if Grip hadn't been there we should have lost so much money. +And says I: "Father, don't you mean to take him round to Station C this +morning?" "No, I don't," says father. Then mother said she didn't know +but she'd about as soon lose the <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126" />silver as to keep such a dog as that +in the house, and Fred said if I must have a dog, why didn't father get +me a black-and-tan terrier—"or a lovely pug," says Liz; and between 'em +they got me so stirred up I didn't know what to do. I said I didn't want +a black-and-tan, and I'd throw a pug out of the window! And if nobody +wanted to keep Grip, we'd go off together somewhere and earn our living, +and I guessed the next time burglars got into the house and carried off +all the money and things because we weren't there to stop 'em, they'd be +sorry they 'd treated us so. Then I looked out of the window and winked +hard to keep from crying. Wasn't I a silly?</p> + +<p>"'For they were only teasing me, and every one of them wanted to keep +Grip. Well, that's all. No, it isn't quite all <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127" />either; for one morning +a man came to the house and wanted to see father—horrid man with a red +face and a squint in one eye. I remembered him right away. He was one of +the crowd looking on at the dog-fight down in River Street. He said he'd +lost a dog, a very valuable dog, and he'd heard we'd got him. Father +asked what kind of a dog, and he said yellow, and went on describing our +Grip exactly, till I couldn't hold in another minute for fear father +would let him have the dog. So I got round behind father's chair and +whispered: "Buy him, father! buy him!"</p> + +<p>"'Fred called me a great goony, and said if I'd kept still father could +have got the dog for half what he paid for him. Just because Fred is +sixteen he thinks he knows every thing, and he's <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128" />always lording it over +me. He says I'll never make a business man—I ain't sharp enough. But I +think five dollars is cheap enough for a dog that can tackle a burglar +and scare off tramps and pedlars—don't you?'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" /><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129" />CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h2>ONE DAY IN A MODEL CITY.</h2> + + +<p>"I will tell you, to-day," said Miss Ruth, after the members of her +Society were quietly settled at their work, "about a race of little +people who lived thousands and thousands of years ago. When the great +trees were growing, out of which the coal we use was made, this race +inhabited the earth as they do now in great numbers. We know this +because their bodies are found perfectly preserved in pieces of coal and +amber. Amber, you know, is a kind of gum that drops from certain trees +and hardens, becoming very transparent and of a pretty yellow color. It +is supposed that the little creatures found imbedded <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130" />in it came to +their death in running up the trunks of these trees, their feet sticking +in the soft gum, and drop by drop trickling down on them till they were +fast imprisoned in a beautiful transparent tomb.</p> + +<p>"I remember seeing once at a museum a small black ant preserved in +amber, and he looked so natural and lifelike, so like the ants we see +running about to-day, that it was hard to realize that he came to his +death so long, so very long ago; in fact, before this earth of ours was +ready for the creation of man. What strange sights those little +bead-eyes of his must have seen!</p> + +<p>"When our ancestors were rude barbarians, living in caves and in holes +they dug in the ground, the little people dwelt in cities built with +wonderful skill and ingenuity; and while our fore<a name="Page_131" id="Page_131" />fathers were leading a +rude, selfish life,—herding together, it is true, but with no organized +government or fixed principles of industry and good order, living each +one for himself, the strong oppressing the weak,—the little folks were +ruled by a strict civil and military code. They lived together as +brethren, having all things in common—were temperate, cleanly, +industrious, civilized.</p> + +<p>"Well, there are plenty of their descendants living all about us to-day, +and I want you to become better acquainted with them, for they are very +wise and cunning in their ways. Whenever you cross a meadow, or even +when you are walking on the public road, unless you take heed to your +steps, the chances are that you set your foot more than once on a little +heap of loose sand that we call an ant-hill. The next time you discover +the accident—I am sure you will <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132" />not do it on purpose—wait a few +moments and see what will happen. What you have done is to block up the +main entrance to an underground city, sending a quantity of loose earth +down the avenue, which the inhabitants must at great labor remove.</p> + +<p>"Let us hope none of the little people were at that instant either +leaving or entering the city by that gate, for if so, they were either +killed outright or badly hurt. Soon you will see one and another citizen +pushing his way through the <i>débris</i>, running wildly and excitedly +about, as though greatly frightened and distressed at the state of +things. Then more carefully surveying the ruins, apparently consulting +together as to what is best to be done, until, a plan of action having +been devised and settled upon, if you wait long enough, you will see a +band of workers in an orderly, sys<a name="Page_133" id="Page_133" />tematic manner begin to repair the +damage. All this happens every time you tread on an ant-hill. If a +passing animal breaks down the embankment,—a horse or a cow,—of course +the injury done is much greater. In such a case every worker in the city +is put to hard labor till the streets are cleared, the houses rebuilt, +and all traces of the disaster removed.</p> + +<p>"I am sure you will be interested to know what goes on from morning till +night in one of these ant-cities, and I have written out on purpose to +read to you this afternoon an account of one day's proceedings. I call +my paper</p> + + +<p><b>LIFE IN AN ANT-HILL; OR, ONE DAY IN A MODEL CITY.</b></p> + +<p>"At sunrise the doors and gates were opened, and every body was awake +and <a name="Page_134" id="Page_134" />stirring, from the queen in her palace to the servants who brought +in the meals and kept things tidy about the houses; and then, in +accordance with a good old custom handed down from generation to +generation, the first thing every body did on getting out of bed was to +take a bath. Such a washing and scrubbing and sponging off and rubbing +down as went on in every house, you can imagine. It made no difference +what kind of work one was going about,—plastering, brick-laying, or +digging of ditches,—like a sensible fellow, he went fresh and clean to +it every day.</p> + +<p>"Of course the queen-mother and the little princes and princesses, with +a palace full of servants to wait on them, had all these offices of the +toilet performed for them; but what do you <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135" />think of common working +folks going about from house to house to help each other wash up for the +day? Fancy having a neighbor step in bright and early to wash your face +and hands for you, or give you a sponge-bath, or a nice dry rub!</p> + +<p>"After the wash came milking-time. Now, all the cows were pastured +outside the city, and the servants who had the care of them hurried off +as fast as they could, because the milk was needed for breakfast, +especially for the babies. A beautiful road led to the milking-ground, +broad and level, and so clean and well kept that not a stick or stone or +rut or mud-hole was to be found in it from beginning to end. And this +was true of all the streets and avenues, lanes and alleys, about the +city.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_136" id="Page_136" />I don't know how they managed to keep them in such good +condition—whether they appointed street commissioners or a committee on +highways; but I wish those who have the care of the roads in Greenmeadow +would take a lesson from them, so that two little girls I know needn't +be kept from church so many Sundays in the spring because the mud is +deep at the crossings.</p> + +<p>"But I must tell you about the cows. There were a great many of them +quietly feeding in their pleasant pasture, and they were of several +different kinds. I don't know by what names their masters called them, +but I do know these gentle creatures were to them just what the pretty +Alderneys and Durhams are to us, and that they were treated with all the +kindness and consideration the wise <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137" />farmer gives to his domestic +animals. There was one kind, a little white cow with queer crooked horns +and quite blind. These they made pets of, not putting them out to +pasture with the rest of the herd, but allowing them to walk the streets +and go in and out of the houses at their pleasure, treating them much as +we treat our cats and dogs.</p> + +<p>"While the milking was going on, every cow was stroked and patted and +gently caressed, and the good little creatures responded to this +treatment by giving down their milk without a kick or a single toss of +the horns. Such nice milk as it was—as sweet and as rich as honey! and +the babies who fed on it got as fat as little pigs.</p> + +<p>"By the time breakfast was over, the sun was well up, and all in the +city went <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138" />about the day's business. There was much building going on, +for the place was densely populated and was growing rapidly. Great +blocks were rising, story upon story, every part going on at the same +time, with halls and galleries and closets and winding staircases, all +connected and leading into each other, after a curious and wonderful +fashion. Of course it took a great many workmen to construct these +buildings—carpenters, masons, bricklayers, plasterers, besides +architects and engineers; for the houses were all built on scientific +principles, and there were under-ground passages to be built that +required great skill and practical knowledge in their construction.</p> + +<p>"The mortar and bricks were made outside the city gates, and all day +gangs of workers journeyed back and forth to <a name="Page_139" id="Page_139" />bring in supplies. They +were hurrying, bustling, busy, but in good order and at perfect +understanding with each other. If one stopped to exchange greetings with +an acquaintance, to hear a bit of gossip perhaps, or to tell the latest +news, he would pick up his load in a great hurry and start off at a +round trot, as though he meant to make up for lost time. More than one +overburdened worker was eased of a part of his load, some good-natured +comrade adding it to his own. Thousands of bricks and as many loads of +mortar were brought into the city by these industrious people every day, +and their work was done quietly, thoroughly, and with wonderful +quickness and precision.</p> + +<p>"All this while there was plenty of indoor work going on; and the +queen's body-guard, the babies' nurses, the <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140" />attendants on the princes +and princesses, the waiters and tenders, the sweepers and cleaners—all +were as busy as you please. It was a pretty sight to see the nurses +bring the babies out-of-doors for a sun-bath. The plump little +things—some of them wrapped in mantles of white or yellow silk, others +with only their skins to cover them—were laid down in soft spots on the +grass, where they were watched with the tenderest care by their +foster-mothers. If they were hungry, they had but to open their mouths +and there was plenty of food ready for them. If so much as a breath of +wind stirred the grass, or a little cloud obscured the sun, every nurse +snatched a baby and scampered back with it to the nursery, lest it +should take cold.</p> + +<p>"At noon the queen, attended by <a name="Page_141" id="Page_141" />her body-guard, made a royal progress +through the city. She was of a portly presence, had pretty silky hair, +and was dressed plainly in dark velvet. The little princesses wore +ruffles and silk mantillas, of all the colors of the rainbow; but the +queen-mother had far more important business to attend to than the +adornment of her person, and in her self-devotion to her commonwealth +had long ago, of her own free will, laid aside flounces and furbelows. +What a good motherly body she was! and how devoted her subjects were to +her! Every-where she went she was followed by an admiring crowd. No home +was too humble for her to enter, and under each roof she was received +with the liveliest demonstrations of loyalty and delight. The happy +people thronged about her. They skipped, <a name="Page_142" id="Page_142" />they danced, they embraced +each other in their joy. At times it was hard to restrain them within +proper bounds of respect to the royal person; but the guard well +understood their duties. They watched her every step, shielding and +protecting her with respectful devotion. They formed a barrier about her +when she rested, offered her refreshment at her first symptom of +weariness, and presently conducted her in regal state back to the +palace, hastening her progress at the last, that she might be spared the +sight of a sad little cavalcade just then approaching the gate.</p> + +<p>"There had been an accident to the workers employed in excavating an +under-ground road. A portion of the earth-works had caved in, and two +unfortunates had been buried in the ruins. Their companions, after hours +of<a name="Page_143" id="Page_143" /> arduous and indefatigable labor, had succeeded in recovering the +bodies, and were bringing them home for burial; while a third +victim—still living, but grievously crushed and wounded—was borne +tenderly along, with frequent stoppages by the way as his weakness +required. A crowd of sympathizing neighbors and friends went out to meet +the wonderful procession. Strong, willing arms relieved the weary +bearers of their burden, and the sufferer was conveyed to his home, +where his poor body was cleansed, and a healing ointment of wonderful +efficacy and power applied to his wounds. Meanwhile the corpses were +decently disposed outside the gates, awaiting burial; graves were +prepared in the cemetery, and at sunset the funeral took place.</p> + +<p>"But the day was not to end with <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144" />this sad ceremony; for at twilight a +sentinel ran in with the glad news that two well-beloved citizens, sent +on an embassy to a distant country, and who had remained so long away +that they had been given up for dead, were returning: in fact, were at +that moment coming up the avenue to the gate. Then was there great +rejoicing, the whole city turning out to welcome them; and the poor +travelers, footsore and weary, and ready but now to lie down and die by +the road-side, so spent were they by the perils and hardships they had +undergone, suddenly found themselves within sight of home, surrounded by +friends, companions, brothers, who embraced them rapturously, praising +them for their fortitude and bravery, pitying their present weakness, +caressing, cheering, comforting them.<a name="Page_145" id="Page_145" /> So they were brought in triumph +back to their beloved city, where a banquet was prepared in honor of +their return.</p> + +<p>"So general and engrossing was the interest felt in this event, that a +public calamity had well-nigh followed. The attendants on the princes +and princesses (usually most vigilant and faithful), in the excitement +of the occasion, forgot their charge, and the young folks instantly +seized the opportunity to rush out of the city by a side gate; and when +they were discovered were half-way across the meadow, and making for the +wood beyond. In this wood (very dark and dreary) great danger, possibly +death, would have overtaken them; but the silly things, impatient of the +wholesome restraint in which, by order of the government, they were held +till they should arrive at years of discretion, <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146" />thought only of gaining +their freedom, and were pushing on at a great pace, frisking and +frolicking together as they went. They were, however, seen in time to +avert the catastrophe, speedily brought back to duty, and given +decidedly, though respectfully, to understand that, though scions of a +royal race, they were still to consider themselves under tutors and +governors.</p> + +<p>"Then all was quiet. The gates were closed, the good little people laid +themselves down to sleep, the sentinels began their watch, and night +settled down upon the peaceful city. Presently the moon rose, lighting +its single shapely dome, the deserted road lately trod-den by so many +busy feet, and the dewy meadow where the cattle were resting.</p> + +<p>"And now I wish we might say goodnight to the simple, kindly people +whose <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147" />occupations we have followed for a day, leaving them in the +assurance that many such days were to follow, and that they were long to +enjoy the peace and prosperity they so richly deserved. How pleasant to +think of them building their houses, tending their flocks, taking care +of the little ones, waiting upon their good queen, in the practice of +all those virtues that make a community happy and prosperous! But, alas! +this very day the chieftains of a neighboring tribe had met and planned +an assault upon this quiet city that was to result in great loss of +property and life, and of that which to them was far more precious than +either.</p> + +<p>"There was not the shadow of an excuse for the invasion. The hill +people—a fierce, brave tribe, trained under a military government, and +accustomed <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148" />to fighting from their youth—had no quarrel with the +citizens of the plain, who had no mind to fight with their neighbors or +to interfere with any one's rights. But the hill people were +slave-holders, and, whenever their establishments wanted replenishing, +they sent out an army to attack some neighboring city; and if they +gained the victory (as they were pretty sure to do, for they were a +fierce, brave race), they would rush into every house in the city and +carry off all the babies they could find, to be brought up as slaves.</p> + +<p>"And this is what they had planned to do to the pretty city lying asleep +in the moonlight on a July evening.</p> + +<p>"They started about noon—a large body of infantry, making a fine show; +for they wore polished armor as black as jet, that shone in the sun, and +every one <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149" />of them carried a murderous weapon. The advance guard was +made up of the biggest and bravest, while the veterans, and the young +soldiers who lacked experience, brought up the rear.</p> + +<p>"They had a long wearisome march across a rocky plain and up a steep +hill. Then there was a river to cross, and on the other side a stretch +of desert land, where the hot sun beat upon their heads, and where it +must have been hard to keep up the rapid pace at which they marched. But +they pressed on, and woe to him who stumbled and fell! for not a soldier +was allowed to stop an instant to help his fallen comrade. The whole +army swept on and over him, and there was no straggling from the close +ranks or resting for one instant till the day's journey was +accomplished.</p> + +<p>"The last stage of the journey was <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150" />through a dreary wood. Here they +were exposed to many unseen dangers. Beasts of prey sprang out upon and +devoured them. A big bird swooped down and carried aloft some poor +wretch whose fate it was to fill the hungry maw of a baby bird. And many +an unfortunate, getting entangled in a soft gray curtain of silk that +hung across the path, struggled vainly to extricate himself, till the +hairy monster which had woven the snare crept out of his den and cracked +his bones and sucked the last drop of his blood.</p> + +<p>"It was night when, weary and dusty, the army reached the borders of the +wood. But they forgot both their fatigue and their losses by the way +when they saw before them in the middle of a green meadow, its dome +glittering in the light of the setting <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151" />sun, the pretty, prosperous city +they had braved all these dangers to rob.</p> + +<p>"They rested that night, but were on the march soon after sunrise. A few +rushed forward to surprise the sentinels on guard, while the main body +of the army advanced more slowly, in solid phalanx, their brave +coats-of-mail catching the early rays of the sun.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile the peaceful inhabitants, all unconscious of coming disaster, +pursued their usual occupations—waiting on the queen-mother, milking +the kine, building houses, cleaning the streets. Then came the alarm: +'The foe is at the gate!' and you should have seen of what brave stuff +the little folks were made; how each one left his occupation or dropped +his implement of labor, and from palace, hall, and hut, ran out to +defend the beloved city. Only the <a name="Page_152" id="Page_152" />queen's body-guard remained and a few +of the nurses left in charge of the babies.</p> + +<p>"And it was wonderful to mark how their courage gave them strength. +Their assailants were of a taller, stronger race than they; but the +little folks had the advantage in numbers, were quiet and light in their +movements, and possessed a double portion of the bravery good patriots +feel in the defence of the commonwealth.</p> + +<p>"They threw themselves face to face and limb to limb upon their +assailants. With their living bodies they raised a wall across the track +of the army, and, as they came once and again, and yet again, they drove +them back. Hundreds were slain at every onslaught, but hundreds +instantly filled their places. There were plenty of single combats. One +would throw himself upon his antago<a name="Page_153" id="Page_153" />nist and cling there till he was cut +in pieces and fell to the ground, and another and another would spring +to take his place to meet the same fate. Dozens fought together—heads, +legs, and bodies intertwining in an indistinguishable mass, each held in +a savage grip that only loosened in death. A dozen devoted themselves to +certain death for the chance of killing a single antagonist. Surely such +desperate bravery, such generous heroism, deserved to gain a victory!</p> + +<p>"But there was a sudden rush, a break in the ranks, and, lo! the little +people were running back to the city,—back in all haste,—if, by any +possibility, they might save from the victor's clutch the treasures they +prized most. But what availed their efforts? The enemy was close behind +them, forcing <a name="Page_154" id="Page_154" />their way through the main entrance and the side gates, +till the whole army was pouring into the devoted city.</p> + +<p>"Can you imagine the scene that followed? The queen-mother and the young +princes and princesses were left undisturbed in their apartments, but +into every other house in the city, the rude soldiers rushed, searching +for the poor babies. Many of them their nurses had hidden away, hoping +that in the confusion their hiding-places would not be discovered; but +the cunning fellows—old hands some of them at the business—seemed to +know just where to look. Hundreds and hundreds of little ones were +captured that day. The faithful attendants clasped and clung to them, +suffering themselves to be torn in pieces before giving them up, but the +sacrifice was in vain.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_155" id="Page_155" />The moon shone down that night upon a ghastly scene. The dead and +dying strewed the ground, and the avenues leading to the city were +choked with the slain. Hundreds of homes were made desolate, that only +the night before were full of peaceful content.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile, the conquering army, laden with spoils, after another +difficult and toilsome journey had reached their home. The captive +babies were consigned to the care of slaves, procured long ago in a +similar way, and who, apparently contented and happy, for they knew no +other life, devoted all their energies to the service of their captors.</p> + +<p>"Well, it is an old story. Ever since the world began the strong have +oppressed the weak,—and ants or men, for greed or gold, will do their +neighbors wrong."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_156" id="Page_156" />Well," said Mollie, as Miss Ruth laid down the last sheet of her +manuscript, "if you hadn't told us beforehand that it was ants you were +going to read about I should certainly have thought they were people. +Don't they act for all the world just like folks? and who would ever +think such little creatures could be so wise!"</p> + +<p>"What I want to know," said Susie, "is, If the ant-cities are +underground, how can any one see what goes on in them?"</p> + +<p>"That is easily managed," Miss Ruth answered.</p> + +<p>"A nest is taken up with a quantity of the earth that surrounds it, then +it is cut down from the top—as you would halve a loaf of bread—and the +divided parts are placed in glass cases made purposely to receive them. +Of course, the <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157" />little people are greatly disturbed for a time, and no +wonder; but they soon grow accustomed to the new surroundings and go on +with their every-day employments as if nothing had happened. The sides +of the case make a fine firm wall for their city; they are furnished +with plenty of food and building material, and soon they can be seen +busy at work clearing their streets, building houses, feeding the +babies, and quite contented and happy in their glass city. If, after +months of separation, an ant from one half of the divided nest should be +put into the other he would be recognized at once and welcomed with joy; +but if a stranger were introduced he would be attacked and probably +killed."</p> + +<p>"We had a great time with the ants at our house last summer," said Eliza +Jones: "little mites of red things, you <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158" />know, and they <i>would</i> get into +the cake-chest and the sugar-bucket, and bothered ma so she had to keep +all the sweet things on a table with its legs in basins of water. They +couldn't get over that, you see."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" Mollie asked. "Can't they swim?"</p> + +<p>"Ours couldn't; lots of them fell in the water and were drowned."</p> + +<p>"Ants are usually quite helpless in the water," Miss Ruth said, "though +a French writer who has made the little folks a study, tells a story of +six soldier ants who rescued their companions from drowning. He put his +sugar-basin in a vessel of water, and several adventurous ants climbed +to the ceiling and dropped into it. Four missed their aim and fell +outside the bowl in the water. Their companions tried in vain to rescue +them, <a name="Page_159" id="Page_159" />then went away and presently returned accompanied by six +grenadiers, stout fellows, who immediately swam to their relief, seized +them with their pincers and brought them to land. Three were apparently +dead, but the faithful fellows licked and rubbed them quite dry, rolling +them over and over, stretching themselves on them, and in a truly +skillful and scientific manner sought to bring back life to their +benumbed bodies. Under this treatment three came to life, while one only +partly restored was carefully borne away. 'I have seen it' is Du Pont de +Nervours's comment on what he thinks may be considered a marvelous +story, though it seems no more wonderful to me than many well-attested +facts in the lives of the little people."</p> + +<p>"It's all wonderful," Susie said. "It seems as though they must think +and <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160" />reason and plan just as we do. Don't you think so, Auntie?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do, Susie. One who has long studied their ways ranks them next +to man in the scale of intelligence, and says the brain of an ant—no +larger perhaps than a fine grain of sand—must be the most wonderful +particle of matter in the world."</p> + +<p>"But they can't talk, Auntie?"</p> + +<p>"I am not so sure of that. Their voices may be too fine and high-pitched +for our great ears to hear. I fancy there is a deal of conversation +carried on in the grass and the bushes and the trees, that we know +nothing about."</p> + +<p>"How funny! What did you mean, Auntie, when you said the queen laid off +all her flounces and furbelows."</p> + +<p>"I was rather fancifully describing her wings, dear, which she takes off +herself <a name="Page_161" id="Page_161" />when she enters the nest, having no further use for them. There +are three kinds of ants in every nest: perfect males and females, and +the workers. There are many different races of ants, from the great +white ant of Africa—a terror to the natives, though in some respects +his good friend—down to the little red-and-yellow meadow ants so common +among us. The ants I have told you about, the Rufians and the Fuscans, +are natives of America, and are found in New England. The big black ant +so common here, sometimes called the jet ant, is a carpenter and a +wood-carver. His great jaws bore through the hardest wood, and his +pretty galleries and winding staircases penetrate through the beams and +rafters of many an old mansion. Not long ago I accidentally killed a +carpenter ant, and in a few minutes a comrade appeared who <a name="Page_162" id="Page_162" />slowly, and +apparently with great labor and fatigue, bore away the body. I felt as +though I were looking on at a funeral.</p> + +<p>"I wish I had time to tell you about the agricultural ant of Texas, and +the umbrella ants of Florida, who cut bits of leaf from the orange-trees +and march home with them in procession, holding each leaf in an upright +position. Fancy how odd they must look! But we have talked long enough +for this time about the little people, and I am sure you all agree with +King Solomon that they are 'exceeding wise.'"</p> + +<p>"I never will step on an ant-hill again if I can possibly help it," said +Susie. "It's too bad to make those hard-working folks so much trouble.</p> + +<p>"And I mean to put my ear close down to the ground," said Nellie Dimock, +"and listen and listen, so as to hear the ants talk to each other."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" /><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163" />CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h2>THE STORY OF OLD STAR.</h2> + + +<p>"Say, Sam!" said Roy Tyler, as the two boys were driving old Brindle +home from pasture the next evening, "don't you wish she'd tell us some +stories about horses? I'm tired of hearing about cats and ants."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know," Sammy answered; "'twas funny about old Robber +Grim. There's just such an old cat round our barn, catchin' chickens and +suckin' eggs. I've fired more rocks at that feller—hit him once in the +hind leg an' he went off limpin'."</p> + +<p>"Well, I want a horse story, and I know she'd just as soon tell one as +not, <a name="Page_164" id="Page_164" />if somebody would only ask her. Those girls will be wantin' +another cat story if we don't start something else. Girls always do like +cats," said Roy, a little scornfully. "Say, Sam, you ask her, will you?"</p> + +<p>"Why don't you ask her yourself?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know. I tried to yesterday, but somehow I couldn't get it +out."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll tell you what I will do," said good-natured Sammy. "You come +round to-night after I get my chores done up, and we'll go together and +have it over with."</p> + +<p>"All right; I'll come," said Roy.</p> + +<p>They found Miss Ruth alone, for it was Thursday night and the minister's +family were at the prayer-meeting. The September evening was chilly, and +she was sitting before an open fire.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_165" id="Page_165" />You do the talking," Roy whispered at the door, and accordingly Sammy, +after fidgeting in his seat a little, opened the subject.</p> + +<p>"Roy wants me to ask you," he began, and then stopped at a punch in the +side from Roy's knuckles, and began again: "Me and Roy would like—if it +wouldn't be too much trouble, and you'd just as soon as not—to have you +tell us a horse story next time." Then in a loud whisper aside to Roy: +"You <i>did</i> ask me! You know you did."</p> + +<p>"Well, you needn't put it all on me, if I did," Roy answered, in the +same tone.</p> + +<p>Miss Ruth appeared not to notice this by-play.</p> + +<p>"A horse story," she said pleasantly; "yes, why not?"</p> + +<p>"You see," Sammy continued, "we like to hear about cats well enough, and +<a name="Page_166" id="Page_166" />that ant battle was first-rate—I'd like to have seen it, I know; but +Roy, he says the girls might be writin' notes askin' you to tell more +cat stories and—and—well"—</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see," she said; "too much of a good thing. Well, I will tell no +more cat stories, and it shall be all horse next Wednesday. Will that +suit you, Sammy? And Roy, do you like horses very much?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, 'm," said Roy, bashfully.</p> + +<p>"He says," said Sammy, rather enjoying the office of spokesman, "when he +grows up he means to have a fast trotter. I'd like to own a good horse +myself," continued Sam.</p> + +<p>"I know a boy about your age," said Miss Ruth, "whose father gave him, +for a birthday present, a Canadian pony; a funny looking little beast, +not much <a name="Page_167" id="Page_167" />larger than a big dog, but strong enough to carry double +Herbert's weight."</p> + +<p>"Like the Shetland ponies at the show?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but larger, and not so costly. He is a thick-set, shaggy fellow, +always looking as if he were not half-groomed, with his coat all rough +and tumbled, his legs covered with thick hair, his mane hanging on both +sides of his neck, and his forelock always getting into his bright +little eyes."</p> + +<p>"What color?" said Roy.</p> + +<p>"Dark brown; not handsome, but so affectionate and intelligent that you +would love him dearly. He is as frolicsome as a kitten, and I laughed +and laughed again to see him racing round the yard, hardly able to see +for the shag of hair tumbling over his eyes, playing queer tricks and +making uncouth gam<a name="Page_168" id="Page_168" />bols, more like a big puppy than a small horse. To be +sure he has a will of his own, and has more than once—just for +fun—thrown his young master over his head; but he always stands stock +still till the boy is on his back again, and as Herbert says: 'It is +only a little way to fall from his back to the ground.'"</p> + +<p>"How fast will he go?" Roy asked.</p> + +<p>"Fast enough for a boy to ride. From five to seven miles an hour, +perhaps, and keep it up all day, if need be, for the Canadian horses +have great strength and endurance. The last time I saw Herbert he told +me a pretty story about Elf King."</p> + +<p>"Is that his name?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; isn't it a pretty name? Elf for fairy, you know, and King for the +head of the fairies. But perhaps I am keeping you, boys. Is there any +thing you ought to be doing at home?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_169" id="Page_169" />No, no!" both answered together, and Sammy answered that he did up all +his chores before he came away.</p> + +<p>"Very well; then I will tell you about Elf King's visit to the +blacksmith."</p> + +<p>"Instead of next Wednesday?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, no! I have a long story for next Wednesday. This is very +short, and doesn't count; is just a little private entertainment thrown +in on our own account."</p> + +<p>Roy, who had all this time sat uncomfortably on the edge of his chair, +settled back, and Sammy made use of his favorite expression:—</p> + +<p>"All right!"</p> + +<p>"When Elf King came into Herbert's possession he had never been shod; +but very soon he was taken to the village blacksmith and four funny +little shoes fitted to his feet, which, when he was accustomed to, he +liked very much.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_170" id="Page_170" />One day the blacksmith saw the pony trotting up to his shop without a +halter. He supposed the little thing had strayed from home, and drove +him off, and when he refused to go, threw stones at him to make him run +away. But in a few moments back he came again. When the blacksmith went +out a second time to drive him off he noticed his feet and saw that one +shoe was missing. So he made a shoe, the pony standing by, quietly +waiting. When the new shoe was fitted Elf King pawed two or three times +to see if it felt comfortable, gave a pleased little neigh, as much as +to say, 'Yes, that's all right; thank you!' and started for home on a +brisk trot.</p> + +<p>"Think how surprised and pleased Herbert was when he went to the stable +to ride Elf King to the blacksmith's, to <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171" />find that the sharp little +pony had taken the business into his own hands."</p> + +<p>"I tell you," said Roy, "that's a horse worth having. What do you +suppose that boy would take for him?"</p> + +<p>"More money than you could raise in a hurry," said Sammy. "Miss Ruth, if +you had a horse now that jibbed, would you lick him?"</p> + +<p>"That jibbed," she repeated doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes; stopped in the road, you know; wouldn't go."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; now I understand. No, indeed, Sammy! If I had a horse +that—jibbed, I should be very patient with him and try to cure him of +the bad habit by kindness. I should know that beating would make him +worse."</p> + +<p>"Well, that's what I think, and the other day pa and I were huskin' corn +in <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172" />the barn, and there was a horse jibbed on our hill, and the driver +got down and licked him with the butt end of his whip, and kicked him +with his great cowhide boots, and I asked pa if I might take out a +measure of oats and see if I couldn't coax that horse to take his load +up the hill—you see pa owned a jibber once and I knew how he used to +manage him. And pa said I might, only I'd better look out or the fellow +would use me as he was usin' the horse. But I wasn't afraid, for he was +half-drunk, and I knew I could clip it faster'n he could.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, I went out there and I stood around a while, and says I, +'What'll you bet I can't get your horse to the top of the hill?' And he +said he wouldn't bet a red cent. 'Well,' says I,'will you let me try +just for fun?'<a name="Page_173" id="Page_173" /> and he said, 'Yes, I might try all day if I wanted to.' +And I got him to stand one side, where the horse couldn't see him, and I +went up to the horse's head and stroked his nose and gave him a handful +of oats, just a little taste, you know, and when he was kind of calmed +down I went a ways ahead holdin' out the measure of oats, and if that +horse didn't follow me up that hill just as quiet as an old sheep, and +the man he stood by and looked streaked, I tell you!"</p> + +<p>Sammy told his story with considerable animation and some forcible +gestures.</p> + +<p>"That was well done," said Miss Ruth, "and I hope the cruel fellow +profited by the lesson you gave him. I don't think I'm naturally +vindictive, but when I see a man beating a horse<a name="Page_174" id="Page_174" /> I find myself wishing +I was strong enough to snatch the whip from him and lay it well about +his own shoulders. But come, boys, the fire is down to coals—just right +for popping corn. Sammy, you know the way to the kitchen. Ask Lovina for +the corn-popper and a dish, and, Roy, you'll find a paper bag full of +corn in the cupboard yonder. Quick, now, and we'll have the dish piled +by the time Susie and Mollie are back from meeting."</p> + +<p>"Haven't we had a gay old time," said Roy, on the way home, "and ain't +you glad I put you up to coming, Sam Ray?" And Sammy admitted that he +was.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Now, girls and boys," said Miss Ruth, on the next Wednesday afternoon, +"I am going to take you on a <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175" />long journey,—in fancy, I mean,—over the +hills and plains and valleys, to the country of the Far West, with its +rolling prairies and big fields of wheat and corn. You shall be set down +in a green meadow, with a stream running through it, shallow and clear +at this time of year, but a little later, when the September rains have +filled it, rushing along full of deep, muddy water.</p> + +<p>"Under a big oak in about the middle of the pasture you will find an old +horse feeding. He is fat and sleepy looking, and has a kind face, and a +white spot on his forehead. This is Old Star, Farmer Horton's +family-horse. You may pat his neck and stroke his nose and feed him a +cookie or a bit of gingerbread,—I am afraid the old fellow hasn't teeth +enough left to chew an apple,—and then you may sit near him on the +<a name="Page_176" id="Page_176" />grass, and while I read aloud to you, fancy that he is talking, and, if +you have plenty of imagination, you will get</p> + + +<p><b>THE STORY OF OLD STAR, TOLD BY HIMSELF.</b></p> + +<p>"I hope nobody thinks I am turned out in this pasture because I am too +old to work. Horses pass here every day drawing heavy loads, older by +half a dozen years than I am, poor broken-down hacks too, most of them, +while I—well, if it wasn't for a little stiffness in the joints and a +giving out of wind, now and then, I can't see but what I'm as well able +to travel as I ever was.</p> + +<p>"The fact is, I never was put to hard work. There were always horses +enough besides me on the place to do the farm work and the teaming—Tom +and Jerry and the colt, you know; not Filly's colt:<a name="Page_177" id="Page_177" /> he died, poor +thing, before he was a year old, of that disease with a long name that +carried off so many horses all over the country: but a great shambling +big-boned beast old master swapped a yoke of steers for, over to Skipton +Mills. We called him Goliath, he was so tall: strong as an elephant, +too: a powerful hand at a horse-rake and mowing-machine. Well, well, how +time flies, to be sure! He's been dead and gone these five years, and +Tom and Jerry, they were used up long ago—there's a deal of hard work +to be done on a farm of this size, I can tell you; and as to Filly, she +came to a sad end, for she got mired down in the low pasture, and had to +be hauled out with ropes, poor critter, and died of the wet and the +cold.</p> + +<p>"Well, as I was saying, I never was put to hard work. I was born and +<a name="Page_178" id="Page_178" />raised on the place, and I do suppose—though I say it, who +shouldn't—that I was an uncommon fine—looking colt, dark chestnut in +color, and not a white hair on me except this spot in my forehead that +gave me my name. When I was three months old, master made a present of +me to his oldest boy on his sixteenth birthday, and every half-hour +Master Fred could spare from his work, he used to spend in dressing down +and feeding me and teaching me cunning tricks. I could take an apple or +a lump of sugar from his pocket, walk down the slope behind the barn on +two legs, with my forefeet on his shoulders, and shake hands, old master +used to say, 'just like a Christian.'</p> + +<p>"Master Fred set great store by me, as well he might. He's traveled +hundreds of miles on my back over the prairies, <a name="Page_179" id="Page_179" />and we've been out +together many a dark night when he'd drop the lines on my neck and say, +"Well, Star, go ahead if you know the way, for not one inch can I see +before my nose." That was after he learned by experience that I knew +better than he did where to go, and when to stop going. For he lost his +temper and called me hard names one night, when I stopped short in the +middle of the road and wouldn't budge an inch for voice or whip, with +the wind blowing a gale, and the rain coming down in bucketsful. But +when a flash of lightning showed the bridge before us clean washed away, +and only a few feet between us and the steep bank of the river, Master +Fred changed his tune. Afraid! not I; but I'm willing to own I <i>was</i> a +little scared the day we got into the water down by Cook's Cove, for +<a name="Page_180" id="Page_180" />you see I was hitched to the buggy and the lines got tangled about my +legs, and there were chunks of ice and lots of driftwood floating about, +and the current sucking me down; but master had got to shore and stood +on the bank calling, "This way, Star, this way!" and when I heard his +voice I—well, I don't know how I managed to do it, but I turned square +round and swam upstream with the buggy behind me, and got safe and sound +to land. I've heard Master Fred say my back was covered with +river-grass, and I trembled all over with the fright and the hard pull.</p> + +<p>"But, dear me, all that happened long ago when master was courting old +Tim Bunce's daughter Martha, down Stony Creek Road. How that girl did +take to me! She used to say she knew the sound of my hoofs on the road, +of a <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181" />still night, when we were a mile away; and she'd say over a little +rhyme she'd got hold of somehow:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Star, Star, good and bright,<br /></span> +<span>I wish you may and I wish you might<br /></span> +<span>Bring somebody to me I want to see to-night.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"If she said that twice, looking straight down the road, she told us we +were sure to come. She was a plump rosy-cheeked girl when Master Fred +brought her to be mistress here, though you mightn't think it to see her +now, what with the cooking and the dairy-work and raising a big family +of children. But if you want to know what mistress was like twenty years +ago, you've only to look at our Ada.</p> + +<p>"Now, there's a girl for you, as good as she is pretty, and getting to +be a woman grown; though I remember, as though it happened yesterday, +her <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182" />mother's coming out one spring day to where I was nibbling grass in +the door-yard, with her baby in her arms, and holding up the little +thing to me, and saying, 'This is Ada, Star,—you must be good friends +with Ada,' Friends! I should say so. Before that child was a year old, +she used to cry to be held on my back for a ride, and when she was +getting better of the scarlet fever, she kept saying, 'Me 'ant to tee +ole 'Tar,' till, to pacify her, they led me to the open window of the +room where she lay, and she reached her mite of a hand from the bed to +stroke my nose and give me the lump of sugar she had saved for me under +her pillow.</p> + +<p>"Bless the child! And it was just so with all the rest, Tim and Martha +and Fred and Jenny and baby May—there was a new baby in that house +every <a name="Page_183" id="Page_183" />year. Those young ones would crawl over me, and sit on me, when I +was lying down in the stable; ride me, three or four at a time, without +bridle or saddle, and cling to my neck and tail when there was no room +left on my back. They shared their apples and gingerbread with me, and +brought me goodies on a plate sometimes so that I might eat my dinner, +they said, 'like the rest of the folks,' I fetched them to and from +school, and trotted every day to the post-office and the Corners to do +the family errands; and when our Ada was old enough to be trusted to +drive, the whole lot of them would pile into the carryall, and away we +would go for a long ride, through the lanes and the shady woods that +border the pond, stopping a dozen times for the girls to clamber out and +pick the wild posies <a name="Page_184" id="Page_184" />and for the boys to skip stones or wade in the +water. For <i>I</i> was in no hurry to go on. There was plenty of tender +grass to be cropped by the roadside, and the young leaves of the maples +and white birch were sweet and juicy.</p> + +<p>"'Take good care of them, Star,' mistress used to say, standing in the +door-way to see us off; 'you have a precious load, but we trust you, +kind, faithful old friend,'</p> + +<p>"And so she might. I knew I must just creep down the hills with those +children behind me, and never stop for a drink at Rocky Brook, though I +were ever so thirsty, because of the sharp pitch down to the +watering-trough. And though from having been scared nearly to death, +when I was a colt, by a wheelbarrow in the road, I always <i>have</i> to shy +a little when I see one, our<a name="Page_185" id="Page_185" /> Ada will tell you, if you ask her, that in +the circumstances, I behaved very well.</p> + +<p>"<i>She</i> behaved well. She always chose the well-traveled roads, and gave +me plenty of room to turn. Once, I remember, they all wanted to take a +short cut by way of an old corduroy road; and though, if master had been +driving, I should have made no objection, and, as like as not, with a +little jolting and pitching, we should have got safe over, I didn't feel +like taking the responsibility, with all those young ones along, of +going that way; so I tried to make our Ada understand the state of my +mind, and after a while she did; for she said: 'Well, Star, if you don't +want to draw us over those logs, I'm not going to make you,' Now, wasn't +that sensible?</p> + +<p>"Well, if I was proud and happy to <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186" />be trusted with master's family on +week-days, think how I must have felt of a Sunday morning in the summer +time, with mistress dressed in her silk gown, and our Ada in muslin and +pink ribbons, and the boys in their best clothes, and master riding +along-side on Tom or Jerry, all going to meeting together. I liked +hearing the bells ring, and I liked being hitched under the maple-trees, +with all the neighbors' horses to keep me company. We generally dozed +while the folks were indoors, and woke up brisk and lively, and started +for home in procession.</p> + +<p>"But, dear! dear! there came a time when, with five horses on the farm, +not one could be had to give the children a ride or to do a stroke of +work, when master had to foot it to the Corners, and the two steers, Old +Poke and Eye<a name="Page_187" id="Page_187" />bright, dragged mistress and the children to meeting in the +ox-cart.</p> + +<p>"For we were all down with the epizoötic, coughing and sneezing enough +to take our heads off, and so sick and low, some of us, that we couldn't +stand in our stalls, and a man with a red face, Master Fred had over +from Skipton Mills, pouring nasty stuff down our throats, and making us +swallow big black balls of medicine that hurt as they went down—as if +we hadn't enough to suffer before! But our Jenny came to the stable with +a piece of pork-rind, and a bandage she'd made out of her little +red-flannel petticoat, and she wanted Master Fred to put it on my neck; +for, says she: 'That's what ma put on me when I had the sore +throat,'—the blessed child!</p> + +<p>"Well, we all pulled through except<a name="Page_188" id="Page_188" /> Filly's colt. He keeled over one +morning, poor fellow! and was dragged out and buried under the oaks in +the high pasture. But for some reason, I didn't pick up as quick as the +others. The cough held on, and I was pestered for breath, and I didn't +get back my strength; and what I ate didn't seem to fatten me up much, +for Master Fred says one day, laughing, 'Well, Old Star, we've saved +your skin and bones, and that's about all!' However, I got round again, +only my legs had a bad habit of giving way under me, without the least +bit of warning.</p> + +<p>"Our Ada did all she could to keep me up, holding a tight rein, and +saying, 'Steady, Star! steady!' when she saw any signs of stumbling. But +trying to keep from it seemed to make me do it all the more, and down I +would <a name="Page_189" id="Page_189" />come on my poor knees and spill those children out of the wagon, +like blackberries from a full basket.</p> + +<p>"One day, after this had happened, master told our Ada she was not to +drive me any more, and before I had got over feeling bad about that, +there came some thing a great deal worse; for I was standing by the pump +in the backyard one day, and master and mistress were in the porch, and +I heard him tell her he had had an offer from Jones the milkman, to buy +me. 'Twould be an easy place, and he'd promised to treat me well, and +he'd about made up his mind to take up with it; for he couldn't afford +to keep a horse on the place that—well, I don't care to repeat the rest +of the speech. 'Twas rather hard on me, but I haven't laid it up against +master. Fact is, he had a deal to worry <a name="Page_190" id="Page_190" />him about that time, for he was +disappointed in the wheat crop, and the heavy rains had damaged his +corn, and he was feeling mighty poor.</p> + +<p>"But mistress was up in arms in a minute. 'What, sell Star!' says she, +'our good, faithful Star, who's been in the family ever since you were a +boy! and to Ki Jones to peddle milk round Skipton Mills and Hull +Station! O pa!' says mistress, says she, 'have we got down so low as +that? Why 't would break our Ada's heart, and mine too, to see Star +hitched to a milk-cart. Rather than have you do that, says she, 'I'll go +in rags, and keep the children on mush and molasses;' and she put her +apron to her eyes.</p> + +<p>"'Well, well, don't fret!' says master,—and I thought he looked kind o' +ashamed,—'I haven't sold him yet<a name="Page_191" id="Page_191" /> I've a notion to turn him out to +grass a while, and see what that'll do for him,' So the next day he put +me in this pasture.</p> + +<p>"You see that plank bridge yonder, over the creek? That's where our Ada +fell into the water. Master has put up a railing, and made all safe +since the accident happened. 'T was a risky place always, though the +children have crossed it hundreds of times, and none of them ever +tumbled over before.</p> + +<p>"But I hadn't been here a week, when one sunshiny afternoon our Ada came +through the pasture, on her way to visit the sick Simmonses—there's +always some of that tribe down with the chills. She came running up to +me—her little basket, full of goodies, on her arm,—stopped to talk a +minute and feed me an apple, and then passed <a name="Page_192" id="Page_192" />along, while I went on +nibbling grass, till I heard a scream and a splash, and knew, all in a +minute, she must have fallen off the plank bridge into the water. Dear! +dear! what was to be done? I ran to the fence, and looked up and down +the road. Some men were burning brush at the far end of the next field. +I galloped toward them, and back again to the creek, and whinnied and +snorted, and tried my best to make them understand that they were +needed; but they didn't appear to notice, and I just made up my mind, +that if any thing was done to save our Ada from drowning, I was the one +to do it.</p> + +<p>"I made my way through the alder-bushes down by the bank, to a place +where the current sets close in shore. At first I couldn't see any +thing, then <a name="Page_193" id="Page_193" />all at once, there floated on the muddy water close to me, +the little red shawl she wore, then a hand and arm, and her white face +and brown hair all streaming. I caught at her clothes, and though Ada is +a stout girl of her age, and the wet things added a deal to her weight, +I lifted her well out of the water. I remember thinking, 'If only my +poor legs don't give out, I shall do very well,' And they didn't give +out, for when help came—it seems those men in the field <i>had</i> noticed +me, and came to see what was the matter—they found me all in a lather +of sweat, and my eyes starting out of their sockets, but with my feet +braced against a rock, keeping our Ada's head and shoulders well above +water.</p> + +<p>"They got her home as quick as they could, and put her to bed between +hot <a name="Page_194" id="Page_194" />blankets, and the next day she was none the worse for her ducking, +though she carried the print of my teeth in her tender flesh for many a +day; for how was I to know where the child's clothes left off and her +side began.</p> + +<p>"Of course they made a great fuss over me. Mistress came running to meet +me, and put both arms around my neck, and said: 'O Star, you have saved +our darling's life!' and the little ones hugged and kissed me, and the +boys took turns rubbing me down; and I stood knee deep in my stall that +night in fresh straw, and besides my measure of oats, had a warm mash, +three cookies, and half a pumpkin-pie for my supper.</p> + +<p>"But master only patted my neck, and said: 'Well done, Old Star!' Master +Fred and I always did understand one another.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_195" id="Page_195" />There hasn't been any thing more said about selling me to Ki Jones. In +the winter I have a stall at the south side of the stable, where I get +the sun at my window all day, and in summer I live in this pasture, with +shady trees, and cool water, and grass and clover-tops in plenty. I have +nothing to do the live-long day, but to eat and drink and enjoy myself; +but I do hope folks passing along the road don't think I'm turned out in +this field because I'm too old to work."</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Old Star!" said Mollie, as her aunt laid down the paper. "We +are much obliged for your nice story, and we hope you'll live ever so +many years. I wouldn't hint for the world that you aren't as smart as +you used to be."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_196" id="Page_196" />Isn't he rather a self-conceited old horse?" said Nellie Dimock.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes; but that is natural. I suppose he has been more or less +spoiled and petted all his life."</p> + +<p>"When he told about going to meeting," Fannie Eldridge said, "it +reminded me of a story mamma tells, of an old horse up in Granby, that +went to church one Sunday all by himself."</p> + +<p>"How droll! How did it happen, Fannie?"</p> + +<p>"Why, he belonged to two old ladies who went to church always, and +exactly at such a time every Sunday morning Dobbin was hitched to the +chaise and brought round to the front door and Miss Betsey and Miss +Sally got in and drove to church. But one Sunday something hindered +them, and Dobbin waited and waited till the bell stopped <a name="Page_197" id="Page_197" />ringing and +all the other horses which attended church had gone by; and at last he +got clear out of patience, and started along without them. Mamma says +the people laughed to see him trot up to the church-door and down to the +sheds and walk straight into his own place, and when service was over +back himself out and trot home again."</p> + +<p>"What did Miss Betsey and Miss Sally do?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, they had to stay at home. When they came out they saw the old +chaise ever so far off, going toward the church, and they felt pretty +sure old Dobbin was going to meeting on his own account. That is a true +story Miss Ruth, every word of it—mamma says so."</p> + +<p>"Our old Ned cheated us all last summer," said Florence Austin, "by +<a name="Page_198" id="Page_198" />pretending to be lame. He really was made lame, at first, one day when +mamma was driving, by getting a stone in his foot, and she turned +directly and walked him all the way back to the stable. But when William +had taken out the stone, he seemed to be all right, and the next +afternoon mamma and Alice and I started for a drive. We got about a mile +out of town, when all at once Ned began to limp. Mamma and Alice got out +of the phaeton, and looked his feet all over, for they thought may be he +had picked up another stone; but they couldn't see the least thing out +of the way, only that he limped dreadfully as if it half-killed him to +go. Well, there was nothing to be done but to give up our drive; for we +couldn't bear to ride after a lame horse!"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_199" id="Page_199" />I can't either!" Mollie interjected.</p> + +<p>"Well, he had been lately shod, and our coachman thought that perhaps a +nail from one of the shoes pricked his foot, so he started to take him +to the blacksmith's. But don't you think, as soon as Ned knew that +William was driving, he started off at a brisk trot and wasn't the least +bit lame I but the next time mamma took him out, he began to limp +directly, and kept looking round as much as to say: 'How can you be so +cruel as to make me go, when you must see every step I take hurts me?' +But when mamma came home with him again, William said: 'It's chatin' you +he is, marm.'"</p> + +<p>"And what did your mother do?"</p> + +<p>"Well, as soon as she made up her mind that he was shamming, she took no +notice of his little trick, but touched <a name="Page_200" id="Page_200" />him up with the whip, and made +him go right along. He knew directly that she had found him out. Oh, he +is <i>such</i> a knowing horse! The other day Alice was leading him through +the big gate, to give him a mouthful of grass in the door-yard. Alice +likes to lead him about. When he stepped on her gown, and she held it up +to him all torn, and scolded him, she said: 'O Ned! aren't you ashamed +of yourself? how could you be so clumsy and awkward?' and she said he +dropped his head and looked so sorry and ashamed, as if he wanted to +say: 'Oh, I beg pardon! I didn't mean to do it,' that she really pitied +him, and answered as if he had spoken: 'Well, don't worry, Ned; it's of +no consequence,' Ned is such a pet. Papa got him in Canada, on purpose +for mamma and Alice to drive; <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201" />and it was so funny when he first +came—he didn't understand a word of English, not even whoa. He belonged +to a Frenchman way up the country, and had never been in a large town, +and acted so queer—like a green countryman, you know, turning his head +and staring at all the sights. And it's lovely to see him play in the +snow. He was brought up in the midst of it, you know. When there's a +snow-storm he's wild to be out of the stable, and the deeper the drifts, +the better pleased he is. He plunges in and rolls over and over, and +rears and dances. Oh, it is too funny to see him! But I beg pardon, Miss +Ruth! I didn't mean to talk so long about Ned."</p> + +<p>"We are all glad to hear about him," she said, and Susie added that it +was very interesting.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_202" id="Page_202" />My Uncle John owned a horse," said Roy Tyler, "that opened a gate and +a barn-door to get to the oat-bin, and he shut the barn-door after him +too. I guess you can't any of you tell how he did that!"</p> + +<p>"He jumped the gate, and shoved his nose in the crack of the door and +pried it open," said Sammy.</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't. That wouldn't be <i>opening</i> the gate, would it?" Roy +retorted. "And how did he shut it after him?"</p> + +<p>"I think you had better tell us, Roy," said Miss Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Well, he reached over the fence, and lifted the latch with his teeth, +that's how he opened the gate; and he shut it by backing up against it +till it latched itself. Then he pulled out the wooden pin of the +barn-door, and it swung open by its own weight—see?"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_203" id="Page_203" />Well, pa had a horse that slipped his halter and shoved up the cover +of the oat-bin, when he got hungry in the night and wanted a lunch," +said Sammy; "and I read about a horse the other day which turned the +water-tap when he wanted a drink, and pulled the stopper out of the pipe +over the oat-bin, just as he 'd seen the coachman do, so the oats would +come down, and"—</p> + +<p>"But really now," Ruth Elliot, interrupted, "interesting and wonderful +as all this is, we must stop somewhere. I have another story to tell +you, about a minister's horse, but it can wait over till next week. Lay +aside your work, girls; it is past five o'clock."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" /><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204" />CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h2>TUFTY AND THE SPARROWS.</h2> + + +<p>Florence Austin came early to the Society the next Wednesday afternoon, +and found Miss Ruth on the piazza,</p> + +<p>"I am glad to see you, Florence," she said. "I was just wishing for a +helper. Mollie and Susie have gone on an errand, and I am alone in the +house, and here is a whole family in trouble that I can't relieve."</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" said the little girl.</p> + +<p>"A baby bird has fallen out of the nest, and I am too lame to-day to +venture down the steps; and papa and mamma are in great distress, and +the babies in the nest half-starved, and can't <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205" />have their dinner +because the old birds dare not leave poor chippy a moment lest some +stray cat should get him. See the little thing down there in the grass +just under the woodbine!"</p> + +<p>Florence descended the piazza-steps at two jumps, and was back with the +young bird in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Now where shall I put him, Miss Ruth?"</p> + +<p>Ruth Elliot pointed out the nest. It was in the thickest growth of the +woodbine, just over their heads; and when Florence had climbed in a +chair, she had her first look at a nest of young birds. The little city +girl was delighted.</p> + +<p>"How cunning!" she exclaimed. "Oh, how awfully cunning! four in +all—three of them with their mouths wide open. No wonder this little +fellow got pushed out. Here, you droll little speci<a name="Page_206" id="Page_206" />men, crowd in +somewhere! He isn't hurt at all, for he seems as lively as any of them."</p> + +<p>As Florence jumped down from the chair, Susie and Mollie and the Jones +girls came up the walk.</p> + +<p>"What are you two doing?" Mollie called out.</p> + +<p>"Florence has just restored a lost baby to his distressed family," her +aunt answered. "Come into the house, girls, and let papa and mamma +Chippy get over their fright and look after the babies. Florence, I am +greatly obliged to you. I should have felt very sorry if harm had come +to the little one, for I have watched that nest ever since the old birds +began to build."</p> + +<p>The little girl replied politely that she was glad she had been of use.</p> + +<p>"I know what chippies' nests are made <a name="Page_207" id="Page_207" />of," said Mollie: "fine roots and +fibers, and lined beautifully with soft fine hair,"</p> + +<p>"Did you watch the birds while they were making it, Mollie?"</p> + +<p>"No; but one night after tea, when Auntie and Susie and I were playing +at choosing birds,—telling which bird we liked best and why, you +know,—papa came along and said: 'I choose the chirping sparrow for my +bird'; and when we laughed at him and called for his reasons (because +chippies are such insignificant things, you know, and no singers), he +told us he liked them because they were tame and friendly, and because +they built such neat, pretty nests; and he pulled an old nest he had +saved in pieces, and showed us how it was put together."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Susie; "and the other reason he gave for liking them best +<a name="Page_208" id="Page_208" />was, that they got up early and rang the rising-bell for all the other +birds. That was such a funny reason for papa to give, for we all know he +dearly loves his morning nap."</p> + +<p>"Really, now, do the chippies get up first in the morning?" said +Florence.</p> + +<p>"With the first peep of day," Miss Ruth answered. "This morning I heard +their cheerful twitter before a ray of light had penetrated to my room; +and a welcome sound it was, for it told me the long night was over. One +dear little fellow sang two or three strains before he succeeded in +waking any body; then a robin joined in, in a sleepy kind of way; then +two or three wrens, and then a cat-bird; and, last of all, my little +weather-bird, which, from the topmost branches of the elm-tree, warbled +out to me that it was a pleasant <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209" />day. Oh, what a sweet concert they all +gave me before the sun rose!"</p> + +<p>"I never heard of a weather-bird, Aunt Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Your Uncle Charlie gave him that name, Susie, when we were children. +His true name is Warbling Verio; but we used to fancy the little fellow +announced what kind of day it would be. If clear he called out: +'Pleasant day!' three times over, with a pause between each sentence and +a long-drawn-out Yes at the close; or, if it rained, he said 'Rainy day' +or 'Windy day,' describing the weather, whatever it might be, always +with an emphatic <i>Yes</i>.</p> + +<p>"One day he talked to me, but it was not about the weather. Things had +gone wrong with me all the morning. I had spoken disrespectfully to my +grandmother, and had been so cross <a name="Page_210" id="Page_210" />and impatient with baby Walter that +mother had taken him from me, though she could ill spare the time to +tend him. Then I ran through the garden to a little patch of woods +behind the house, and sat on an old log, in a very bad humor.</p> + +<p>"Presently, high above my head in the branches of the walnut-tree, the +weather-bird began his monotonous strain. I paid no attention to him at +first, I was so taken up with my own disagreeable thoughts, till it came +to me all at once that he was not telling me it was a pleasant day, +though the sun was shining gloriously and a lovely breeze rustled the +green leaves. What was it the little bird was saying over and over +again, as plain as plain could be? 'NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY +GIRL! Y-E-S.'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_211" id="Page_211" />I rubbed my eyes and pinched my arm, to make sure I was awake; for I +thought I must have dreamed it. But no, there it was again, sweet, sad, +reproachful: 'NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! Y-E-S,'</p> + +<p>"I jumped up in a rage, and called it a horrid thing; and when it +wouldn't stop, but kept on reproaching me with my evil behavior, I could +bear it no longer, but put my fingers in my ears and ran back to the +house and up to my own room, where I cried with anger and shame. But +solitude and reflection soon brought me to a better state of mind; and, +long before the day was over, I had confessed my fault and was forgiven. +But though I wanted very much to see a new water-wheel Charlie set up +that afternoon in the brook, I dared not go through the wood to get <a name="Page_212" id="Page_212" />to +it, lest that small bird should still be calling, 'Naughty girl! Y-e-s.'</p> + +<p>"Charlie grumbled the next morning when I wakened him out of a sound +sleep by shouting gayly from my little bed in the next room that his +weather-bird was calling, 'Pleasant day!' 'Why, what <i>should</i> he call,' +he wanted to know, 'with the sun shining in at both windows?'</p> + +<p>"I never told my brother how the bird had given voice to my accusing +conscience, nor has the lesson ever been repeated; for from that day to +this the Warbling Verio has made no more personal remarks to me."</p> + +<p>"There's a bird down in Maine" said Ann Eliza Jones, "they call the +Yankee bird, 'cause he keeps saying, 'All day +whittling—whittling—whittling.'"</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_213" id="Page_213" />Yes; and the quails there always tell the farmers when they must hurry +and get in their hay," said her sister. "When it's going to rain they +sing out: 'More wet! more wet!' and 'No more wet!' when it clears off."</p> + +<p>"Aunt Ruth," said Mollie, "please tell us about the funny little bantam +rooster who used to call to his wife every morning: 'Do—come +out—n-o-w!'"</p> + +<p>"Very well; but we are getting so much interested in this bird-talk that +we are making rather slow progress with our work. Suppose we all see how +much we can accomplish in the next ten minutes."</p> + +<p>Upon this Mollie caught up the block lying in her lap, Florence +re-threaded her needle, Nellie Dimock hunted up her thimble, which had +rolled under the <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214" />table, and industry was the order of the day.</p> + +<p>And while they worked, Miss Ruth told the story of</p> + + +<p><b>THE WIDOW BANTAM.</b></p> + +<p>"She belonged to our next-door neighbor, and we called her the Widow +because her mate—a fine plucky little bantam rooster—was one day slain +while doing battle with the great red chanticleer who ruled the +hen-yard.</p> + +<p>"I took pity on the little hen in her loneliness, and singled her out +from the flock for special attention. She very soon knew my voice, would +come at my call, and used to slip through a gap in the fence and pay me +a visit every day. If the kitchen door were open she walked in without +ceremony; if closed, she flew to the window, tapped on the <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215" />glass with +her bill, flapped her wings, and gave us clearly to understand that she +wished to be admitted. Once inside, she set up a shrill cackling till I +attended to her wants, and scolded me at the top of her voice if I kept +her long waiting. When she had eaten more cracked corn and Indian meal +than you would think so small a body could contain, she walked about in +a slow, contented way, and was ready for all the petting we chose to +give her.</p> + +<p>"She was a pretty creature, with a speckled coat and a comb the color of +red coral: very small, but lively and vigorous, and exhibiting in all +her movements both grace and stateliness. She would nestle in my lap, +take a ride on my shoulder, and walk the length of my arm to peck at a +bit of cake in my hand, regarding me all the while with <a name="Page_216" id="Page_216" />a queer +sidelong glance, and croaking out her satisfaction and content. When she +was ready to go she walked to the kitchen door, and asked in a very +shrill voice to be let out. She continued these visits till late in the +fall, when she was shut up with the rest of our neighbor's flock for the +winter.</p> + +<p>"One bitter cold day in January we heard a faint cackle outside, and, +opening the kitchen door, found our poor widow in a sorry plight. One +foot was frozen, her feathers were all rough and dirty, her wings +drooping, her bright comb changed to a dull red. How she escaped from +the hen-house, surmounted the high fence, and hobbled or flew to our +door, we did not know; but there she was, half-dead with hunger and +cold.</p> + +<p>"We did what we could for her. I <a name="Page_217" id="Page_217" />bathed and bandaged the swollen foot, +and made a warm bed for her in a box in the shed, from which she did not +offer to stir for many days. I fed her with bits of bread soaked in warm +milk, and Charlie said, nursed and tended her as if she had been a sick +baby. She was very gentle and patient, poor thing! and allowed me to +handle her as I pleased, always welcomed my coming with a cheerful +little cackle, and, as she got stronger, trotted after me about the shed +and kitchen like a pet kitten.</p> + +<p>"In the spring, when she was quite well again, I restored her to her +rightful owner. Perhaps she had grown weary of her solitary life, for +she seemed delighted to rejoin her old companions; but every day she +made us a visit, and at night came regularly to roost in the shed.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_218" id="Page_218" />One morning we heard two voices instead of one outside our window, and +behold! Mrs. Bantam had taken another mate—a fine handsome fellow, so +graceful in form and brilliant in plumage that we at once pronounced him +a fit companion to our favorite hen. They were evidently on the best of +terms, croaking and cackling to each other, and exchanging sage opinions +about us as we watched them from the open door. I am sure she must have +told him all about her long illness the previous winter, and pointed me +out as her nurse, for he nodded and croaked and cast sidelong looks of +friendly regard in my direction.</p> + +<p>"But when Mrs. Bantam came into the kitchen for her luncheon she could +not induce Captain Bantam to follow. In vain she coaxed and cackled, +run<a name="Page_219" id="Page_219" />ning in and out a dozen times to convince him there was nothing to +fear. He would not believe her nor budge one inch over the door-sill. +She lost patience at last, and rated him soundly; but as neither coaxing +nor scolding availed, and she was eating her meal with a poor relish +inside, while he waited unhappily without, we settled the difficulty by +putting the dish on the door-step, where they ate together in perfect +content.</p> + +<p>"But a more serious trouble came at bed-time, for Mrs. Bantam expected +to roost as usual in the shed, while the Captain preferred the old +apple-tree where the rest of the flock spent their nights. The funny +little couple held an animated discussion about it which lasted far into +the twilight—and neither would yield. The Captain was very polite <a name="Page_220" id="Page_220" />and +conciliatory. He evidently had no mind to quarrel: but neither would he +give up the point. He occasionally suspended the argument by a stroll +into the garden, where, by vigorous scratching, he would produce a +choice morsel, to which he called her attention by an insinuating 'Have +a worm, dear?' She never failed to accept the offering, gulping it down +with great satisfaction, but was too old a bird to be caught by so +shallow a trick, for she would immediately return to her place by the +shed window, and resume her discourse. When she had talked herself +sleepy she ended the contest for that night by flying through the window +and settling herself comfortably in the old place, while the Captain +took his solitary way across the garden and over the fence to the +apple-tree.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221" />Every night for a week this scene occurred under the shed window; then, +by mutual consent, they seemed to agree to go their several ways without +further dispute. About sunset the Captain might be seen politely +escorting his mate to her chosen lodging-house, and, after seeing her +safely disposed of for the night, quietly betaking himself to his roost +in the apple-tree.</p> + +<p>"He was at her window early every morning crowing lustily. Charlie and I +were sure he said: 'Do—come—out—now! Do—come—out—n-o-w!' and were +vexed with the little hen for keeping him waiting so long. But his +patience never failed; and, when at last she flew down and joined him, a +prouder, happier bantam rooster never strutted about the place. All day +long he kept close at her side, providing her <a name="Page_222" id="Page_222" />with the choicest tidbits +the garden afforded, and watching her with unselfish delight while she +swallowed each dainty morsel. In the middle of the day they rested under +the currant-bushes, crooning sleepily to each other or taking a quiet +nap.</p> + +<p>"One day we missed them both, and for three weeks saw them only at +intervals, Mrs. Bantam always coming alone, eating a hurried meal, and +stealing away as quickly as possible; while the Captain wandered about +rather dejectedly, we thought, in the society of the other hens.</p> + +<p>"But one bright morning we heard Mrs. Bantam clucking and calling with +all her old vigor; and there she was at the kitchen-door, the prettiest +and proudest of little mothers, with three tiny chicks not much larger +than the <a name="Page_223" id="Page_223" />baby chippies you saw in the nest, Florence, but wonderfully +active and vigorous for their size. We named them Bob and Dick and +Jenny, and, as they grew older, were never tired of watching their +comical doings. Their mother, too, afforded us great amusement, while we +found much in her conduct to admire and praise. She was a fussy, +consequential little body, but unselfishly devoted, and ready to brave +any danger that threatened her brood. Charlie and and I learned more +than one useful lesson from the bantam hen and her young family.</p> + +<p>"One of these lessons we put into verse, which, if I can remember, I +will repeat to you. We called it</p> + + +<p><b>CHICKEN DICK THE BRAGGER.</b></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'Scratch! scratch!<br /></span> +<span>In the garden-patch,<br /></span> +<span>Goes good Mother Henny;<br /></span> +<span><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224" />Cluck! cluck!<br /></span> +<span>Good luck! Good luck!<br /></span> +<span>Come, Bob and Dick and Jenny!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>A worm! a worm!<br /></span> +<span>See him squirm!<br /></span> +<span>Who comes first to catch it!<br /></span> +<span>Quick! quick!<br /></span> +<span>Chicken Dick,<br /></span> +<span>You are the chick to snatch it!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Peep! peep!<br /></span> +<span>While you creep,<br /></span> +<span>My long legs have won it!<br /></span> +<span>Cuck-a-doo!<br /></span> +<span>I've beat you!<br /></span> +<span>Don't you wish you'd done it?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>Dick! Dick!<br /></span> +<span>That foolish trick<br /></span> +<span>Of bragging lost your dinner;<br /></span> +<span>For while to crow<br /></span> +<span>You let it go,<br /></span> +<span>Bob snatched it up—the sinner!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225" /> +<span>Bob! Bob!<br /></span> +<span>'T was wrong to rob<br /></span> +<span>Your silly little brother,<br /></span> +<span>And in the bush<br /></span> +<span>To fight and push,<br /></span> +<span>And peck at one another.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span>But Bobby beat,<br /></span> +<span>And ate the treat.—<br /></span> +<span>Dear children, though you're winners,<br /></span> +<span>Be modest all;<br /></span> +<span>For pride must fall,<br /></span> +<span>And braggers lose their dinners.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"And now I will tell you an adventure of young Dick's, in which a habit +he had of crowing on all occasions proved very useful to him. He grew to +be a fine handsome fellow, and was sold to a family who lived on the +meadow-bank.</p> + +<p>"There was a big freshet the next autumn, the water covering the meadows +on both sides of the river, and <a name="Page_226" id="Page_226" />creeping into cellars and yards and +houses. It came unexpectedly, early one morning, into the enclosure +where Dick, with his half-dozen hens, was confined, and all flew for +refuge to the roof of the neighboring pig-pen. But the incoming flood +soon washed away the supports of the frail building, and it floated +slowly out into the current to join company with the wrecks of +wood-piles and rail fences, the spoils from gardens and orchards, in the +shape of big yellow pumpkins and rosy apples, bobbing about in the +foaming muddy stream, and all the other queer odds and ends a freshet +gathers in its course.</p> + +<p>"From his commanding position, Dick surveyed the scene, and thought it a +fitting occasion to raise his voice. He stretched himself to the full +height of his few inches, flapped his wings, <a name="Page_227" id="Page_227" />and crowed—not once or +twice, but continually. Over the waste of waters came his shrill +'Cock-a-doodle-doo!' All the cocks along the shore answered his call; +all the turkeys gobbled, and the geese cackled. His vessel struck the +heavy timber of a broken bridge, and lurched and dipped, threatening +every moment to go to pieces. The waves splashed and drenched them, and +the swift current carried them faster and faster down to the sea. It was +all Dick and his little company could do to keep their footing, and +still the plucky little fellow stood and crowed.</p> + +<p>"A neighbor who was out in his boat gathering drift-wood, recognizing +Dick's peculiar voice, went to the rescue, and, taking this strange +craft in tow, brought the little company, with their gallant leader, +drenched and draggled but still crowing lustily, safe to land.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_228" id="Page_228" />And that is all I can tell you about Dick, for it is five o'clock, and +time to put up our work."</p> + +<p>"I like every kind of bird," said Florence Austin at the next meeting of +the Society, "except the English sparrows. They are a perfect nuisance!"</p> + +<p>"Why, what harm do they do?" Nellie asked.</p> + +<p>"Harm!" said Florence; "you don't know any thing about it here in the +country. We had to cut down a beautiful wisteria-vine that climbed over +one side of our house because the sparrows would build their nests in +it, and made such a dreadful noise in the morning that nobody on that +side of the house could sleep. And they drive away all the other birds. +We used to have robins hopping over our lawn, and dear little +yellow-birds used to build their <a name="Page_229" id="Page_229" />nests in the pear-trees; but since the +sparrows have got so thick, they have stopped coming. My father says the +English sparrow is the most impudent bird that ever was hatched. He +actually saw one snatch away a worm a robin had just dug up. I believe I +hate sparrows!"</p> + +<p>"I don't," said Nellie. "I have fed them all winter. They came to the +dining-room window every morning, and waited for their breakfast; and a +funny little woodpecker, blind of one eye, came with them sometimes."</p> + +<p>"They do lots of good in our gardens," said Mollie, "digging up grubs +and beetles. Papa told us so."</p> + +<p>"There's nobody in this world so bad," said Susie, sagely, "but that you +can find something good to say about them." At which kindly speech Aunt +Ruth smiled approval.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_230" id="Page_230" />I think," she said, "this will be a good time to tell you a story +about an English sparrow and a canary-bird I will call it</p> + + +<p><b>TUFTY AND THE SPARROW.</b></p> + +<p>"One morning in April a young canary-bird whose name was Tufty escaped +through an open window carelessly left open while he was out of his +cage, and suddenly found himself, for the first time in his life, in the +open air. He alighted first on an apple-tree in the yard, and then made +a grand flight half-way to the top of the elm-tree.</p> + +<p>"The sun was bright and the air so still that the light snow which had +fallen in the night yet clung to the branches and twigs of the tree, and +Tufty examined it with interest, thinking it pretty but rather cold as +he poked it about <a name="Page_231" id="Page_231" />with his bill, and tucked first one little foot, and +then the other, under him to keep it warm. Presently he heard an odd +little noise below him, and, looking down, saw on the trunk of the tree +a bird about his own size, with wings and back of a steel-gray color, a +white breast with a dash of dull red on it, and a long bill, with which +he was making the noise Tufty had heard by tapping on the tree.</p> + +<p>"'Good-morning!' said Tufty, who was of a friendly and social +disposition, and was beginning to feel the need of company.</p> + +<p>"'Morning!' said the woodpecker, very crisp and shorthand not so much as +looking up to see who had spoken to him.</p> + +<p>"If you had heard this talk you would have said Tufty called out: 'Peep! +peep!' and the woodpecker—but<a name="Page_232" id="Page_232" /> that's because you don't understand +bird-language.</p> + +<p>"'What are you doing down there?' said Tufty, continuing the +conversation.</p> + +<p>"'Getting my breakfast,' said the woodpecker.</p> + +<p>"'Why, I had mine a long time ago!' said Tufty.</p> + +<p>"He didn't in the least understand how that knocking on the tree was to +bring Mr. Longbill's morning meal; but he was afraid to ask any more +questions, the other had been so short with him.</p> + +<p>"Just then he heard a hoarse voice overhead saying, 'Come along! come +along!' and, looking up, saw a monstrous black creature sailing above +the tops of the trees. It was only a crow on his way to the swamp, and +he was trying to hurry up his mate, that always would lag behind in that +corn-field <a name="Page_233" id="Page_233" />where there wasn't so much as a grain left; but Tufty, which +by this time you must have discovered was a very ignorant bird, thought +the black monster was calling <i>him</i>, and piped back feebly: 'I can't! I +can't!' and was all of a tremble till Mr. Crow was quite out of sight.</p> + +<p>"He sat quiet, looking a little pensive, for the fact was, he was +beginning to feel lonely, when there flew past him a flock of brown +birds chirping and chattering away at a brisk rate. 'Now for it!' +thought Tufty, 'here's plenty of good company;' and he spread his wings +and flew after them as fast as he could. But he could not keep up with +them, but, panting and weary, alighted on the roof of a house to rest. +And here he saw such a pretty sight; for on a sunny roof just below him +were two <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234" />snow-white pigeons. One was walking about in a very +consequential way, his tail-feathers spread in the shape of a fan, and +turning his graceful neck from side to side in quite a bewitching +fashion. Just as Tufty alighted, the pretty dove began to call: 'Come, +dear, come! Do, dear, do!' in such a sweet, soft, plaintive voice, as if +his heart would certainly break if his dear <i>didn't</i> come, that Tufty, +who in his silly little pate never once doubted that it was he the +lovely white bird was pining for, felt sorry to disappoint him, and +piped back: 'Oh, if you please, I should like to ever so much! but you +see I must catch up with those brown birds over there;' and, finding his +wind had come back to him, he flew away. The pigeon, which had not even +seen him, and had much more important business to attend <a name="Page_235" id="Page_235" />to than to +coax an insignificant little yellow-bird, went on displaying all his +beauties, and crooning softly, 'Do, dear! do! do! do!'</p> + +<p>"Tufty had no trouble in finding the brown birds, for long before he +came to the roof of the barn where they had alighted he heard their loud +voices in angry dispute; and they made such an uproar, and seemed so +fractious and ill-tempered, that Tufty felt afraid to join them, but +lingered on a tree near by.</p> + +<p>"Presently one of them flew over to him. She was a young thing—quite +fresh and trim-looking for a sparrow.</p> + +<p>"'Good-morning!' she said, hopping close to him and looking him all over +with her bright little eyes,</p> + +<p>"'Good-morning!' said Tufty, as brisk as you please.</p> + +<p>"'Now, I wonder where you come <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236" />from and what you call yourself,' said +the sparrow. 'I never saw a yellow-bird like you before. How pretty the +feathers grow on your head!' and she gave a friendly nip to Tufty's +top-knot.</p> + +<p>"Tufty thought she was getting rather familiar on so short an +acquaintance, but he answered her politely, told her his name, and that +he came from the house where he had always lived, and was out to take an +airing.</p> + +<p>"'I want to know!' said the sparrow. 'Well, my name is Brownie. Captain +Bobtail's Brownie, they call me, because Brownie is such a common name +in our family. It's pleasant out-of-doors, isn't it? Oh, never mind the +fuss over there!'—for Tufty's attention was constantly diverted to the +scene of the quarrel—'they are always at it, scold<a name="Page_237" id="Page_237" />ing and fighting. +Come, let's you and I have a good time!'</p> + +<p>"'What is the fuss about?' said Tufty.</p> + +<p>"'A nest,' said Brownie, contemptuously. 'Ridiculous, isn't it? Snow on +the ground, and not time to build this two weeks; but you see, <i>he</i> +wants to keep the little house on top of the pole lest some other bird +should claim it, and <i>she</i> wants to build in the crotch of the +evergreen, and the neighbors are all there taking sides. She has the +right of it—the tree is much the prettier place; but dear me! she might +just as well give up first as last, for he's sure to have his +way—husbands are such tyrants!' said Captain Bobtail's Brownie, with a +coquettish turn of her head; 'but come, now, what shall we do?'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_238" id="Page_238" />'I'm too cold to do any thing,' said Tufty, dolefully.</p> + +<p>"The sun was hidden by a cloud and a cold wind was blowing, and the +house-bird, accustomed to a stove-heated room, was shivering.</p> + +<p>"'Take a good fly,' said Brownie; 'that will warm you,'</p> + +<p>"'But I'm hungry,' piped Tufty.</p> + +<p>"'All right!' said Brownie. 'I know a place where there's a free lunch +set out every day for all the birds that will come—bread-crumbs, seeds, +and lovely cracked corn. Come along! you'll feel better after dinner,'</p> + +<p>"So they flew, and they flew, and Brownie was as kind as possible, and +stopped for a rest whenever Tufty was tired, and chatted so agreeably +and pleasantly, that before they reached their journey's end Tufty had +quite <a name="Page_239" id="Page_239" />fallen in love with her. Then, too, the sun was shining again, +and the brisk exercise of flying had set the little bird's blood in +motion, so that he was warm again, but oh, so hungry!</p> + +<p>"They came at last to a brown cottage with a broad piazza, and it was on +the roof of this piazza that a feast for the birds was every day spread. +But as they flew round the house Tufty became very much excited.</p> + +<p>"'Stop, Brownie!' he cried; 'let me look at this place! Surely I've been +here before. That red curtain, that flower-stand in the window, +that—Oh! oh! there's my own little house! Why, Captain Bobtail's +Brownie, you've brought me home!'</p> + +<p>"Now, all this time Tufty's mistress had been in great trouble. As soon +as she discovered her loss she ran out-of-<a name="Page_240" id="Page_240" />doors, holding up the empty +cage and calling loudly on her little bird to return. But he was high up +in the elm-tree watching the woodpecker, and, if he heard her call, paid +no attention to it. Very soon he flew after the sparrows, and she lost +sight of him. Not a mouthful of breakfast could the poor child eat.</p> + +<p>"'I shall never see my poor little Tufty again, mamma!' she said. 'I saw +him flying straight for the swamp, and he never can find his way back!' +and she cried as if her heart would break.</p> + +<p>"In the middle of the forenoon her brother Jack called to her from the +foot of the stairs:—</p> + +<p>"'What will you give me, Kittie,' he said, 'if I will tell you where +Tufty is?'</p> + +<p>"'O Jack! do you know? Have <a name="Page_241" id="Page_241" />you seen him? Where? where?' cried the +little girl, coming downstairs in a great hurry.</p> + +<p>"'Be quiet!' said Jack. 'Now, don't get excited; your bird is all right, +though I'm sorry to say he's in rather low company,' And he led her to +the dining-room window that looked into the garden, and there, sure +enough, was Tufty on a lilac-bush. Brownie was there too. She was +hopping about and talking in a most earnest and excited manner. It was +easy to see that she was using all her powers of persuasion to coax +Tufty not to go back to his old home, but to help her build a little +house out-of-doors, where they could set up housekeeping together.</p> + +<p>"Kittie knew just what to do. She ran for the cage and for a sprig of +dried pepper-grass (of all the good things she <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242" />gave her bird to eat, he +liked pepper-grass best), and, standing in the open door-way, called: +'Tufty! Tufty!' He gave a start, a little flutter of his wings, and +then, with one glad cry of recognition, and without so much as a parting +look at poor Brownie, flew straight for the door, and alighted on the +top of his cage.</p> + +<p>"'How strangely things come about, mamma?' Kittie said that evening as +they talked over this little incident. 'Jack has laughed at me all +winter for feeding the sparrows, and called them hateful, quarrelsome +things, and said I should get nicely paid next summer when they drove +away all the pretty song-birds that come about the house. And now, don't +you see, mamma, one of the sparrows I have fed all winter—I knew her +right away by a funny little <a name="Page_243" id="Page_243" />dent in her breast—has done me such good +service? Why, I am paid a hundred thousand times over for all I have +ever done for the sparrows.'"</p> + +<p>"And what became of poor Brownie?" Nellie asked. "I almost hoped Tufty +would stay out with her, she was such a good little sparrow."</p> + +<p>"She lingered about the garden for a while, making a plaintive little +noise; but when the family of Brownies came to dinner she ate her +allowance, and flew away with them, apparently in good spirits. But +Tufty moped for a day or two, and, as long as he lived, showed great +excitement at the sight of a flock of sparrows; and it is my private +opinion that, if a second opportunity had been given him, Kittie Grant's +Tufty would have gone off for good and all with Captain Bobtail's +Brownie."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244" />Susie Elliot walked part of the way home with Florence Austin, and the +two little girls, who were fast becoming intimate friends, talked over +the events of the afternoon.</p> + +<p>"How much your auntie knows about animals and birds!" said Florence; +"she seems almost as fond of them as if they were people."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Susie answered; "she was always fond of pets, papa says; and, +ever since she has been ill, she has spent a great deal of time watching +them and studying their ways. I think it makes her forget the pain,"</p> + +<p>"Is it the pain that keeps her awake at night, Susie? You know she said +this afternoon she was glad to hear the chippy-birds, because then she +knew the long night was over; and she looked so white, and couldn't get +down those <a name="Page_245" id="Page_245" />three little easy steps to pick up the baby-bird. But she +walks about the garden sometimes with a crutch, doesn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! and she's better than when she first came here to live, only +she never can be well, you know. Today is one of her poor days; but she +used to be so ill that she was hardly ever free from pain. You never +would have known it, though, she was always so cheerful and doing +something to give us good times."</p> + +<p>"Can't she ever be made well, Susie? There's doctors in town, you know, +who cure <i>every thing</i>," said the little girl.</p> + +<p>Susie shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Papa says she has an incurable disease;" and then seriously—"I think +if Jesus were here he would put his hands on auntie and make her well."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" /><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246" />CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h2>PARSON LORRIMER'S WHITE HORSE.</h2> + + +<p>"And now for the story of the minister's horse," Mollie Elliot said, +when Miss Ruth's company of workers had assembled on the next Wednesday +afternoon. "I suppose he was an awfully good horse, which set an example +to all the other horses in the parish to follow. Say, Auntie, wasn't +he?"</p> + +<p>"When my grandmother was a little girl," Ruth Elliot began, "she lived +with her father and mother in a small country town among the New +Hampshire hills: and of all the stories she told in her old age about +the quiet simple life of the people of Hilltown, the one her +grandchildren liked best to hear was</p> + + +<p><b><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247" />THE STORY OF PARSON LORRIMER'S WHITE HORSE.</b></p> + +<p>"Parson Lorrimer had lived thirty years in Hilltown before he owned a +horse. He began to preach in the big white meeting-house when he was a +young man, and, as neither he nor his people wanted a change, when he +was sixty years old he was preaching there still. It was a scattered +parish, with farm-houses perched on the hill-sides and nestled in the +valleys; and the minister, in doing his work, had trudged over every +mile of it a great many times. He made nothing of walking five miles to +a meeting on a December evening, with the thermometer below zero, or of +climbing the hills in a driving snow-storm to visit a sick parishioner. +He was a tall, spare man, healthy and vigorous, with iron-gray hair, a +strong <a name="Page_248" id="Page_248" />kind face, and a smile in his brown eyes that made every baby in +Hilltown stretch out its arms to him to be taken.</p> + +<p>"Not a chick or child had Parson Lorrimer of his own. He had never +married, but lived in the old parsonage, a stately mansion, with rooms +enough in it to accommodate a big family, with only an elderly widow and +her grown-up son to minister to his wants and to keep him company. His +study was at the back of the house, and looked out upon the garden and +orchard, so that the smell of his pinks and roses came to him as he +wrote, and the same robins, year by year, built their nests within reach +of his hand in the branches of the crooked old apple-tree that shaded +his window.</p> + +<p>"The minister was fond of caring for living creatures, both small and +<a name="Page_249" id="Page_249" />great, and every domestic animal about the place knew it. The cat +jumped fearlessly to his knee, sure of a welcome. The cow lowed after +him if he showed himself at the window. The little chicks fluttered to +his shoulder when he appeared in the door-yard, and the old sow with her +litter of pigs kept close at his heels as he paced the orchard, +pondering next Sunday's sermon.</p> + +<p>"He remembered them all. There was always a handful of grain for the +chickens in the pocket of his study-gown, a ripe pumpkin in the shed for +Sukey; and the good man would laugh like a school-boy, as the funny +little baby-pigs rolled and tumbled over each other for the apples he +tossed them. A great, good, gentle man, learned and wise in theology and +knowledge of <a name="Page_250" id="Page_250" />the Scriptures, with tastes and habits as simple as a +child.</p> + +<p>"But I must hurry on with my story, or you will think I am telling you +more about the parson than his horse. The good man realized, one day, +that he was not as young as he used to be, and that climbing Harrison +Hill on a July afternoon and walking five miles in a drizzling rain +after a preaching service were not so easy to do as he had found them a +dozen years before. So he wisely concluded to call in the aid of four +strong legs in carrying on his work, and that is how he came to buy a +horse.</p> + +<p>"The people of Hilltown heartily approved of this plan, and several were +anxious to help him.</p> + +<p>"Deacon Cowles had a four-year-old colt, raised on the farm, 'a real +clever <a name="Page_251" id="Page_251" />steady-goin' creetur, that he guessed he could spare—might be +turned in for pew-rent;' and Si Olcott didn't care if he traded off his +gray mare on the same conditions. She was about used up for farm-work, +but had considerable go in her yet—could jog round with the parson for +ten years to come.</p> + +<p>"The minister received these offers with politeness, and promised to +think of them; and then one day after a brief absence from home, set +every body in the parish talking, by driving into town seated in an open +wagon, shining with fresh paint and varnish, and drawn by a horse the +like of which had never been seen in Hilltown before.</p> + +<p>"He was of a large and powerful build, and most comely and graceful in +proportion, with a small head, slender legs, <a name="Page_252" id="Page_252" />and flowing mane and tail. +In color, he was milk-white, while his nose and the inside of his +pointed ears were of a delicate pink. He held his head high, stepping +proudly and glancing from side to side in a nervous, excited way; but he +had a kind eye, and the watching neighbors saw him take an apple from +the hand of his new master, after they turned in at the parsonage gate. +In answer to all questions, the parson said he had purchased the horse +at Winterport, of a seafaring man, that he was eight years old, and his +name was Peter. But to neither man nor woman in Hilltown did he ever +tell the sum he paid in yellow gold and good bank-notes for the white +horse,</p> + +<p>"A few days after the purchase, Parson Lorrimer attended a funeral, and +when the service at the house was <a name="Page_253" id="Page_253" />ended, and he had shaken hands all +round with the mourners, and exchanged greetings with neighbors and +friends, he stepped out to the side-yard, where he had fastened his +horse, and drove round the house to take his place before the hearse; +for in Hilltown it was the custom for the minister to lead the +procession to the burying-ground.</p> + +<p>"It was Peter's first appearance in an official capacity, and he stepped +with sufficient dignity into the street, where a long line of wagons and +chaises, led off by the mourners' coach and the big black hearse, waited +the signal to start, while in the door-yard and along the sidewalk were +ranged the foot-passengers; for at a funeral in Hilltown everybody went +to the grave.</p> + +<p>"A passing breeze caught a piece of <a name="Page_254" id="Page_254" />paper lying in the road, and +flirted it close to Peter's eyes. He gave a tremendous leap sideways, +and it was a marvel no one was struck by his flying heels, then +gathering himself together he ran. How he did run! The good folks +scattered right and left with amazing quickness, considering their +habits of life; for in the slow little town, every body took things fair +and easy, and the white horse dashed past the string of wagons, the +mourners' equipage, and the tall black hearse. There was a cloud of +dust, a rattling of wheels, a clatter of hoofs, and Peter and the parson +were far down the road. The people gazed after their departing spiritual +guide in speechless astonishment. The mourners' heads were thrust far +out of the coach windows. Even the sleepy farm-horses pricked up their +<a name="Page_255" id="Page_255" />ears: while old Bill, the sexton's clumsy big-footed beast, which for +fifteen years had carried the dead folks of Hilltown to their graves, +and had never before been known, on these solemn occasions to depart +from his slow walk, made a most astonishing departure; for, taking his +driver unawares, he suddenly started after the flying white steed, +breaking into a lumbering gallop, that set plumes nodding, curtains +flapping, and glasses rattling, and made the huge unwieldly vehicle +lurch and bob about in a way to threaten a shocking catastrophe.</p> + +<p>"A vigorous twitch of the lines, and a loud 'Whoa, now, Bill! Whoa, I +tell ye!' soon brought the sexton's beast to a stand-still. I am sure he +must have shared his master's surprise at such unseeming conduct, who +wondered 'What <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256" />in time had got into the blamed crittur!' But neither +voice nor rein checked Peter's speed. On he flew, down the hill past the +post-office, the meeting-house, and the tavern. It was a straight road, +and his driver kept him to it. Fortunately there were no collisions, and +at the last long ascent his pace slackened and he turned of his own +accord in at the parsonage gate.</p> + +<p>"At the village store and the tavern that evening, Peter's evil behavior +was talked about.</p> + +<p>"'He's a sp'iled horse,' Jonathan Goslee, the minister's hired man, +said, 'though you can't make parson think so. He's dead sure to run +ag'in. A horse knows when he's got the upper hand, jest as well as a +child, and he'll watch his chance to try it over ag'in, you see if he +don't.'</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_257" id="Page_257" />But the next time Peter shied and tried to run, it was the minister +who got the upper hand; and when the short excitement was over, and the +horse quiet and subdued, he was driven back to within a few paces of the +object of his fright. A neighbor was called to stand at his head, while +his master took down the flaming yellow placard that had caused all the +trouble, and slowly and cautiously brought it to him, that he might see, +smell, and touch it, talking soothingly to him and petting and caressing +him. When he had become accustomed to its appearance, and had learned by +experience that it was harmless, it was nailed to the tree again and +Peter passed it the second time without trouble.</p> + +<p>"'If I'd owned the horse,' the minister's helper said, when he told this +<a name="Page_258" id="Page_258" />story, 'I s'pose I should have <i>licked</i> him by,—but I guess, in the +long run, parson's way was best.'</p> + +<p>"This was one of many lessons Peter received to correct his only serious +fault. He was willing and swift, intelligent and kind, but so nervous +and timid, and made so frantic by his fear of any unknown object, that +he was constantly putting the minister's life and limbs in jeopardy. But +he had a wise, patient teacher, and he was apt to learn.</p> + +<p>"My grandmother was fond of telling some of the means adopted to bring +about the cure;—how one day after Peter had shied at sight of a +wheelbarrow, the parson trundled the obnoxious object about the yard for +half an hour in view of the stable window, then emptied a measure of +oats in it, and opened the stable door; <a name="Page_259" id="Page_259" />how the horse trotted round and +round, drawing each time a little nearer, then came close, snorted and +wheeled,—his master standing by encouraging him by hand and +voice,—until, unable longer to resist the tempting bait, he put his +pink nose to the pile and ate first timidly, then with confidence. After +that, the old lady said, Peter felt a particular regard for wheelbarrows +in general, hoping in each one he happened to pass to find another +toothsome meal.</p> + +<p>"He suffered at first agonies of terror at sight of the long line of +waving, flapping garments he had to pass every Monday in his passage +from the big gate to the stable; but, through the minister's devices, +grew so familiar with their appearance, that he took an early +opportunity of making their closer acquaintance, and mouthed the +parson's <a name="Page_260" id="Page_260" />ruffled shirt, and took a bite of the Widow Goslee's dimity +short-gown.</p> + +<p>"And so the kindly work went on. Peter gained trust and confidence every +day, learning little by little that his master was his friend, that +under his guidance no harm came to him, no impossible task was given to +him; until at length confidence cast out fear, and the white horse +became as docile and obedient as he had always been willing and strong.</p> + +<p>"These qualities, on one occasion, stood him in good stead; for the +parsonage barn and stable one night burned to the ground. Peter's stall +was bright with the red light of the fire, and the flames crackled +overhead in the barn-loft when the parson led out his favorite, +trembling in every limb, his eyes wild with terror, but <a name="Page_261" id="Page_261" />perfectly +obedient to his master's hand. It was as if he had said: 'I must go, +even through this dreadful fire, if master leads the way.'</p> + +<p>"There was a Fourth of July celebration in the next parish, and Parson +Lorrimer was invited to deliver the oration. He rode over on horseback, +took the saddle from Peter's back, and turned him loose in a pasture +where other of the guests' horses were grazing. A platform was erected +on the green, with seats for the band, the invited guests, and the +speaker of the day; while the people gathered from both parishes were +standing about in groups waiting for the exercises to commence. Flags +were flying, bells ringing, and a field-piece, that had seen service in +the War of the Revolution, at intervals belched out a salute in honor of +the day. The <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262" />band was playing a lively tune, when suddenly there was a +stir and a dividing to the right and left of the crowd gathered about +the stand, and through the lane thus formed came the minister's white +horse.</p> + +<p>"He trotted leisurely up, stopped before the platform, and made a bow, +then began to dance, keeping time to the music, and going round and +round in a space quickly cleared for him by the lookers-on. I don't know +whether it was a waltz the band was playing, or if horses were taught to +waltz so long ago; but whatever kind of dance it was,—gallopade, +quickstep, or cotillion,—Peter, in his horse-fashion, danced it well. +Faster and faster played the music, and round and round went the pony. +The people laughed and shouted, and Peter made his farewell bow <a name="Page_263" id="Page_263" />and +trotted soberly out of the ring, in the midst of a great shout of +applause.</p> + +<p>"How did Parson Lorrimer feel? Of all that amused and wondering crowd, +not one was more taken by surprise than he—both at this exhibition of +Peter's accomplishments and at the tale it told of his early days; for +it was impossible to doubt that at some time in his life he had been a +trained horse in a circus. From the field near by he had recognized the +familiar strains that used to call him to his task, and had leaped the +fence and made his way to where the crowd was gathered, to play his +pretty part on the village green, before the sober citizens of +Centerville and Hilltown, as he had played it hundreds of times before, +under the canvas, to the motley crowd drawn together by the attractions +of the ring.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_264" id="Page_264" />Of course the minister felt sorry and ashamed when he learned, in this +public way, of the low company Peter had kept in his youth. Whenever a +traveling circus had stopped at Winterport, Parson Lorrimer had not +failed to warn his young people from the pulpit to keep their feet from +straying to this place of sinful amusement. But mingled with his +chagrin, I think he must have felt a little pride in the ownership of +the beautiful creature, so intelligent to remember, and so supple of +limb to perform, the unaccustomed task.</p> + +<p>"He took pains to narrate more fully than he had thought necessary +before, how he had come in possession of the animal. He had gone, he +said, on business to Winterport, and on the wharf, early one morning, +had met a man in the dress of a sailor leading the white <a name="Page_265" id="Page_265" />horse. In +answer to inquiries, the stranger said he had taken the horse In payment +of a debt, and was about to ship him on board a trading-vessel then +lying in the dock, bound to the East Indies. Would he sell, the minister +asked, on this side of the water? Yes, if he could get his price. While +they talked, Parson Lorrimer caressed the horse, who responded in so +friendly a way that the minister, who had lost his heart at first sight +to the beautiful creature, then and there made the purchase, waiting +only till the banks were open to pay over the money. He had asked few +questions; had known, he said, by Peter's eyes that he was kind, and by +certain unmistakable marks about him that he came of good stock. Of the +stranger, he had seen nothing from that day, and could not even remember +his name.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_266" id="Page_266" />'I always knew,' Jonathan Goslee said, 'that the critter had tricks +and ways different from common horses, I've catched him at 'em +sometimes. One day I found him with his bran-tub bottom upwards, amusin' +himself tryin' to stand with all four legs on it at once. And he'll +clear marm's clothes-line at a leap as easy as you'd jump over a pair of +bars. But I never happened to catch him practisin' his +dancin'-lesson—must have done it, though, on the sly, or he couldn't +have footed it so lively that day over to Centerville. Well, sometimes I +think—and then ag'in I don't know. If that there sailor feller stole +the horse he sold in such a hurry to parson, why didn't the owner make a +hue and cry about it, and follow him up? 'Twould have been easy enough +to track the beast to Hilltown. And <a name="Page_267" id="Page_267" />then ag'in, if 'twas all fair and +square, and he took the horse for a debt, why didn't he sell him to a +show company for a fancy price, instead of shippin' him off to the Indys +in one of them rotten old tubs, that as like as not would go under +before she'd made half the voyage. But there, we never shall get to the +bottom facts in the case, any more than we shall ever know how much +money parson paid down for that horse,'</p> + +<p>"And they never did.</p> + +<p>"My grandmother remembered Parson Lorrimer as an old man, tall and +straight, with flowing white hair, a placid face, and kind, dim eyes +that gradually grew dimmer, till their light faded to darkness. For the +last four years of his life he was totally blind, She remembered how he +used to mount <a name="Page_268" id="Page_268" />the pulpit-stairs, one hand resting upon the shoulder of +his colleague, and, standing in the old place, with lifted face and +closed eyes, carry on the service, repeating chapter and hymns from +memory, his voice tremulous, but still sweet and penetrating.</p> + +<p>"She remembered going to visit the old man in his study. It was +summer-time, and he sat in his arm-chair at the open window, and on the +grass-plat outside—so near that his head almost touched his master's +shoulder—the old white horse was standing; for they had grown old +together, and together were enjoying a peaceful and contented old age. +Every bright day for hours Peter stood at the window, and in the +winter-time, when he was shut in his stable, the old man never failed to +visit him.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_269" id="Page_269" />But one November afternoon, Parson Lorrimer being weary laid himself +down upon his bed, where presently the sleep came to him God giveth to +his beloved.</p> + +<p>"The evening after his funeral a member of the household passing the +study-door was startled at seeing in the pale moonlight a long, ghostly +white face peering in at the window.</p> + +<p>"It was only Peter, that had slipped his halter and wandered round to +the old place looking for his master. He allowed them to lead him back +to his stable, but every time the door was opened he whinnied and turned +his head. As the days passed and the step he waited for came no more, +hope changed to patient grief. His food often remained untasted; he +refused to go out into the sunshine; and so, <a name="Page_270" id="Page_270" />gradually wasting and +without much bodily suffering, he one day laid himself down and his life +slipped quietly away.</p> + +<p>"He was buried outside the grave-yard, at the top of the hill, as near +as might be to the granite head-stone that recorded the virtues of 'Ye +most faithful Servant and Man of God Silus Timothy Lorrimer Who for 52 +Yrs did Minister to This Ch and Congregation in Spiritual Things.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>'The faithful Memory of The Just<br /></span> +<span>Shall Flourish When they turn To Dust.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Peter has no head-stone to mark his grave, but his memory is green in +Hilltown. The old folks love to tell of his beauty, his intelligence, +and his life-long devotion to his master; and there is a tradition +handed down and repeated <a name="Page_271" id="Page_271" />half-seriously, half in jest, that when +Gabriel blows his trumpet on the resurrection morning, and the dead in +Hilltown grave-yard awake, Parson Lorrimer will lead his flock to the +judgment riding on a white horse."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" /><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272" />CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h2>THE QUILTING.</h2> + + +<p>The patchwork quilt was finished. The pieces of calico Miss Ruth from +week to week had measured and cut and basted together, with due regard +to contrast and harmony of colors, were transformed into piles of +gay-colored blocks; the blocks multiplied and extended themselves into +strips, and the strips basted together had kept sixteen little hands +"sewing the long seam" for three Wednesday afternoons. And now it was +finished, and the quilting had begun.</p> + +<p>Miss Ruth had decided, after a consultation with the minister's wife, +that the girls might do this most important <a name="Page_273" id="Page_273" />and difficult part of the +business. She wanted the gift to be theirs from beginning to end—that, +having furnished all the material, they should do all the work. How +pleased and proud they were to be thus trusted, you can imagine, while +the satisfaction they took in the result of the summer's labor repaid +their leader a hundred-fold for her share in the enterprise.</p> + +<p>Never was a quilt so admired and praised. Of all the odds and ends the +girls had brought in, Ruth Elliot had rejected nothing, not even the +polka-dotted orange print in which Mrs. Jones delighted to array her +baby or the gorgeous green-and-red gingham of Nellie Dimock's new apron.</p> + +<p>It took two long afternoons of close work for the girls (not one of whom +had ever quilted before) to accomplish <a name="Page_274" id="Page_274" />this task; but they did it +bravely and cheerfully. There were pricked fingers and tired arms and +cramped feet, and the big dictionary that raised Nellie Dimock to a +level with her taller companions must have proved any thing but an easy +seat; but no one complained.</p> + +<p>Let us look in upon the Patchwork Quilt Society toward the close of this +last afternoon.</p> + +<p>"I was sewing on this very block," Mollie Elliot is saying, leaning back +in her chair to survey her work, "when Aunt Ruth was telling us how +Captain Bobtail's Brownie brought Tufty home.</p> + +<p>"That pink-and-gray block over there in the corner," said Fannie +Eldridge, pointing with her needle, "was the first one I sewed on. I +made awful work with it, too; for when Dinah Diamond <a name="Page_275" id="Page_275" />set herself on +fire with the kerosene lamp I forgot what I was about, and took ever so +many long puckery stitches that had to be picked out,"</p> + +<p>"If I should sleep under that bed-quilt," said Sammy Ray (Sammy and Roy +had been invited to attend this last meeting of the Society), "what do +you suppose I should dream about?"</p> + +<p>No one could imagine.</p> + +<p>"A white horse and a yellow dog," the boy said, "'cause I liked those +stories best."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mollie; "and of course Nellie Dimock would dream about cats, +wouldn't you, Nell? and Roy Tyler about moths and butterflies, and +Florence Austin about birds, and I—well, I should dream of all the +beasts and the birds Aunt Ruth has told us about, all jumbled up +together."</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_276" id="Page_276" />I shall always remember one thing," Nellie Dimock said, "when I think +about our quilt."</p> + +<p>"What is that, Nellie?"</p> + +<p>"Not to step on an ant-hill if I can possibly help it, because it blocks +up the street, and the little people have to work so hard to cart away +the dirt."</p> + +<p>"I ain't half so afraid of worms as I used to be," Eliza Ann Jones +announced, "since I've found out what funny things they can do; and next +summer I'm going to make some butterflies out of fennel-worms,"</p> + +<p>"Roy says," Sammy began, and stopped; for Roy was making forcible +objections to the disclosure.</p> + +<p>"Well, what does Roy say?" Miss Ruth asked, knowing nothing of the kicks +administered under the table.</p> + +<p>"He won't let me tell," said Sammy.</p> + +<p>"<a name="Page_277" id="Page_277" />He's always telling what I say," said Roy. "Why don't he speak for +himself?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I never!" said Sammy. "I thought you was too bashful to speak, +and so I'd do it for you."</p> + +<p>"What was it, Roy?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I said, when I owned a horse, if he should happen to shy, you +know, I'd cure him of it just as that minister cured Peter."</p> + +<p>Here there was a pushing back of chairs and a stir and commotion, for +the last stitch was set to the quilting. Then the binding was put on, +and the quilt was finished; but the September afternoon was finished +too, and Lovina Tibbs lighted the lamps in the dining-room before she +rang the bell for tea.</p> + +<p>Lovina had exerted herself in her special department to make this last +<a name="Page_278" id="Page_278" />meeting of the Society a festive occasion. She gave to the visitors +what she called "a company supper"—biscuits deliciously sweet and +light, cold chicken, plum-preserves, sponge-cake, and for a central dish +a platter containing little frosted cakes, with the letters "P.Q.S." +traced on each in red sugar-sand.</p> + +<p>When the feast was over, one last-admiring look given to "our quilt" and +the girls and boys had all gone home, Susie and Mollie sat with their +mother in Miss Ruth's room.</p> + +<p>"Auntie," said Susie, who for some moments had been gazing thoughtfully +in the fire, "I have been thinking how nice it would be if, when our +quilt goes to the home missionary, all the interesting stories you have +told us while we were sewing on it could go too.<a name="Page_279" id="Page_279" /> Then the children in +the family would think so much more of it—don't you see? I wish there +was some way for a great many more boys and girls to hear those +stories."</p> + +<p>"Why, that's just what Florence Austin was saying this afternoon," said +Mollie. "She said she wished all those stories could be printed in a +book."</p> + +<p>"You hear the suggestion, Ruth," Mrs. Elliot said.</p> + +<p>But Ruth smiled and shook her head,</p> + +<p>"They are such simple little stories," said she.</p> + +<p>"For simple little people to read—'for of such is the kingdom of +heaven.' Think, Ruth, if, instead of one Eliza Jones 'making butterflies +out of fennel-worms' next summer, and in that way getting at some +wonderful facts far more effectively than any book could <a name="Page_280" id="Page_280" />teach her, +there should be a dozen, aria perhaps as many boys resolving, like Roy, +to use kindness and patience instead of cruelty and force in their +dealings with a dumb beast. But you know all this without my preaching. +Ten times one make ten, little sister."</p> + +<p>"If I thought my stones would do good," she said.</p> + +<p>"Come, I have a proposition to make," said the minister's wife. "You +shall write out the stories—you already have some of them in +manuscript—and I will fill in with the doings of the Patchwork Quilt +Society. Do you agree?"</p> + +<p>And that is how this book was written.</p> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>The Girl Chum's Series</h1> + +<h4>ALL AMERICAN AUTHORS.</h4> +<h4>ALL COPYRIGHT STORIES.</h4> + +<p>A carefully selected series of books for +girls, written by popular authors. These +are charming stories for young girls, well +told and full of interest. Their simplicity, +tenderness, healthy, interesting motives, +vigorous action, and character painting will +please all girl readers.</p> + +<p> +<b>HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING.<br /> +PRICE, 60 CENTS.</b><br /> +<br /> +<b>BENHURST CLUB, THE.</b> By Howe Benning.<br /> +<br /> +<b>BERTHA'S SUMMER BOARDERS.</b> By Linnie S. Harris.<br /> +<br /> +<b>BILLOW PRAIRIE.</b> A Story of Life in the Great West. By Joy +Allison.<br /> +<br /> +<b>DUXBERRY DOINGS.</b> A New England Story. By Caroline B. Le Row.<br /> +<br /> +<b>FUSSBUDGET'S FOLKS.</b> A Story For Young Girls. By Anna F. Burnham.<br +/> +<br /> +<b>HAPPY DISCIPLINE, A.</b> By Elizabeth Cummings.<br /> +<br /> +<b>JOLLY TEN, THE; and Their Year of Stories.</b> By Agnes Carr Sage.<br /> +<br /> +<b>KATIE ROBERTSON. A Girl's Story of Factory Life.</b> By M.E. Winslow.<br +/> +<br /> +<b>LONELY HILL. A Story For Girls.</b> By M.L. Thornton-Wilder.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MAJORIBANKS. A Girl's Story.</b> By Elvirton Wright.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MISS CHARITY'S HOUSE.</b> By Howe Benning.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS. A Story For Young Girls.</b> By Mary Spring +Corning.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MISS MALCOLM'S TEN. A Story For Girls.</b> By Margaret E. Winslow.<br /> +<br /> +<b>ONE GIRL'S WAY OUT.</b> By Howe Benning.<br /> +<br /> +<b>PEN'S VENTURE.</b> By Elvirton Wright.<br /> +<br /> +<b>RUTH PRENTICE. A Story For Girls.</b> By Marion Thorne.<br /> +<br /> +<b>THREE YEARS AT GLENWOOD. A Story of School Life.</b> By M. E. +Winslow.<br /> +</p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>The Girl Comrade's Series</h1> + +<h4>ALL AMERICAN AUTHORS.</h4> +<h4>ALL COPYRIGHT STORIES.</h4> + +<p>A carefully selected series of books for girls, written by popular +authors. These are charming stories for young girls, well told and full +of interest. Their simplicity, tenderness, healthy, interesting motives, +vigorous action, and character painting will please all girl readers.</p> + +<p><b>HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING.</b> PRICE, 60 CENTS.</p> + +<p> +<b>A BACHELOR MAID AND HER BROTHER.</b> By I.T. Thurston.<br /> +<br /> +<b>ALL ABOARD, A Story For Girls.</b> By Fanny E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>ALMOST A GENIUS. A Story For Girls.</b> By Adelaide L. Rouse.<br /> +<br /> +<b>ANNICE WYNKOOP, Artist. Story of a Country Girl.</b> By Adelaide L. +Rouse.<br /> +<br /> +<b>BUBBLES. A Girl's Story.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>COMRADES.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>DEANE GIRLS, THE. A Home Story.</b> By Adelaide L. Rouse.<br /> +<br /> +<b>HELEN BEATON, COLLEGE WOMAN.</b> By Adelaide L. Rouse.<br /> +<br /> +<b>JOYCE'S INVESTMENTS. A Story For Girls.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MELLICENT RAYMOND. A Story For Girls.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>MISS ASHTON'S NEW PUPIL. A School Girl's Story.</b> By Mrs. S.S. +Robbins.<br /> +<br /> +<b>NOT FOR PROFIT. A Story For Girls.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>ODD ONE, THE. A Story For Girls.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +<br /> +<b>SARA, A PRINCESS. A Story For Girls.</b> By Fannie E. Newberry.<br /> +</p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS SERIES</h1> + +<h2>By CAROLYN JUDSON BURNETT</h2> + +<h4>Handsome Cloth Binding</h4> + +<h2><i>Splendid Stories of the Adventures of a Group of Charming +Girls</i></h2> + +<p>THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS' VACATION ADVENTURES; or, Shirley Willing +to the Rescue.</p> + +<p>THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS' CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS; or, A Four Weeks' +Tour with the Glee Club.</p> + +<p>THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS; or, Shirley Willing on a +Mission of Peace.</p> + +<p>THE BLUE GRASS SEMINARY GIRLS ON THE WATER; or, Exciting Adventures on a +Summer's Cruise Through the Panama Canal</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h1>THE MILDRED SERIES</h1> + +<h2>By MARTHA FINLEY</h2> + +<h4>Handsome Cloth Binding</h4> + +<h2><i>A Companion Series to the Famous "Elsie" Books by the Same +Author</i> +</h2> + +<p>MILDRED KEITH</p> + +<p>MILDRED AT ROSELANDS</p> + +<p>MILDRED AND ELSIE</p> + +<p>MILDRED'S MARRIED LIFE</p> + +<p>MILDRED AT HOME</p> + +<p>MILDRED'S BOYS AND GIRLS</p> + +<p>MILDRED'S NEW DAUGHTER</p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York.</p> + + +<hr style='width: 65%;' /> +<h1>THE CAMP FIRE GIRL SERIES</h1> + +<h2><b>By HILDEGARD G. FREY.</b> </h2> + +<p>The only series of stories for Camp Fire Girls +endorsed by the officials of the Camp Fire Girls' Organization. Handsome +Cloth Binding. Price, 60 Cents per Volume.</p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MAINE WOODS; or, The Winnebagos go +Camping.</b></p> + +<p>This lively Camp Fire group and their Guardian go back to Nature in a +camp in the wilds of Maine and pile up more adventures in one summer +than they have had in all their previous vacations put together.</p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT SCHOOL; or, The Wohelo Weavers.</b></p> + +<p>How these seven live wire girls strive to infuse into their school life +the spirit of Work, Health and Love and yet manage to get into more than +their share of mischief, is told in this story.</p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT ONOWAY HOUSE; or, The Magic Garden.</b></p> + +<p>Migwan is determined to go to college, and not being strong enough to +work indoors earns the money by raising fruits and vegetables. The +Winnebagos all turn a hand to help the cause along and the +"goingson" at +Onoway House that summer make the foundation shake with laughter.</p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS GO MOTORING; or, Along the Road That Leads the +Way.</b> In which the Winnebagos take a thousand mile auto trip.</p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS LARKS AND PRANKS; or, The House of the Open +Door.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The Trail of the Seven +Cedars.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD; or, Glorify Work.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over the Top with the +Winnebagos.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or, The Christmas Adventure at +Carver House.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN; or, Down Paddles.</b></p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>The AMY E. BLANCHARD Series</h1> + +<p>Miss Blanchard has won an enviable reputation as a writer of short +stories for girls. Her books are thoroughly wholesome in every way and +her style is full of charm. The titles described below will be splendid +additions to every girl's library. Handsomely bound in cloth, full +library size. Illustrated by L.J. Bridgman. Price, 60 cents per volume, +postpaid.</p> + +<p><b>THE GLAD LADY.</b> A spirited account of a remarkably pleasant +vacation +spent in an unfrequented part of northern Spain. This summer, which +promised at the outset to be very quiet, proved to be exactly the +opposite. Event follows event in rapid succession and the story ends +with the culmination of at least two happy romances. The story +throughout is interwoven with vivid descriptions of real places and +people of which the general public knows very little. These add greatly +to the reader's interest.</p> + +<p><b>WIT'S END.</b> Instilled with life, color and individuality, this +story of +true love cannot fail to attract and hold to its happy end the reader's +eager attention. The word pictures are masterly; while the poise of +narrative and description is marvellously preserved.</p> + +<p><b>A JOURNEY OF JOY.</b> A charming story of the travels and adventures +of +two young American girls, and an elderly companion in Europe, It is not +only well told, but the amount of information contained will make it a +very valuable addition to the library of any girl who anticipates +making-a similar trip. Their many pleasant experiences end in the +culmination of two happy romances, all told in the happiest vein.</p> + +<p><b>TALBOT'S ANGLES.</b> A charming romance of Southern life. Talbot's +Angles +is a beautiful old estate located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The +death of the owner and the ensuing legal troubles render it necessary +for our heroine, the present owner, to leave the place which has been in +her family for hundreds of years and endeavor to earn her own living. +Another claimant for the property appearing on the scene complicates +matters still more. The untangling of this mixed-up condition of affairs +makes an extremely interesting story.</p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1>The Boy Allies</h1> +<h4>(Registered in the United States Patent Office)</h4> +<h1>With the Navy</h1> + + +<h2>By ENSIGN ROBERT L. DRAKE</h2> + +<p><b>Handsome Cloth Binding, Price 60 Cents per Volume</b></p> + +<p>Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, young American lads, meet each other +in an unusual way soon after the declaration of war. Circumstances place +them on board the British cruiser "The Sylph" and from there on, +they +share adventures with the sailors of the Allies. Ensign Robert L. Drake, +the author, is an experienced naval officer, and he describes admirably +the many exciting adventures of the two boys.</p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES ON THE NORTH SEA PATROL; or, Striking the First Blow +at +the German Fleet.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES UNDER TWO FLAGS; or, Sweeping the Enemy from the +Seas.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE FLYING SQUADRON; or, The Naval Raiders of the +Great War.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE TERROR OF THE SEA; or, The Last Shot of +Submarine D-16.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE SEA; or, The Vanishing Submarine.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALTIC; or, Through Fields of Ice to Aid the +Czar.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES AT JUTLAND; or, The Greatest Naval Battle of +History.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH UNCLE SAM'S CRUISERS; or, Convoying the American +Army Across the Atlantic.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE SUBMARINE D-32; or, The Fall of the Russian +Empire.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE VICTORIOUS FLEETS; or, The Fall of the German +Navy.</b></p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1><b>The Boy Allies With</b></h1> +<h4>(Registered in the United States Patent Office)</h4> +<h1><b>the Army</b></h1> + +<h2><b>By CLAIR W. HAYES</b></h2> + +<p><b>Handsome Cloth Binding, Price 60 Cents per Volume</b></p> + +<p>In this series we follow the fortunes of two American lads unable to +leave Europe after war is declared. They meet the soldiers of the +Allies, and decide to cast their lot with them. Their experiences and +escapes are many, and furnish plenty of the good, healthy action that +every boy loves.</p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE; or, Through Lines of Steel.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES ON THE FIRING LINE; or, Twelve Days Battle Along the +Marne.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS; or, A Wild Dash Over the +Carpathians.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES IN THE TRENCHES; or, Midst Shot and Shell Along the +Aisne.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES IN GREAT PERIL; or, With the Italian Army in the +Alps.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN; or, The Struggle to Save a +Nation.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES ON THE SOMME; or, Courage and Bravery +Rewarded.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES AT VERDUN; or, Saving France from the Enemy.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES; or, Leading the American +Troops to the Firing Line.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH HAIG IN FLANDERS; or, The Fighting Canadians of +Vimy Ridge.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH PERSHING IN FRANCE; or Over the Top at Chateau +Thierry.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE GREAT ADVANCE; or, Driving the Enemy Through +France and Belgium.</b></p> + +<p><b>THE BOY ALLIES WITH MARSHAL FOCH; or, The Closing Days of the Great +World War.</b></p> + +<p>For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Miss Elliot's Girls, by Mrs Mary Spring Corning + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS *** + +***** This file should be named 14610-h.htm or 14610-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/6/1/14610/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Miss Elliot's Girls + +Author: Mrs Mary Spring Corning + +Release Date: January 6, 2005 [EBook #14610] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +[Illustration: "What's the matter?" said Charlie. "A great, horrid +green worm," said I. Page 53. _Miss Elliot's Girls._] + + +MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS + +STORIES OF +BEASTS, BIRDS, AND BUTTERFLIES + +By MRS. MARY SPRING CORNING + + +[Illustration] + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS +NEW YORK + + + + +COPYRIGHT 1886, BY +CONGREGATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND PUBLISHING SOCIETY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +GREENY, BLACKY, AND SLY-BOOTS. + + +Sammy Ray was running by the parsonage one day when Miss Ruth called to +him. She was sitting in the vine-shaded porch, and there was a crutch +leaning against her chair. + +"Sammy," she said, "isn't there a field of tobacco near where you live?" + +"Yes'm; two of 'em." + +"To-morrow morning look among the tobacco plants and find me a large +green worm. Have you ever seen a tobacco worm?" + +Sammy grinned. + +"I've killed more'n a hundred of 'em this summer," he said. "Pat Heeley +hires me to smash all I can find, 'cause they eat the tobacco." + +"Well, bring one carefully to me on the leaf where he is feeding; the +largest one you can find." + +Before breakfast the next morning Ruth Elliot had her first sight of a +tobacco worm. + +"Take care!" said Sammy, "or he'll spit tobacco juice on you. See that +horn on his tail? When you want to kill him, you jest catch hold this +way, and"-- + +"But I don't want to kill him," she said. "I want to keep him in this +nice little house I have got ready for him, and give him all the tobacco +he can eat. Will you bring me a fresh leaf every, morning?" + +While she was speaking she had put the worm in a box with a cover of +pink netting. On his way home Sammy met Roy Tyler, and told him (as a +secret) that the lame lady at the minister's house kept worms, and would +pay two cents a head for tobacco worms. "Anyway," said Sammy, "that's +what she paid me." + +If there was money to be got in the tobacco-worm business, Roy wanted a +share in it; and before night he brought to Miss Ruth, in an old tin +basin, eight worms of various sizes, from a tiny baby worm just hatched, +to a great, ugly creature, jet black, and spotted and barred with +yellow. The black worm Miss Ruth consented to keep, and Roy, lifting him +by his horn, dropped him on the green worm's back. + +"Now you have a Blacky and a Greeny," the boy said; and by these names +they were called. + +Roy and Sammy came together the next morning, and watched the worms at +their breakfast. + +"How they eat!" said Sammy; "they make their great jaws go like a couple +of old tobacco-chewers." + +"Yes; and if they lived on bread and butter 't would cost a lot to feed +'em, wouldn't it?" said Roy. + +"Look at my woodbine worm, boys," Miss Ruth said, as she lifted the +cover of another box. "Isn't he a beauty? See the delicate green, shaded +to white, on his back, and that row of spots down his sides looking like +buttons! I call him Sly-boots, because he has a trick of hiding under +the leaves. He used to have a horn on his tail like the tobacco worms." + +"Where that spot is, that looks like an eye?" + +"Yes; and one day he ate nothing and hid himself away, and looked so +strangely that I thought he was going to die; but the next morning he +appeared in this beautiful new coat." + +"How funny! Say, what is he going to turn into?" + +But Miss Ruth was busy house-cleaning. First she turned out her tenants. +They were at breakfast; but they took their food with them, and did not +mind. Then she tipped their house upside down, and brushed out every +stick and stem and bit of leaf, spread thick brown paper on the floor, +and put back Greeny and Blacky snug and comfortable. + +The next time Sammy and Roy met at the parsonage, three flower-pots of +moist sand stood in a row under the bench. + +"Winter quarters," Miss Ruth explained when she saw the boys looking at +them; "and it's about time for my tenants to move in. Greeny and Blacky +have stopped eating, and Sly-boots is turning pale." + +"A worm turn pale!" + +"Yes, indeed; look at him." + +It was quite true; the green on his back had changed to gray-white, and +his pretty spots were fading. + +"He looks awfully; is he going to die?" + +"Yes--and no. Come this afternoon and see what will happen." + +But when they came, Blacky and Sly-boots were not to be seen. Their +summer residence, empty and uncovered, stood out in the sun, and two of +the flower-pots were covered with netting. + +"I couldn't keep them, boys," Miss Ruth said; "they were in such haste +to be gone. Only Greeny is above ground." + +Greeny was in his flower-pot. He was creeping slowly round and round, +now and then stretching his long neck over the edge, but not trying to +get out. Soon he began to burrow. Straight down, head first, he went +into the ground. Now he was half under, now three quarters, now only the +end of his tail and the tip of his horn could be seen. When he was quite +gone, Sammy drew a long breath and Roy said, "I swanny!" + +"How long will he have to stay down there?" + +"All winter, Roy." + +"Poor fellow!" + +"Happy fellow! _I_ say. Why, he has done being a worm. His creeping days +are over. He has only to lie snug and quiet under the ground a while; +then wake and come up to the sunshine some bright morning with a new +body and a pair of lovely wings to spread and fly away with." + +"Why, it's like--it's like"-- + +"What is it like, Sammy?" + +"Ain't it like _folks_, Miss Ruth?" Grandma sings:-- + + 'I'll take my wings and fly away + In the morning,' + +"Yes," she said; "it _is_ like folks." Then glancing at her crutch, +repeated, smiling: "In the morning." + +When the woodbine in the porch had turned red, and the maples in the +door-yard yellow, the flower-pots were removed to the warm cellar, and +one winter evening Sammy Ray wrote Greeny's epitaph:-- + + "A poor green worm, here I lie; + But by-and-by + I shall fly, + Ever so high, + Into the sky." + +He came often in the spring to ask if any thing had happened, and one +day Miss Ruth took from a box and laid in his hand a shining brown +chrysalis, with a curved handle. + +"What a funny little brown jug!" said Sammy. + +"Greeny is inside; close your hand gently and see if you feel him." + +"How cold!" said the boy; and then: "Oh! oh! he _is_ alive, for he +kicks!" + +In June Greeny and Blacky came out of their shells, but no one saw them +do it, for it was in the night; but Sly-boots was more obliging. One +morning Miss Ruth heard a rustling, and lo! what looked like a great +bug, with long, slender legs, was climbing to the top of the box. Soon +he hung by his feet to the netting, rested motionless a while, and then +slowly, slowly unfolded his wings to the sun. They were brown and white +and pink, beautifully shaded, and his body was covered with rings of +brown satin. Blacky and Greeny were not so handsome. They had +orange-spotted bodies, great wings of sober gray, and carried long +flexible tubes curled like a watch-spring, that could be stretched out +to suck honey from the flowers. + +At sunset Miss Ruth sent for the boys. She placed the uncovered box +where the moths waited with folded wings, in the open window. Up from +the garden came a soft breeze sweet with the breath of the roses and +petunias. There was a stir, a rustle, a waving of dusky wings, and the +box was empty. + +So Greeny and Blacky and Sly-boots "took their wings and flew away," and +the boys saw them no more. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE PATCHWORK QUILT SOCIETY. + + +The minister's wife came home from a meeting of the sewing society one +afternoon quite discouraged. + +"Only nine ladies present!" she said, "and very little accomplished; and +the barrel promised to that poor missionary out West, before cold +weather--I really don't see how it is to be done." + +"What work have you on hand?" Miss Ruth inquired. + +"We have just made a beginning," Mrs. Elliot answered with a sigh. +"There's half a dozen fine shirts to make, and a pile of sheets and +pillowcases, dresses and aprons for four little girls, table-cloths and +towels to hem, and I know not what else. We always have sent a +bed-quilt, but this barrel must go without it. It's a pity, too, for +they need bedding." + +"Why, so it is," said Miss Ruth. "Susie,"--to a little girl sitting +close beside her,--"why can't some of you girls get together one +afternoon in the week and make a patchwork quilt to send in the barrel?" + +Susie put her head on one side and considered. + +"Where could we meet, Aunt Ruth?" + +"Here in my room, Susie, if mamma has no objection." + +"Certainly not," Mrs. Elliot said; "but are you well enough to undertake +it, Ruth?" + +"Yes, indeed, Mary; I shall really enjoy it." + +"And would you cut out the blocks for us, and show us how to keep them +from getting all _skewonical_, like the cradle-quilt I made for Amelia +Adeline?" + +Amelia Adeline was Susie's doll. + +"Yes; and I could tell you stories while you were working. How would +that do?" + +"Why, it would be splendid!" said the little girl. "There comes Mollie, +I guess, by the noise. Won't she be glad? Say, Mollie!--why, what a +looking object!" + +This exclamation was called forth by the appearance of the little girl, +who had been heard running at full speed the length of the piazza, and +now presented herself at the door of Miss Ruth's room, her face flushed, +her hair in the wildest confusion, and the skirt of her calico frock +quite detached from the waist, hanging over her arm. + +"Wasn't it lucky that the gathers ripped?" she cried, holding up the +unlucky fragment. "If they hadn't, mamma, I should be hanging, head +down, from the five-barred gate in the lower pasture, and no body to +help me but the cows. You see, I set out to jump, and my skirt got +caught in a nail on the post." + +"O Mollie!" said her mother, "what made you climb the five-barred gate?" + +"'Cause she's a big tom-boy," said Lovina Tibbs, who had come from the +kitchen to call the family to supper. "Ain't yer 'shamed of yerself, +Mary Elliot?--a great girl like you, most ten years old, walkin' top o' +rail fences and climbin' apple-trees in the low pastur'!" + +"No, I'm not!" said Mollie, promptly. + +"Hush, Mollie," said Mrs. Elliot. "Lovina, that will do. Wash your face +and hands, Mollie, and make yourself decent to come to supper." + +An hour later, seated in the hammock, the girls discussed their aunt's +plan. + +"We'll have the Jones girls," said Susie, "and Grace Tyler, and Nellie +Dimock, she's such a dear little thing; and I suppose we must ask Fan +Eldridge, because she lives next door, though I dread to have her come, +she gets mad so easy; but mamma wouldn't like to have us leave her out; +and then, let's see--oh! we'll ask Florence Austin, the new girl, you +know." + +"Would you?" said Mollie, doubtfully. "We don't know her very well, and +she dresses so fine and is kind of _citified_, you know. Ar'n't you +afraid she'll spoil the fun?" + +"No," said Susie, decidedly. "Mamma said we were to be good to her +because she's a stranger; and I think she's nice, too--not a bit proud, +though her father is so rich." + +"Well," Mollie assented, who, though thirteen months older than her +sister, generally yielded to Susie's better judgment; "let her come, +then. That makes six besides us, and Aunt Ruth said half a dozen would +be plenty. Sue, I think it's going to be real jolly, don't you?" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE STORY OF DINAH DIAMOND. + + +Miss Ruth Elliot was the minister's sister. And two years before, when +she came to live in the parsonage, an addition of two rooms was built +for her on the ground floor because she was an invalid, and lame, and +could not climb the stairs. + +They were pretty rooms, with soft carpets, pictures on the walls, and in +the winter time the sun shining in all day at the south window and the +glass door. In summer with this door wide open and the piazza cool and +shady with woodbine and clematis, you would have agreed with the little +girls who made up Ruth Elliot's sewing circle, that first Wednesday +afternoon, that they were "just lovely!" + +All were there--the Jones' twins, Ann Eliza and Eliza Ann, tall girls as +like each other as two peas and growing so fast one could always see +where their gowns were let down; Grace Tyler with curly black hair and +rosy cheeks; Nellie Dimock, a little dumpling of a girl with big blue +eyes and a funny turned up nose; Fannie Eldridge, looking so sweet and +smiling, you would not suspect she could be guilty of the fault Susie +had charged her with; and Florence Austin, whose father had lately +purchased a house in Green Meadow, and with his family had come to live +in the country. Last of all, the minister's two little daughters, whom +you have already met. + +Ruth Elliot was sitting at a table covered with piles of bright calico +pieces cut and basted for sewing, and when each girl had received a +block with all necessary directions for making it, needles were +threaded, thimbles adjusted, and the Patchwork Quilt Society was in full +session. + +"Now, Aunt Ruth," said Susie, "you promised to tell us a story, you +know." + +"Yes; tell us about Dinah Diamond, please," said Mollie. + +"You and Susie have heard that story before, Mollie." + +"That does not make a bit of difference, Auntie. The stories we like +best we have heard over and over again. Besides, the other girls haven't +heard it. Come, Aunt Ruth, please begin." + +And so, while all sat industriously at work, Ruth Elliot related to the +little girls + + +THE TRUE STORY OF DINAH DIAMOND. + +"When I was a little girl," she began, "I had a present from a neighbor +of a black kitten. I carried her home in my apron, a little ball of +black fur, with bright blue eyes that turned yellow as she got bigger, +and a white spot on her breast shaped like a diamond. I remember she +spit and clawed at me all the way home, and made frantic efforts to +escape, and for a day or two was quite homesick and miserable; but she +soon grew accustomed to her surroundings, and was so sprightly and +playful that she became the pet of the house. + +"The first remarkable thing she did, was to set herself on fire with a +kerosene lamp. We were sitting at supper one evening, when we heard a +crash in the sitting-room, and rushing in, found the cloth that had +covered the center table and a blazing lamp on the floor. It was the +work of an instant for my father to raise a window, wrap the lamp in the +table-cloth, and throw both into the street. This left the room in +darkness, and I don't think the cause of the accident occured to any of +us, till there rushed from under the sofa a little ball of fire that +flew round and round the room at a most astonishing pace. + +"'Oh, my kitten! my kitten!' I screamed. 'She's burning to death! Catch +her! Catch her! Put her out! Throw cold water on her! Oh, my poor, poor +Dinah!' and I began a wild chase in the darkness, weeping and wailing as +I ran. The entire family joined in the pursuit. We tumbled over chairs +and footstools. We ran into each other, and I remember my brother +Charlie and I bumped our heads together with a dreadful crash, but I +think neither of us felt any pain. They called out to each other in the +most excited tones: 'Head her off there! Corner her! You've got her! No, +you haven't! There she goes! Catch her! Catch her!' while I kept up a +wailing accompaniment, 'Oh, my poor, precious Dinah! my burned up Dinah +Diamond,' etc. + +"Well, my mother caught her at last in her apron and rolled her in the +hearth rug till every vestige of fire was extinguished and then laid her +in my lap. + +"Don't laugh, Mollie," said tenderhearted Nellie Dimock--"please don't +laugh. I think it was dreadful. O Miss Ruth, was the poor little thing +dead?" + +"No, indeed, Nellie; and, wonderful to relate, she was very little hurt. +We supposed her fine thick coat kept the fire from reaching her body, +for we could discover no burns. Her tongue was blistered where she had +lapped the flame, and in her wild flight she had lamed one of her paws. +Of course her beauty was gone, and for a few weeks she was that +deplorable looking object--a singed cat. But oh, what tears of joy I +shed over her, and how I dosed her with catnip tea, and bathed her paw +with arnica, and nursed and petted her till she was quite well again! My +little brother Walter ("That was my papa, you know," Mollie whispered to +her neighbor), who was only three years old, would stand by me while I +was tending her, his chubby face twisted into a comical expression of +sympathy, and say in pitying tones: 'There! there! poo-ittle Dinah! I +know all about it. How oo must huffer' (suffer). The dear little fellow +had burned his finger not long before and remembered the smart. + +"I am sorry to say that the invalid received his expressions of sympathy +in a very ungracious manner, spitting at him notwithstanding her sore +tongue, and showing her claws in a threatening way if he tried to touch +her. As fond as I was of Dinah, I was soon obliged to admit that she had +an unamiable disposition." + +"Why, Miss Ruth, how funny!" said Ann Eliza Jones. "I didn't know there +was any difference in cats' dispositions." + +"Indeed there is," Miss Ruth answered: "quite as much as in the +dispositions of children, as any one will tell you who has raised a +family of kittens. Well, Dinah made a quick recovery, and when her new +coat was grown it was blacker and more silky than the old one. She was +a handsome cat, not large, but beautifully formed, with a bright, +intelligent face and great yellow eyes that changed color in different +lights. She was devoted to me, and would let no one else touch her if +she could help it, but allowed me to handle her as I pleased. I have +tucked her in my pocket many a time when I went of an errand, and once I +carried her to the prayer-meeting in my mother's muff. But she made a +serious disturbance in the midst of the service by giving chase to a +mouse, and I never repeated the experiment. + +"Dinah was a famous hunter, and kept our own and the neighbors' premises +clear of rats and mice, but never to my knowledge caught a chicken or a +bird. She had a curious fancy for catching snakes, which she would kill +with one bite in the back of the neck and then drag in triumph to the +piazza or the kitchen, where she would keep guard over her prey and call +for me till I appeared. I could never quite make her understand why she +was not as deserving of praise as when she brought in a mole or a mouse; +and as long as she lived she hunted for snakes, though after a while she +stopped bringing them to the house. She made herself useful by chasing +the neighbors' hens from the garden, and grew to be such a tyrant that +she would not allow a dog or a cat to come about the place, but rushed +out and attacked them in such a savage fashion that after one or two +encounters they were glad to keep out of her way. + +"Once I saw her put a flock of turkeys to flight. The leader at first +resolved to stand his ground. He swelled and strutted and gobbled +furiously, exactly as if he were saying, 'Come on, you miserable little +black object, you! I'll teach you to fight a fellow of my size. Come on! +Come on!' Dinah crouched low, and eyed her antagonist for a moment, then +she made a spring, and when he saw the 'black object' flying toward him, +every hair bristling, all eyes, and teeth, and claws, the old gobbler +was scared half out of his senses, and made off as fast as his long legs +would carry him, followed by his troop in the most admired disorder. + +"I was very proud of one feat of bravery Dinah accomplished. One of our +neighbors owned a large hunting dog and had frequently warned me that if +my cat ever had the presumption to attack his dog, Bruno would shake the +breath out of her as easy as he could kill a rat. I was inwardly much +alarmed at this threat, but I put on a bold front, and assured Mr. Dixon +that Dinah Diamond always had come off best in a fight and I believed +she always would, and the result justified my boast. + +"It happened that Dinah had three little kittens hidden away in the +wood-shed chamber, and you can imagine under these circumstances, when +even the most timid animals are bold, how fierce such a cat as Dinah +would be. Unfortunately for Bruno he chose this time to rummage in the +wood-shed for bones. We did not know how the attack began, but suppose +Dinah spied him from above, and made a flying leap, lighting most +unexpectedly to him upon his back, for we heard one unearthly yell, and +out rushed Bruno with his unwelcome burden, her tail erect, her eyes +two balls of fire, and every cruel claw, each one as sharp as a needle, +buried deep in the poor dog's flesh. How he did yelp!--ki! ki! ki! ki! +and how he ran, through the yard and the garden, clearing the fence at a +bound, and taking a bee-line for home! Half-way across the street, when +Dinah released her hold and slipped to the ground, he showed no +disposition to revenge his wrongs, but with drooping ears and tail +between his legs kept on his homeward way yelping as he ran. Nor did he +ever give my brave cat the opportunity to repeat the attack, for if he +chanced to come to the house in his master's company, he always waited +at a respectful distance outside the gate. + +"It would take too long to tell you all the wonderful things Dinah did, +but I am sure you all agree with me that she was a remarkable cat. She +came out in a new character when I was ill with an attack of fever. She +would not be kept from me. Again and again she was driven from the room +where I lay, but she would patiently watch her opportunity and steal in, +and when my mother found that she was perfectly quiet and that it +distressed me to have her shut out, she was allowed to remain. She would +lie for hours at the foot of my bed watching me, hardly taking time to +eat her meals, and giving up her dearly loved rambles out of doors to +stay in my darkened room. I have thought some times if I had died then +Dinah would have died too of grief at my loss. But I didn't die; and +when I was getting well we had the best of times, for I shared with her +all the dainty dishes prepared for me, and every day gave her my +undivided attention for hours. It was about this time that I composed +some verses in her praise, half-printing and half-writing them on a +sheet of foolscap paper. They ran thus:-- + + 'Who is it that I love so well? + I love her more than words can tell. + And who of all cats is the belle? + My Dinah. + + Whose silky fur is dark as night? + Whose diamond is so snowy white? + Whose yellow eyes are big and bright? + Black Dinah. + + Who broke the lamp, and in the gloom + A ball of fire flew round the room, + And just escaped an awful doom? + Poor Dinah. + + Who, to defend her kittens twain, + Flew at big dogs with might and main, + And scratched them till they howled with pain? + Brave Dinah. + + Who at the table takes her seat + With all the family to eat, + And picks up every scrap of meat? + My Dinah. + + Who watched beside me every day, + As on my feverish couch I lay, + And whiled the tedious hours away? + Dear Dinah. + + And when thou art no longer here, + Over thy grave I'll shed a tear, + For thou to me wast very dear, + Black Dinah.' + +"Did you really used to set a chair for her at the table and let her eat +with the folks?" Fanny Eldridge asked. + +"Well, Fannie, that statement must be taken with some allowance. +Occasionally when there was plenty of room she was allowed to sit by me, +and I assure you she behaved with perfect propriety. I kept a fork on +purpose for her, and when I held it out with a bit of meat on it she +would guide it to her mouth with one paw and eat it as daintily as +possible. I never knew her to drop a crumb on the carpet. Indeed, I know +several boys and girls whose table manners are not as good as Dinah +Diamond's." + +"I suppose you mean me, Auntie," said Mollie. "Mamma is always telling +me I eat too fast, and I know I scatter the bread about sometimes when +I'm in a hurry." + +"Well, Mollie," said Miss Ruth, laughing, "I was _not_ thinking of you, +but if the coat fits, you may put it on." + +"What became of Dinah at last, Miss Ruth?" + +"She made a sad end, Fannie, for as she grew older her disposition got +worse instead of better, until she became so cross and disagreeable that +she hadn't a friend left but me. She would scratch and bite little +children if they attempted to touch her, and was so cruel to one of her +own kittens that we were raising to take her place--for she was too old +and infirm to be a good mouser--that we were afraid she would kill the +poor thing outright. One morning, after she had made an unusually savage +attack on her son Solomon, my mother said: 'We must have that cat +killed, and the sooner the better. It isn't safe to keep such an ugly +creature a day longer.' Dinah was apparently fast asleep on her cushion +in the corner of the kitchen lounge when these words were spoken. In a +few minutes she jumped down, walked slowly across the room and out at +the kitchen door, and we never saw her again." + +"Why, how queer! What became of her?" + +"We never knew. We inquired in the neighborhood, and searched the barn +and the wood-shed, and in every place we could think of where she would +be likely to hide, but we could get no trace of her, and when weeks +passed and she did not return we concluded that she was dead." + +"You don't think--_do_ you think, Miss Ruth, that she understood what +was said and knew if she stayed she would have to be killed?" + +"_I_ do," said Mollie, positively. "I'm sure of it!--and so the poor +thing went off and drowned herself, or, maybe, died of a broken heart." + +"Oh!" said Nellie Dimock, "poor Dinah Diamond!" + +"Nonsense, Mollie!" said Susie Elliot. "Cats don't die of broken +hearts." + +"She had been ailing for some days," Miss Ruth explained, "refusing her +food and looking forlorn and miserable, and I am inclined to think +instinct taught her that her end was near. You know wild animals creep +away into some solitary place to die, and Dinah had a drop or two of +wild-cat blood in her veins. I fancy she hid herself in some hole under +the barn and died there. It was a curious coincidence, that she should +have chosen that particular time, just after her doom was pronounced, to +take her departure. But what grieved me most was that, excepting myself, +every member of the family rejoiced that she was dead. + +"Poor Dinah Diamond! She was beautiful and clever, and constant and +brave, but she lived unloved and died unlamented because of her bad +temper." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY. + + +"If I can't have the seat I want, I won't have any; and I think you are +real mean, Mollie Elliot! I ain't coming here any more." + +These were the words Miss Ruth heard spoken in loud angry tones as she +opened the door connecting her bedroom with the parlor, where the little +girls were assembled, and caught a glimpse of an energetic figure in +pink gingham running across the lawn that separated the minister's house +from his next door neighbor. + +"Now, Auntie," said Mollie, in answer to Miss Ruth's look of inquiry, "I +am not in the least to blame. I'll leave it to the girls if I am. Fan +Eldridge is so touchy! She came in a minute ago and Nellie Tyler +happened to be sitting by me, and Fan marched up to her and says, 'I'll +take my seat if you please'; and I said, 'It's no more your seat than it +is Nellie's,' We don't have any particular seats, you know we don't, +Auntie, but sit just as it happens. Well, she declared it was her seat +because she had had it the last two afternoons, and I told Nellie not to +give up to her because she acted so hateful about it, and then she went +off mad. I'm sure I don't care; if she chooses to stay away she can." + +"You don't quite mean that, Mollie," her aunt said gravely. "The +Patchwork Society can't afford to lose one of its members, certainly not +for so small a difference as the choice of a seat. We must have Fanny +back, if I give up my seat to her. But come into this room, girls. I +have something pretty to show you. Softly! or you will frighten him +away." + +There was a honeysuckle vine trained close to the window, in full bloom, +and darting in and out among the flowers, taking a sip now and then from +a honey-cup, or resting on a leaf or twig, was a large butterfly with +black-velvet wings and spots and bands of blue and red and yellow. + +"O you beauty!" said Miss Ruth. "Do you know, girls, of all the moths +and butterflies I have raised from the larvae,--and I have had Painted +Ladies, and Luna Moths, and one lovely Cecropia which was the admiration +of all beholders,--my favorite has always been the Swallow-tailed? +Perhaps it was because he was my first love. I was no older than you, +Nellie, when, half curious and half disgusted, I held at arm's length on +a bit of fennel-stalk, and dropped in an old ribbon-box Aunt Susan +provided for the purpose, the great green worm that, after various +stages of insect life, turned into just such a beautiful creature as you +see flying about among the flowers. Since then I have raised dozens of +them." + +"I don't see how you could have any thing to do with worms," said Eliza +Jones. "I hate them--the horrid, squirming things!" + +"So did I, Eliza, till I studied into their ways and learned what +wonderful things they can do; and now, I assure you, I have a high +respect and admiration for them." + +"Will you tell us about it?" Florence asked. "I've always wanted to know +just how worms turned into butterflies," + +"And I should like nothing better than to tell you," she answered. +"'Making butterflies,' as a dear little boy once defined my favorite +occupation, and telling those who are interested in such things how they +are made, is very delightful to me," + +"Come, then, girls, hurry!" said Nellie: "the sooner we get to work the +sooner the story will begin. Good-by, Mr. Swallow-tail,--I wonder what +they call you so for,--we are going to hear all about you," + +But when they returned to the other room they found Sammy Ray and Roy +Tyler on the piazza, close to the open door. Roy beckoned to his sister, +and they held a whispered conference during which the words, "You ask +her," energetically spoken by Roy, could be plainly heard by those +inside. + +Nellie turned presently, half laughing, but a little embarrassed. + +"The boys want to know if they can't come in," she said. "I tell them +it's ridiculous for boys to attend a sewing society, but they won't go +away till I've asked." + +Here the boys stepped forward and took off their hats. Their faces shone +with the scrubbing with soap and water they had given them, and both had +on clean collars. Sammy dived in his trowsers pocket and brought out a +couple of big brass thimbles and some needles stuck in a bit of flannel. + +"We are willing to help sew," said the boy, and bravely stood his +ground, though all the girls laughed, and even Miss Ruth looked amused +at the sight of these huge implements. + +"If we let you in at all, boys," she said, "it must be as guests. What +do you say, girls? Suppose we put it to vote. As many of you as are in +favor of admitting Samuel Ray and Roy Tyler to the meeting of the +Patchwork Quilt Society, now in session, will please to signify it by +raising the right hand." + +Every hand was lifted. + +"It is a unanimous vote," she announced. "Walk in, boys. One more chair, +Susie. Now, then, are we ready?" + +But this was fated to be a day of interruptions, for while she was +speaking the door opened and in walked Lavina Tibbs, bearing a plate +piled high with something covered with a napkin. + +"Miss Elliot's compliments," she said, "and would the Bed-quilt Society +accept some gingerbread for luncheon?" She set the plate on the table, +removed the napkin with a flourish, and added on her own account:-- + +"It's jest out of the oven, an' if it ain't good I don't know how to +make soft gingerbread, that's all!" + +Good? If you had inhaled its delicious odor, and seen its lovely brown +crust and golden interior, you would have longed (as did every boy and +girl in the room) to taste it directly; and, having tasted, you would +have eaten your share to the last crumb. Miss Ruth gave Susie a +whispered direction, and the little girl brought from a corner cupboard +a pile of pink-and-white china plates, and napkins with pink borders to +correspond. The plates had belonged to Miss Ruth's grandmother, and were +very valuable; but Ruth Elliot believed that nothing was too good to be +used, and that the feast would be more enjoyable for being daintily +served. But when all were helped, she still appeared to think some thing +was wanting, and, after looking round the circle, her glance rested upon +Mollie. The little girl had been unusually quiet ever since her dispute +with Fannie, for she knew very well, though not a word of reproof had +been spoken, that her aunt was not pleased with her. She dropped her +eyes before Miss Ruth's gaze, and grew red in the face; then suddenly +jumping up, she said:-- + +"I'll go and ask Fan Eldridge to come back, shall I, Auntie? and she may +have any seat she likes; I'm sure I don't care." + +"Yes, dear," Miss Ruth said, in the tone Mollie loved best to hear, "and +be quick, do! or the gingerbread will be cold." + +Fannie was standing idly at the window looking toward the parsonage, +already repenting of her hasty departure, when Mollie rushed in. + +"Come back, Fan, do! we all want you to," she said. "Mamma has sent in +some hot gingerbread, and Sam Ray and Roy Tyler are there, and auntie is +going to tell us about swallow-tailed butterflies, and she doesn't like +to begin without you. Come, now, do! and you may have my seat." + +The little girl needed no urging, but her mother interposed. + +"Fannie was greatly to blame," Mrs. Eldridge said. "She has told me all +about it, and I think she deserves to be punished by staying at home." + +"Oh, but please, Mrs. Eldridge," said Mollie, "let her off this time! It +was my fault as well as hers, for you see I provoked her by answering +back." + +"Say you are sorry, Fannie." + +"Yes, truly, mamma, I am," said Fannie, with tears in her eyes; "and +I'll take any seat, or I'll stand up all the afternoon, if you'll only +let me go, and I _will_ try to break myself of getting angry so easy; +see if I don't!" + +On the strength of these promises Mrs. Eldridge gave her consent, and +the little girls crossed the lawn hand-in-hand, in loving companionship. +So harmony was restored in the Society, and all ate their gingerbread +with a relish. Sammy and Roy would have liked better to have munched +their share on the piazza-steps, without plate or napkin. Under the +circumstances, however, they behaved very well; for, though Roy took +rather large mouthfuls, and Sammy licked his fingers when he thought no +one was looking, these were small delinquencies, and you will be glad +to know that the girls were too well-bred to appear to notice. Mollie, +now fully restored to favor, was allowed to pass the finger-bowl, while +Susie collected the plates, distributed the work, and made every thing +snug and tidy in the room. Then Miss Ruth commenced the story of + + +THE SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY. + +"When I was ten years old, my brother Charlie and I spent a summer with +Aunt Susan, who lived in the old homestead some miles out of town. + +"One night after tea she sent us into the garden to gather some sprigs +of fennel for her to take to prayer-meeting--all the old ladies in +Vernon took dill or fennel to evening meeting. I had just put my hand to +the fennel-bush when I drew it back with a scream. + +"'What's the matter?' said Charlie. + +"'A great, horrid green worm,' said I. 'I almost touched it!' + +"'Here, let me smash him!' said Charlie; 'where is he?' + +"'Oh, don't touch him!' I cried; 'he might bite you. Oh, dear, I hate +worms! I wonder what they were made for!' + +"'That kind was made to turn into butterflies,' said Tim Rhodes. + +"Tim was working Aunt Susan's garden on shares that summer, and had +heard all we said, for he was weeding the onion-bed close by. + +"'What, that fellow!' said Charlie; 'will he turn into a butterfly?' and +we both of us looked at the caterpillar. He was about as long and as +thick as my little finger, of a bright leafy green, with black-velvet +rings dotted with orange at even distances along his body. He lay at +full length on a fennel-stalk, and seemed to be asleep; but when Charlie +touched him with a little stick, instantly there shot out of his head a +pair of orange-colored horns, and the air was full of the pungent odor +of fennel. + +"'It smells like prayer-meeting,' said Charlie, and ran off to play; but +I wanted further information. + +"'Mr. Rhodes,' said I, 'how do you know this kind of worm makes +butterflies?' + +"'Because I've seen 'em do it, child. If you should put that fellow now +in a box with some holes in the top, so as he could breathe, and give +him plenty of fresh fennel to eat, in a week (or less time if he's full +grown) he'll wind himself up, and after a spell he'll hatch out a +butterfly--a pretty one, too, I tell you,' + +"'I mean to try it,' I said; and I ran to the house and Aunt Susan gave +me an old ribbon-box, and Mr. Rhodes punched a few holes in the cover +with his pocket-knife; and after a little hesitation I picked the +fennel-stalk with the worm on it, and laid it carefully in the box, +making sure that the cover was tight. The box was then taken to the +house and deposited on a bench in the porch, for Aunt Susan objected to +entertaining this new boarder indoors. + +"I gave my worm his breakfast the next morning before I had my own, and, +forgetting my aversion, sat by the open box and watched him eat, as his +strong jaws made clean work with leaf and stem. + +"'He isn't so ugly, after all, Charlie,' I said; 'he is almost handsome +for a worm, with all those bright colors on him,' + +"Then Charlie caught a little of my enthusiasm, and said _he_ meant to +keep a worm too. So he searched the fennel-bush and found three, and +tumbled them unceremoniously into the box. + +"'Now they'll have good times together,' said he; 'that fellow was awful +lonesome shut up by himself,' + +"At Aunt Susan's suggestion I improved my worm-house by removing the top +of the box and stretching mosquito-netting across, fastening it securely +along the edges lest my prisoners should escape. And it was well I took +this precaution; for, though for several days they made no attempt to +get away, and seemed to do nothing but eat and sleep, one morning I +found my largest and handsomest worm in a very disturbed and restless +condition. He was making frantic efforts to escape. Up and down, round +and round, over and under his companions, who were still quietly +feeding, without a moment's pause, he was pushing his way. I watched him +till I was tired; but when I left him he was still on his travels. + +"In the afternoon, however, he had settled himself half-way up the side +of his house. His head was moving slowly from side to side, and a fine +white thread was coming out of his mouth. When I looked again he had +fastened himself to the box by the tip of his tail and by a loop of fine +silk passing round the upper part of his body. There he hung motionless +two, three, almost four, days. The green and orange and black faded +little by little, his body shrank to half its size, and he looked +withered, unsightly, dead. I thought he _was_ dead; but Tim Rhodes (who +all along had shown a friendly interest in my pursuit) took a look at my +poor dead worm,' and pronounced him all right. + +"'Keep a watch on him this afternoon,' said Tim,' and you'll see +something queer,' + +"So we did; and Aunt Susan was summoned to the porch by the news that +'the worm had split in the back and was coming out of his skin.' By the +time she had got on her glasses and was ready to witness this wonderful +sight, it was over. A heap of dried skin lay in the bottom of the box, +and a pretty chrysalis of a delicate green color hung in place of the +worm. + +"'O Auntie!' said Charlie, 'you ought to have seen him twist and squirm +and make the split in his back bigger and bigger till it burst open and +tumbled off, just as a boy wriggles out of a tight coat, you know!' + +"After this came three weeks of waiting, during which the green +chrysalis turned gray and hard and the other worms, one by one, went +through the same changes, until four gray chrysalis were fastened to the +sides of the box. + +"Every day I looked, but nothing happened, until it seemed to me, tired +of waiting, that nothing ever _would_ happen. But one bright morning I +forgot all my weariness when I found, clinging to the netting, a +beautiful creature like the one we saw on the honeysuckle this +afternoon, with a slender black body and wings spotted with yellow and +scarlet and lovely blue. When I opened the box he didn't try to fly. He +was weak and trembling, and his wings were damp, but every moment they +grew larger and his colors brighter in the sunshine. + +"While Charlie and I stood watching him, we discussed, in our own way, a +problem that has puzzled wiser heads than ours--how three distinct +individuals (the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly) could be one +and the same creature, and how from a low-born worm that groveled and +crawled could be born this bright ethereal being--all light and beauty +and color--that seemed fitted only for the sky. + +"Aunt Susan listened to our talk a while and then repeated a text of +Scripture:-- + +"'Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his +glorious body?'" + +"While we talked the butterfly grew stronger and more beautiful, until +at last, spreading his wings to their widest extent, he darted high into +the air and we lost him. But from the day I took the green worm from the +fennel-bush in Aunt Susan's garden I date my introduction to a +delightful study which I have followed all my life as I have found +opportunity. So you see it is no wonder I am fond of the swallow-tailed +butterfly; and I have another reason, for once on a time I tamed one so +that it sucked honey from my finger." + +"Auntie, you are joking!" + +"Indeed, no. It was a poor little waif which, mistaking chimney heat for +warm spring weather, hatched himself out of season, and whose life I +prolonged by providing him with food." + +"The dear little thing! Tell us about it, please." + +"Well, I had put away some chrysalids for the winter in a closet in my +sleeping-room, and one day my nurse--I was ill at the time--heard a +rustling in the box where they lay and brought it to me for +investigation; and, behold! when I opened it there was a full-grown +swallow-tail, who, waking too soon from his winter's nap, left the soft +bed of cotton where his companions lay sleeping side by side and, wide +awake and ready to fly, was impatiently waiting for some one to let him +out into the sunshine. + +"But the March sunshine was fitful and pale, and the cold wind would +have chilled him to death before night; so we resolved to keep him +indoors. We gave him the liberty of the room, and he fluttered about the +plants in the window, now and then taking a flight to the ceiling, +where, I am sorry to say, he bruised his delicate wings; but he seemed +to learn wisdom by experience, for after a while he contented himself +with a lower flight. Every day my bed was wheeled close to the window, +and I amused myself for hours watching my pretty visitor. He would +greedily suck a drop of honey, diluted with water, from the leaf of a +plant or from the end of my finger, and by sight or smell, perhaps by +both senses, soon learned where to go for his dinner. + +"And so he lived and thrived for a fortnight, and I had hopes of keeping +him till spring; but one cold night the furnace fire went out, and in +the morning my pretty swallow-tail lay dead on the window-sill. Wasn't +it a pity? + +"Oh," said Florence, "I like to hear about butterflies! Will you please +tell us about some of the other kinds you have kept?" + +"Tell us about that big fellow you said every body made a fuss over. +Ce-ce--I can't remember what you called him." + +"Cecropia!" said Susie, promptly. "Yes, do, Auntie! if you are not +tired." + +If Ruth Elliot had been ever so weary I think she would have forgotten +it at sight of the interested faces of her audience; but in fact she was +not in the least tired, but was as pleased to tell as they were to +listen to the story of + + +THE CECROPIA MOTH. + +"One day in November," she said, "a man who used to do odd jobs about +the place for my father, and whom we always called Josh,--his name was +Joshua Wheeler,--left his work to bring to the house and put into my +hand a queer-looking pod-shaped package firmly fastened to a stout twig. +It was of a rusty gray color and looked as much like a thick wad of +dirty brown paper as any thing I can think of. + +"'I found this 'ere cur'us lookin' thing,' he said, 'under a walnut-tree +on the hill yonder, where I was rakin' up leaves--an', thinks I, there's +some kind of a crittur stored away inside, an' Miss Ruth she's crazy +arter bugs an' worms an' sich like varmints, an' mebbe she'd like to see +what comes out o' this 'ere; so I've fetched it along.' + +"You may be sure I thanked him heartily and gave him a sixpence besides, +which I am afraid went to buy tobacco. 'Law, Doctor, don't I know it?' +Josh used to reply when my father urged him to break off a habit that +was making a shaky old man of him at sixty; 'don't I know it's a +dretful bad habit; but then you see a body must have somethin' to be +a-chawin' on.' + +"But what was in the brown package? That was the question I puzzled my +brains over. I had never seen a cocoon in the least like it before, and +I had no book on entomology to help me. With the point of a needle I +carefully picked away the outer layer till I came to loose silken fibers +that evidently were the covering of an inside case. Whatever was there +was snugly tucked away in a little inner chamber with the key inside, +and I must wait with what patience I could command till he chose to open +the door. + +"I kept my precious cocoon all winter in a cold, dry place; but when +warm spring weather came it lay in state on my work-table, in a box +lined with cotton, where I could watch it all day long. Nothing +happened till one bright day in June I heard a faint scratching inside +the brown case. It grew louder and louder every moment. Evidently my +tenant was bestirring himself and, with intervals of rest, was scraping +and tearing away his silken wrappings. Presently an opening was made and +out of this were poked two bushy legs with claws that held fast by the +outside of his house, while the creature gradually pulled himself out. + +"First a head with horns; then a part of the body and two more legs; +then, with one tremendous effort, he was free!--an odd beast of no +particular color, looking exceedingly damp and disagreeable, with his +fat chunky body and short legs, like an exaggerated bumble-bee, only not +at all pretty. He was shaky on his legs and half tumbled from his box +to the window-sill, along which he walked trembling till he came to the +tassel of the shade, just within his reach. This he grabbed with all +four claws, his wings hanging down. + +"'It's nothing but a homely old brown bug!' said my brother Charlie, +whom I had called to see the sight. + +"'No,' I said, "'it isn't a bug. I'm sure I don't know what it is,' + +"I was ready to cry with disappointment and vexation, for I had expected +great things from my brown chrysalis. + +"The tassel was gently swaying with the weight of the clumsy creature, +and in the warm sunshine which was gradually drying body and wings faint +colors began to show--a dull red, a dash of white, a wavy band of gray, +with patches of soft brown that began to look downy like feathers. Every +moment these colors grew more distinct and took new shapes. None of +them were bright, but they were beautifully blended and the whole body +was of the texture of the finest velvet. + +"But the wings! How can I describe to you how those thick, crumpled, +unsightly appendages grew and grew, changing in color from a dingy black +to a dark brown, with bands of gray and red? how the great white patches +took distinct form, and some were dashed with red and bordered with +black, and others eye-shaped with crescents of pale blue? It must have +taken an hour for all this to come about--for the great wings to unfurl +to their widest extent and the cecropia moth to show himself in all his +beauty to our admiring gaze. + +"The whole family had gathered to see the show. My father lingered, hat +and riding-whip in hand, though he had a round of twenty miles to make +among his patients before night; and Aunt Susan, who was on a visit, +stood peering through her spectacles, too much absorbed to notice black +Dinah taking a nap in her work-basket and the kitten making sad havoc +with her knitting. Josh was called in from the wood-shed, and, with his +hat on the back of his head and hands deep in his pockets, gazed in +silence. + +"'Wal,' he said at length, 'if that don't beat all natur'! Look at the +size of that crittur, will you, and the hole he's jest crawled out of. +Why, he's as big as a full-grown bat, measures full seven inches across +from wing to wing. Wal, now, I'd gin consider'ble to know what's be'n +goin' on for a spell back in that leetle house where he's passed his +time; and I'll bet, Doctor, with all your larnin', _you_ can't tell.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FURRY-PURRY BECOMING GOLD ELSIE. + + +Miss Ruth found on her table the next Wednesday afternoon a note very +neatly and carefully written, which read as follows:-- + + Miss RUTH,--Will you Please tell us Another Cat Story, becaus I + like them best. So does Fannie Eldridge she said So after You told + Worm stories. + + Miss Ruth I Have Named my Black Kitty After your Dinah Diamond, her + Last Name has to Be Spot Becaus her Spot is not a Diamond, this is + from your Friend. + + NELLIE DIMOCK. + +"I hold in my hand," Miss Ruth said, when she had carefully perused this +epistle, "a written request from two members of our Society for another +cat story. Susie and Mollie, have I any more cat stories worth telling?" + +"Yes, indeed, Auntie" said Mollie. "Don't you remember the pretty fairy +story you used to tell us about the good little girl who saved a cat +from being drowned by some bad boys, and carried her home? and she +turned out to be a fairy cat and gave that girl every thing she wished +for--cakes and candy, and a lovely pink silk frock packed in a nutshell +for her to wear to the party?" + +"O Mollie! that's too much of a baby story," said Susie. "Tell us about +the musical cat who played the piano by walking over the keys, and all +the people in the house thought it was a ghost." + +"Yes, Auntie; and the funny story of the cat and the parrot--how the +parrot got stuck up to her knees in a pan of dough, and in her fright +said over every thing she had learned to say: 'Polly wants a cracker!' +'Oh, my goodness' sakes alive!' 'Get out, I say!' 'Here's a row!' 'Scat, +you beast!' and so on;--and how the cat got her out." + +"These are old stories, girls, and you have told them for me." + +"Our old cat Jane," said Eliza Ann Jones, "is a regular cheat. You see, +she _would_ lie in grandma's chair. She used to jump in if grandma left +it only for a minute; and grandma wouldn't know she was there, and two +or three times sat right down on her. Why, it was just awful, and scared +poor grandma half to death. Well, ma whipped the old cat every time she +caught her in the chair, and we thought she was cured of the habit; but +one day ma came into the room and there was nobody there but Jane, and +she was stretched on the rug and seemed to be fast asleep; but grandma's +chair was rocking away all by itself. Ma wondered what made the chair +go, so she thought she'd watch. She left the door on a crack and peeped +through, and as soon as the cat thought she was alone she jumped into +the chair and settled herself for a nap; but when ma made a little +noise, as if somebody were coming out, she hopped out and stretched +herself on the rug and made believe she was fast asleep. 'Twas her +jumping out so quick that set the chair rocking. Now, wasn't that cute?" + +"I never knew till the other day," said Florence Austin, "that cats +scatter crumbs to attract the birds, and then watch for them and spring +out on the poor things when they are feeding." + +"What a shame! I wouldn't keep a cat who played such a cruel trick," +Mollie said. + +"My Dinah Spot doesn't catch birds or chickens," said Nellie Dimock; +"only mice." + +Mrs. Elliot had come in with a message to her sister while this talk +went on, and had lingered to hear Eliza's story of old Jane. + +"Girls," she said, "with your President's permission, I will tell you a +story about a cat. It is curious, because it proves that a cat remembers +and reasons much as a man or woman would in similar circumstances. Susie +and Mollie, I have told it to you before, but you will not mind hearing +it again. + +"When my brother Charles was a young man he kept a bachelor +establishment in the country, and with other pets owned a beautiful gray +cat he had; brought with him from Germany. She was very intelligent and +docile, a great favorite with her master, and was allowed many +privileges in the house. She came in and out through a small door cut in +the side of the house which she opened and closed for herself. A chair +was regularly placed for her at the table; she slept at the foot of my +brother's bed, and perched herself on his shoulder when he took a stroll +in the garden. She could distinguish the sound of his bell from any +other in the house, and was greatly disturbed if the servant delayed in +answering his call. + +"One summer my sister Helen and her two boys were staying with Charles, +and in the midst of the visit he was called away on business, and was +absent for several weeks. Now, Carl and Teddy were dear little fellows, +but full of mischief; and in their uncle's absence they so teased and +tormented poor Miess, taking advantage of her amiable disposition, that +she was forced at length to keep out of their way. About a week before +Charles came home she had kittens, which she carefully hid behind a +heavy book-case in the library. + +"The morning of his return he had the cat in his lap petting and +caressing her as usual, and then went out for an hour. As soon as he was +gone, pussy brought her kittens one by one from their hiding-place and +laid them on the rug in the corner of the room where she had nursed and +tended all her young families before. Now she must have reasoned in this +way: 'My good, kind master has come home, and those dreadful boys who +have pinched my ears and tied things to my tail, and teased and +frightened me almost to death, will be made to behave themselves. All +danger to me and to my babies is over. Why must the pretty dears be +hidden away in that musty place? Of course master wants to see them, and +they are well worth looking at. The thing for me to do is to bring them +out of that dark hole and put them where I always have put my kittens +before.'" + +"Wise old Miess!" said Mollie. "Mamma, please tell the girls how she +saved uncle's pet canary from a strange cat." + +"Yes, dear. Miess was so obedient and well trained that her master often +trusted her in the room while he gave the bird his airing, and Bobby +became so accustomed to the cat's presence that he hopped fearlessly +about the floor close to pussy's rug, and more than once lighted on her +back; but one day your uncle discovered Miess on the table with the bird +in her mouth. For an instant he thought her cat nature had got the upper +hand, and that Bobby's last moment had come; then he discovered a +strange cat in the room and knew that his good cat had saved the +canary's life. As soon as the intruder was driven out, Bobby fluttered +away safe and sound." + +"Wasn't that nice of Miess, Auntie?" said Susie. "I have thought of a +story for you to tell us this afternoon--the story of the barn-cat that +wanted so much to become a house-cat. Don't you remember that story you +used to tell us long ago?" + +"Oh, yes!" Mollie said; "her name was Furry-Purry, and she lived with +Granny Barebones, and there was Tom--Tom--some thing; what _was_ his +name? Tell us that, Aunt Ruth, do!" + +"Isn't it open to the objection you made to Mollie's choice a while ago, +Susie?" she asked. "I remember it went with 'The Three Bears' and 'Old +Mother Pig' and 'The Little Red Hen.'" + +"No, Auntie, I think not; it's different, somehow." + +"Very well, then, if you are sure you haven't outgrown it." + +"Is it a true story?" Nellie Dimock wanted to know. + +"It is made out of a true story, Nellie. A young cat which was born and +brought up in a barn became dissatisfied with her condition in life, and +made up her mind to change it. She chose the house of a friend of mine +for her future home, and presented herself every morning at the door, +asking in a very earnest and humble way to be taken in. When driven away +she went sadly and reluctantly, but in a few moments was back again +waiting patiently, quietly, hour after hour, day after day. If noticed +or spoken to, she gave a plaintive mew, looked cold and hungry, but +showed no signs of discouragement. She didn't once try to steal into the +house, as she might have done, but waited patiently for an invitation. + +"And when one morning she brought a mouse and laid it on the door-step, +and looking up, seemed to say: 'Kind lady, if you will take me for your +cat, see what I will do for you,' my friend could no longer refuse. The +door was opened, the long-wished-for invitation was given, and very +soon the little barn-cat became the pet and plaything of the family. She +proved a valuable family cat, and her descendants, to the fourth +generation, are living in my friend's family to-day. + +"Out of these materials I have dressed up the story of + +HOW FURRY-PURRY BECAME GOLD ELSIE. + +"The door of the great house stood open and Furry-Purry looked in. + +"Furry-Purry was a small yellow cat striped down the back with a darker +shade of the same color. Her paws, the lower part of her body, and the +spot on her breast were white. + +"This is what the little cat saw, looking through the open door into the +great house:-- + +"A pleasant room hung with pictures, the floor covered with a soft +carpet, where all kinds of bright-colored flowers seemed to be growing, +and, in the sunniest corner, lying in an arm-chair piled with cushions, +a large tabby cat. + +"Just then a gust of wind closed the door, and Furry-Purry ran round the +house to the barn and remained all day hidden in her hole under the +boards. + +"That night there was a storm, and several cats in the neighborhood +crept into the barn for safety. There was old Mrs. Barebones, a cat with +a bad cough, which was thought to be in a decline; Tom Skip-an'-jump, a +sprightly young fellow with a tenor voice which he was fond of using on +moonlight nights; and Robber Grim, a fierce, one-eyed creature--the pest +of the neighborhood--with a great head and neck and flabby, hanging +cheeks and bare spots on his tawny coat where the fur had been torn out +in his fierce battles. + +"The thunder roared overhead and the lightning, shining through the +cracks, played on the barn floor and showed the cats sitting gravely in +a circle. Only Tom Skip-an'-jump, who still kept his kittenish tricks, +went frisking after his tail and turning somersaults in the hay. +Presently he tumbled over Furry-Purry and bit her ear. + +"'Come, play!' said he: 'it's a jolly time for puss-in-the-corner.' + +"'Tom,' said Furry-Purry, 'I never shall play again. I am very unhappy. +I have seen Mrs. Tabitha Velvetpaw lying on a silk cushion, while I make +my bed in the hay. She walks on a lovely soft carpet, and I have only +this barn floor. O Tom, I want to be a house-cat.' + +"'A house-cat!' repeated Tom disdainfully. 'They sleep all day. They +get their tails pulled and their ears pinched by horrid monsters with +only two legs to walk on, and nights--beautiful moonlight nights when we +barn-cats are roaming the alleys and singing on the roofs and having a +good time generally--they are locked in cellars and garrets and made to +watch rat-holes. Oh, no! not for Tom.' + +"He was off with a whisk of his tail to the highest beam in the barn, +looking down on them with the greenest of green eyes, and singing,-- + + 'Some love the home + Of a lazy drone, + And a bed on a cushioned knee; + But in wild free ways + I will spend my days, + And at night on the roofs I'll be. + + Oh, 'tis my delight, + On a moonlight night'-- + +"'Don't listen to him, my dear,' said Mrs. Barebones, the consumptive +cat; 'he's a wild, thoughtless creature, quite inexperienced in the ways +of the world. Heed the counsels of one whose sands of life are almost +run and who, before she goes to the land of cats, would fain warn a +youthful friend and, if possible, avert her from her own sad fate. This +racking cough (ugh! ugh!) and this distressing _cat_-arrh, (snuff! +snuff!) with which you see me afflicted were brought on by the hardships +and exposure incident to the life of a barn-cat: midnight rambles, my +dear (ugh!), in frost and snow; days when not so much as a mouse's tail +has passed my hungry jaws, and winter nights when my coat was too thin +to keep out the cold. And all these sufferings, past and present, are in +consequence of my being a barn-cat.' + +"'Now, may the dogs get me, if I ever heard such a string of nonsense!' +said Robber Grim. 'Don't believe a word she says. She's an old granny. +She's got the fidgets. She wants a dose of catnip-tea. Don't believe Tom +Skip-an'-jump, either. What does _he_ know about war? He never was shot +at. Look at me! I'm Robber Grim! I'm an old one, I am! I've got good +blood in my veins. My great-grandfather was a catamount and his +grandmother was a tiger-cat. I've been in a hundred battles. I've had +one eye knocked out and an ear bit off. I left a piece of my tail in a +trap. I've been scalded with hot water and peppered all over with shot. +_I'll_ teach you how to get a living without being a house-cat. I hate +houses and the people who live in them, and I do them all the mischief +I can. I eat up their chickens and I suck their eggs. I climb in at the +pantry window and skim their milk. Once when the cook left the kitchen +door open I snatched the beefsteak from the gridiron and made off with +the family dinner. They hate me--they do. They've tried to kill me a +dozen times; but I'm Robber Grim, ha! ha! and I've got nine lives!' + +"At this instant there came a flash of lightning, followed by a peal of +thunder that shook the barn to its foundations, and every cat fled in +terror to its hole. + +"The next morning Mrs. Tabitha Velvetpaw took a stroll round the garden +and down the lane a little way, where the catnip grew. The ground was +wet after the shower, and she was daintily picking her way along, very +careful not to soil her beautiful feet, of which she was justly proud, +when suddenly there glided from behind a tree and stood directly in her +path a small yellow cat. + +"'Oh, my paws and whiskers!' exclaimed Mrs. Tabitha, surprised out of +her usual dignity. + +"'If you please,' said Furry-Purry,--for it was she,--'I have made bold +to come out and meet you to ask your advice. I am a poor little +barn-cat, and I was contented with my lot till I saw you yesterday in +your beautiful home; but now I feel that I was intended for a higher +sphere. Tell me--oh, tell me, Mrs. Velvetpaw, how I may become a +house-cat!' + +"'Well, did I ever!' said Mrs. Velvetpaw. 'The idea!' and she moved a +step or two away from poor Furry-Purry, her manner, as well as her +words, expressing astonishment and disdain. + +"'I know it seems presuming, Mrs. Velvetpaw, but'-- + +"'Presuming! I should say so. What is this generation of cats coming to, +when a low creature reared in a barn--a paw-paw (pauper) cat, as I may +say--dare lift her eyes to those so far above her?' + +"'I have heard my mother say "a cat may look at a king,"' said +Furry-Purry. + +"'Go away, you low-born creature! How dare you quote your mother to me? +Go away, this instant! I am ashamed to be seen talking with you! What if +my friend Mrs. Silvercoat or Major Mouser should happen to pass! Begone, +I say! scat!' + +"'O Mrs. Tabitha,' said the poor little cat, 'don't send me away! I +can't go back to that barn. Indeed, indeed, after spending this short +time in your company, I can never endure to live with Tom Skip-an'-jump +and Mrs. Barebones and that horrid Robber Grim. If you refuse to help me +I will go straight to Growler's kennel. When he has worried me to death, +won't you be sorry you drove me to such a fate? Dear, dear Mrs. +Velvetpaw, your face is kinder than your words. Oh, pity the sorrows of +a poor little cat!' + +"Now, Mrs. Tabitha was not at heart an ill-natured puss; and when she +saw Furry-Purry's imploring face, and listened to her eloquent appeal, +she was moved with compassion. + +"'Rather than see you go to the dogs,' said she, 'I will lend a paw to +help you. But what can I do, you silly thing?' + +"'Mrs. Velvetpaw, you have lived a long time in this neighborhood?' + +"'All my life, Yellow Cat.' + +"'And you know every body?' + +"'If you mean in the first rank of society--yes. Your Barebones, and +Hop-an'-jumps, and creatures of that vulgar herd, are quite out of my +_cat_egory.' + +"'Perhaps you know of some house-cat dead or gone away?' + +"'And if I do?' + +"'You might put me in her place, you know.' + +"'Yellow Cat,' said Mrs. Tabitha, severely. + +"'If you please, my name is Furry-Purry.' + +"'Well, Furry-Purry, then. Your presumption can only be pardoned in +consideration of your ignorance of the usages of society. House-cats, +you must know, hold their position in families by hereditary descent. +My place, for instance, was my mother's and my grandmother's before me. +We are prepared by birth and education for the position we occupy. Have +you considered how utterly unfitted you are for the life to which you +aspire? I am sorry to disappoint you, but I fear your hopes are vain. +There is, indeed, a vacancy in the brick house opposite. Caesar--a +venerable cat--died last week. He was much admired for his gentlemanly +and dignified deportment. "Who shall come after the king?"' + +"'I, Mrs. Tabitha, I'-- + +"'You, indeed!' she interrupted, scornfully. + +"'Oh, yes, if you will but condescend to give me instructions. I am +quick to learn. The short time I have been so happy as to be in your +company I have gained much knowledge. I am sure I can imitate the +_mew_-sic of your voice. I know I can gently wave my tail, and touch my +left whisker with my paw as you do. When I leave you I shall spend every +moment till we meet again in practising your airs and graces, till I +make them all my own. Dear friend,--if you will let me call you +so,--help me to King Caesar's place.' + +"There was much that was flattering to Mrs. Velvetpaw in this speech. + +"'Well,' said she, 'I will see what can be done. There, go home now, and +the first thing to be done is to make yourself perfectly clean. Wash +yourself twelve times in the day, from the end of your nose to the tip +of your tail. Take particular pains with your paws. A cat of refinement +is known by the delicacy and cleanliness of her feet. Farewell! After +three days, meet me here again.' + +"You can imagine how faithfully Furry-Purry followed these +directions--how with her sharp tongue she smoothed and stroked every +hair of her pretty coat, and washed her face again and again with her +wet paws. + +"'You are wretchedly thin!' Mrs. Tabitha said at their next meeting. +'That fault can only be remedied by a generous diet. You must look me +full in the face when I talk to you. Really, you have no need to be +ashamed of your eyes, for they are decidedly bright and handsome. When +you walk, don't bend your legs till your body almost touches the ground. +That gives you a wretchedly hang-cat appearance. Tread softly and +daintily, but with dignity and grace of carriage. There must be other +bad habits I have not mentioned.' + +"'I am afraid I spit sometimes.' + +"'Don't do that--it is considered vulgar. Don't bristle your tail. Don't +show your claws except to mice. Keep such control over yourself as never +to be surprised out of a dignified composure of manner.' + +"Just here, without the slightest warning, there rushed from the thicket +near them a large fierce-looking dog. Up went Mrs. Velvetpaw's back in +an arch. Every hair of her body stood on end. Sharp-pointed claws +protruded from each velvet foot, and, hissing and spitting, she tumbled +over Furry-Purry in her haste, and scrambled to the topmost branch of +the pear-tree. The little cat followed, imitating her guide in every +particular. As for the dog, which was in pursuit of game, he did not +even look at them; and when he was out of sight they came down from the +tree, Mrs. Tabitha descending with the dignified composure she had just +recommended to her young friend. She made no allusion to her hurried +ascent. + +"'To-morrow night,' said she, 'as soon as it is dark, meet me in the +backyard of the brick house.' + +"Half glad and half frightened, Furry-Purry walked by her side the next +evening, delighting in the soft green turf of the yard and the +sweet-smelling shrubs against which she ventured to rub herself as they +passed. Mrs. Tabitha led her round the house to a piazza draped with +clustering vines. + +"'Come here to-morrow,' said she. 'Walk boldly up the steps and seat +yourself in full view of that window. Look your prettiest--behave your +best. Assume a pensive expression of countenance, with your eyes +uplifted--so. If you are driven away, go directly, but return. Be +strong, be brave, be persevering. Now, my dear, I have done all I can +for you, and I wish you good luck,' + +"The next morning a little girl living in the brick house, whose name +was Winnie Gay, looked out of the dining-room window. + +"'Come quick, mamma!' she called; 'here's a cat on our piazza--a little +yellow cat, and she's looking right up at me. May I open the door?' + +"'No, indeed!' said Mrs. Gay; 'we want no strange cats here.' + +"'But she looks hungry, mamma. She has just opened her mouth at me +without making a bit of noise. Can't I give her a saucer of milk?' + +"'Come away from the window, Winnie, and don't notice her. You will only +encourage her to come again. There, pussy, run away home; we can't have +you here.' + +"'Now, mamma, you have frightened her. See how she keeps looking back. +I'm afraid you've hurt her feelings. Dear little pussy! I wish I might +call you back.' + +"Furry-Purry was not discouraged at this her first unsuccessful attempt. +The child's blue eyes beamed a welcome, and the lady's face was gentle +and kind. + +"'If I catch a mouse,' thought the cat, 'and bring it to them to show +what I can do, perhaps I shall gain their favor.' Then she put away all +the fine airs and graces Mrs. Velvetpaw had taught her, and became the +sly, supple, watchful creature nature had made her. By a hole in the +granary she crouched and waited with unwearied patience one, two, almost +three, hours. Then she gave a sudden spring, there was one sharp little +shriek from the victim, a snap of pussy's jaws, and her object was +accomplished. She appeared again on the piazza, and, laying a dead mouse +on the floor, crouched beside it in an attitude of perfect grace, and +looked beseechingly in Mrs. Gay's face. + +"'Well, you _are_ a pretty creature!' that lady said, 'with your soft +white paws and yellow coat,' + +"'May I have her for my cat, mamma?' Winnie said. 'I thought I never +should love another cat when dear old Caesar died; but this little thing +is such a beauty that I love her already. May I have her for mine?' + +"But while Mrs. Gay hesitated, Furry-Purry, who could not hear what +they said, and who, to tell the truth, was in a great hurry to eat her +mouse, ran off with it to the barn. The next morning, however, she came +again, and Mr. Gay, who was waiting for his breakfast, was called to the +window. + +"'My cat has come again, papa, with another mouse--a monstrous one, +too.' + +"'That isn't a mouse,' Mr. Gay said, looking at the plump, silver-gray +creature Furry-Purry carefully deposited on the piazza-floor. 'Bless me! +I believe it is that rascal of a mole that's gnawed my hyacinth and +tulip bulbs. I offered the gardener's boy two dollars if he would catch +the villain. To whom does that cat belong, Winnie? She's worth her +weight in gold.' + +"'I don't believe she belongs to anybody, papa; but I think she wants +to belong to us, for she keeps coming and coming. _May_ I have her for +mine? I am sure mamma will say yes if you are willing.' + +"'Why not?' said he. 'Run for a saucer of milk, and we will coax her +in.' + +"We who are acquainted with Furry-Purry's private history know how +little coaxing was needed. + +"As soon as the door was opened she walked in, and, laying the dead mole +at Mr. Gay's feet, rubbed herself against his leg, purred gently, looked +up into his face with her round bright eyes, and, in very expressive cat +language, claimed him for her master. When he stooped to caress her, and +praised and petted her for the good service she had rendered him, the +happy creature rolled over and over on the soft carpet in an ecstasy of +delight. + +"Then Winnie clapped her hands for joy. + +"'You are our own cat,' she said. 'You shall have sugar and cream to +eat. You shall lie on Caesar's silk cushion; and because you are yellow, +and papa says you are worth your weight in gold, your name shall be Gold +Elsie,' + +"So Furry-Purry became a family cat. + +"The first time she met Mrs. Velvetpaw after this change in her life, +that excellent tabby looked at her with evident admiration. + +"'How handsome you have grown!' said she; 'your eyes are topaz, your +breast and paws are the softest velvet, your coat is spun gold. My dear, +you are the belle of cats,' + +"'Dear Mrs. Velvetpaw,' said Gold Elsie, 'my beauty and my prosperity I +owe in large measure to you. But for your wise counsels I should still +be a'-- + +"'Hush! don't speak the word. My dear, never again allude to your +origin. It is a profound secret. You are received in the best society. +Mrs. Silvercoat tells me it is reported that your master sought far and +wide to find a worthy successor to King Caesar, and that he esteems +himself specially fortunate in that, after great labor and expense, he +procured _you_. The ignorance you sometimes exhibit of the customs of +genteel society is attributed to your foreign breeding.' + +"'Mrs. Tabitha, I feel at times a strong desire to visit my old friends +in the barn once more.' + +"'Let me entreat you, my dear Miss Elsie, never again to think of it.' + +"'But there is poor Mrs. Barebones almost gone with a consumption. I +should like to show her some kindness.' + +"'Her sufferings are ended. She has passed to the land of cats,' + +"'Poor Mrs. Barebones! and Robber Grim? Do you happen to have heard any +thing of him?' + +"Silently Mrs. Tabitha beckoned her to follow, and, leading the way to +the orchard, pointed to a sour-apple tree, where Gold Elsie beheld a +ghastly sight. By a cord tied tightly about his neck, his jaws +distended, his one eye starting from its socket, hung Robber +Grim--stiff, motionless, dead. + +"They hurried away, and presently Gold Elsie timidly inquired after her +former playmate, Tom Skip-an'-jump. + +"'Don't, my dear!' said Mrs. Velvetpaw; 'really, I can not submit to be +farther _cat_echized. If you are truly grateful to me, Elsie, for the +service I have rendered you, and wish to do me credit in the high +position to which I have raised you, you must, you certainly must, break +every tie that binds you to your former life.' + +"'I will, Mrs. Tabitha, I will,' said the little cat; and never again in +Mrs. Velvetpaw's presence did she mention Tom Skip-an'-jump's name," + +"And didn't she ever see him again?" Nellie Dimock wanted to know. "I am +sure there was no harm in Tom." + +"Well, but you know she couldn't go with _that set_ any more after she +had got into good society," said Mollie Elliot. + +"Mollie has caught Mrs. Velvetpaw's exact tone," said Florence Austin, +at which all the girls laughed. + +"Well, I don't care," Mollie answered; "she was a nice little cat, and +deserved all her good fortune." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +TOMMY TOMPKINS' YELLOW DOG. + + +"I have a letter to read to you this afternoon, girls," said Miss Ruth; +"also the story of a yellow dog. The letter is from a friend of mine who +spends her summers in a quiet village in Maine, in a fine old mansion +overlooking green fields and a beautiful lake with hills sloping down to +it on every side. Here is the letter she wrote me last June:-- + +"'We have come back again to our summer home--to the old house, the +broad piazza, the high-backed chairs, and the blue china. The clump of +cinnamon roses across the way is one mass of spicy bloom, and soon its +fragrance will be mingled with that of new-mown hay. There is nothing +new about the place but Don Quixote, the great handsome English mastiff. +Do you know the mastiff--his lion-like shape, his smooth, fawn-colored +coat, his black nose, and kind, intelligent eyes, their light-hazel +contrasting with the black markings around them? If you do, you must +pardon this description. + +"'I am very fond of Don, and he of me. He belongs to our cousin, whose +house is but one field removed from ours; but he is here much of the +time. He evidently feels that both houses are under his protection, and +passes his nights between the two. Often we hear his slow step as he +paces the piazza round and round like a sentinel. He is only fifteen +months old, and of course feels no older than a little dog, though he +weighs one hundred and thirty pounds, and measures six feet from nose to +tail. + +"'He can't understand why he isn't a lap-dog, and does climb our laps +after his fashion, putting up one hind leg and resting his weight upon +it with great satisfaction. We have good fun with him out of doors, +where his puppyhood quite gets the better of his dignity, and he runs in +circles and fetches mad bounds of pure glee. + +"'One day, lying in my hammock, with Don on the piazza at my feet, I put +his charms and virtues together in verses, and I send them to you as the +most succinct account I can give of my new pet. As I conned them over, +repeating them half-aloud, at the frequent mention of his name Don +raised his head with an intelligent and appreciative look. Here are the +verses. I call them + + +DOG-GEREL. + + 'Don! Don! beautiful Don! + Graceful and tall, with majestic mien, + Fawn-colored coat of the softest sheen, + The stateliest dog that the sun shines on, + Beautiful Don! + + Don! Don! frolicsome Don! + Chasing your tail at a game of tag, + Dancing a jig with a kitchen rag, + Rearing and tearing, and all for fun, + Frolicsome Don! + + Don! Don! affectionate Don! + Looking your love with soft kind eyes, + Climbing our laps, quite forgetting your size; + With kissing and coaxing you never are done, + Affectionate Don! + + Don! Don! chivalrous Don! + Stalking all night piazza and yard, + Sleepless and watchful, our sentinel guard, + Squire of dames is the name you have won, + Chivalrous Don! + + Don! Don! devotional Don! + When the Bible is opened you climb to your place, + And listen with solemn, immovable face, + Nor frolic nor coax till the chapter is done, + Devotional Don! + + Don! Don! wonderful Don! + Devotional, faithful, affectionate one, + If owning these virtues when only a pup, + What will you be when you are grown up? + Wonderful Don!' + +"And now by way of contrast," said Miss Ruth as she folded the letter, +"I have a story to tell you of a poor little forlorn, homely, +insignificant dog, of low birth and no breeding, which was picked up on +the street by a boy I know, and which made for himself friends and a +good home by seizing the first opportunity that offered to do his duty +and protect the property of those who had taken him in. I have no doubt +that Don Quixote, intelligent, faithful, kind, with not a drop of +plebeian blood in his noble body, will fulfill all the expectations of +his friends, and we shall hear of many a brave and gallant deed of his +performing; but when you have heard what Tommy Tompkins has to tell, I +think you will say that not even Don Quixote could have done himself +more credit under the circumstances than + + +TOMMY TOMPKINS' YELLOW DOG. + +"Tommy shall tell the story as he told it to me:-- + +"'Yes, marm, he's my dog. His name's Grip. My father paid five dollars +for that dog. You look as if you thought he wasn't worth it; but I +wouldn't take twice the money for him, not if you was to pay it over +this minute. I know he ain't a handsome dog. I don't think yellow is a +pretty color for a dog, do you? and I wish he had a little more of a +tail. Liz says he's cur-tailed (Liz thinks it's smart to make puns), but +he'll look a great deal better when his ear gets well and his hair grows +out and covers the bare spots--don't you think so? But father says, +"Handsome is that handsome does," and nobody can say but that our dog +did the handsome thing when he saved over two hundred dollars in money +and all mother's silver spoons and lots of other things from being +stolen--hey, Grip? We call him Grip 'cause he hung on to that fellow so +till the policeman got in to take him. + +"'What fellow? Why, the burglar, of course. Didn't you read about it in +the newspaper? There was a long piece published about it the day after +it happened, with headings in big letters: "The house No. 35 Wells +Avenue, residence of Thomas Tompkins, the well-known dealer in hardware, +cutlery, etc., was entered last night by burglars. Much valuable +property saved through the courage and pluck of a small dog belonging to +the family." They didn't get that part right, for he didn't belong to us +then. You just wait, and I'll read the whole piece to you. I've got it +somewhere in my pockets. You see, I cut it out of the paper to read to +the boys at school. + +"'You'd rather I told you about it? Well. Lie down, Grip! Be quiet! +can't you? He don't mean any thing by sniffing round your ankles in that +way; anyhow, he won't catch hold unless I tell him to; but you see, +ever since that night he wants to go for every strange man or woman that +comes near the place. Liz says "he's got burglars on the brain." + +"'I guess I'll begin at the beginning and tell you how I came by him. +One night after school I'd been down to the steamboat landing on an +errand for father, and along on River Street there was a crowd of +loafers round two dogs in a fight. This dog was one of 'em, and the +other was a bulldog twice his size. The bulldog's master was looking on, +without so much as trying to part 'em; but nobody was looking after the +yellow dog: he didn't seem to have any master. Well, I want to see fair +play in every thing. It makes me mad to see a fellow thrash a boy half +his size, or a big dog chew up a little one. So I steps up and says to +the bulldog's master, "Why don't you call off your dog?" but he only +swore at me and told me to mind my own business. + +"'Well, I know a trick or two about dogs, and I ran into a grocer's shop +close by and got two cents' worth of snuff, and I let that bulldog have +it all right in his face and eyes. Of course he had to let go to sneeze; +and I grabbed the yellow dog and ran. It was great fun. I could hear +that dog sneezing and coughing, and his master yelling to me, but I +never once held up or looked behind me till I was half-way up Brooks +Street. + +"'Then I set the yellow dog down on the sidewalk and looked him over. +My! he's a beauty now to what he was then, for he's clean and well-fed +and respectable looking; but then he was nothing but skin and bone, and +covered all over with mud and dirt, and one ear was torn and one eye +swelled shut, and he limped when he walked, and--well, never mind, old +Grip! you was all right inside, wasn't you? + +"'Well, I never dreaded any thing more in all my life than taking that +dog home. Mother hates dogs. She never would have one in the house, +though I've always wanted a dog of my own. I knew Liz would call him a +horrid little monster, and Fred would poke fun at me--and, oh, dear! I'd +rather have gone to the dentist's or taken a Saturday-night scrub than +go into that dining-room with Grip at my heels. + +"'But it had to be done. They were all at supper, and mother took it +just as I was afraid she would. If she only would have waited and let +me tell how I came by the dog, I thought maybe she would have felt sorry +for the poor thing; but she was in such a hurry to get his muddy feet +off the dining-room carpet that she wouldn't listen to a single word I +said, but kept saying, "Turn him out! turn him out!" till I found it was +no use, and I was just going to do as she said when father looked up +from his supper, and says he: "Let the boy tell his story, mother. Where +did you get the dog, Tommy?" "'We were all surprised, for father hardly +ever interfered with mother about us children--he's so taken up with +business, you know, he hasn't any time left for the family. But I was +glad enough to tell him how I came by the dog; and he laughed, and said +he didn't see any objection to my keeping him over night. I might give +him some supper and tie him up in the shed-chamber, and in the morning +he'd have him taken round to Police-station C, where, if he wasn't +claimed in four days, he'd be taken care of. + +"'I knew well enough how they'd take care of him at Station C. They'd +shoot him--that's what they do to stray dogs without any friends. But +anyhow, I could keep him over night, for mother would think it was all +right, now father had said so. So I took him to the shed-chamber and +gave him a good supper,--how he did eat!--and I found an old mat for him +to lie on, and got a basin of warm water and some soap, and washed him +as clean as I could and rubbed him dry, and made him warm and +comfortable: and he licking my hands and face and wagging his stump of +a tail and thanking me for it as plain as though he could talk. + +"'But oh, how he hated to be tied up! Fact is, he made such a fuss I +stayed out there with him till past my bed-time; and when at last I had +to go I left him howling and tugging at the string. Well, I went to +sleep, and, after a while, I woke up, and that dog was at it still. I +could hear him howl just as plain, though the shed-chamber was at the +back of the house, ever so far from my room. I knew mother hadn't come +upstairs, for the gas was burning in the halls, as she always turned it +off the last thing; and I thought to myself: "If she hears the dog when +she comes up, maybe she'll put him out, and I never shall see him +again." And before I knew what I was about I was running through the +hall and the trunk-room, and so out into the shed. It was pitch dark +out there, but I found my way to Grip easy enough by the noise he made +when he saw me; and it didn't take long to untie the string and catch +him up and run back with him to my room. I knew he would be as still as +a mouse in there with me. You were lonesome out there in the shed, +weren't you, Grip? + +"'What would mother say? Well, you see, I meant to keep awake till she +came upstairs and tell her all about it; but I was so tired I dropped +asleep in a minute, and the first thing I knew I was dreaming that I was +running up Brooks Street with Grip in my arms, and the bull-dog close +after us, and just as he was going to spring mother screamed, and +somebody kept saying, "'St, boy! 'st, boy! stick to him, good dog! +stick to him!" And then I woke up, and mother really was screaming, and +'twas Fred who was saying, "Stick to him! stick to him!" And the gas was +lit in the hall, and there was a great noise and hubbub out there, and I +rushed out, and there was a man on the floor and the yellow dog had him +by the throat. Father stood in the door-way with his pistol cocked, and +he said in a quiet kind of way (just as father always speaks when he +means business): "If you stir you are a dead man!" But I should like to +know how he could stir with that grip on his throat! + +"'Then there came a banging and ringing at our front door, and Fred ran +to open it, and in rushed our policeman--I mean the one that takes our +street on his beat. He had heard the noise outside, you see, and, for a +wonder, was on hand when he was wanted; and he just went for that fellow +on the floor and clapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists as quick as +you could turn your hand over; and when he got a look at him he says: +"Oh, it's you, Bill Long, is it? We've been wanting you for some time at +the lodge (that was his name for the police-station). Well, get up and +come along!" + +"'But I called the dog off. + +"'We didn't one of us go to bed again that night. Father and Fred looked +through the house, and father said it was the neatest piece of work in +the burglary line he ever saw done--real professionals, they were. There +was two of 'em. They'd taken plenty of time. The forks and the spoons +and the two hundred dollars in money was all done up in neat packages, +and they'd been through father's desk and the secretary drawers; and +they'd had a lunch of cold chicken and mince-pie, and left the marks of +their greasy hands on the best damask napkins Bridget had ironed that +day and left to air by the kitchen range. And then, you see, while one +stayed below to keep watch, the other went up to finish the job; and he +would have finished it, too, and both would have got away with all the +things if it hadn't have been for that dog. Look at him! will you? I +believe he understands every word I say as well as you do. + +"'Well, right at the door of father's room, Grip took him. How did he +lay the fellow on his back? We suppose he was creeping into the room on +his hands and knees,--they often do, father says,--and the dog made a +rush at him in front and gripped him in the throat, and the weight of +the dog threw him backward; and once down, Grip kept him there--see? + +"'Next morning at breakfast father said: "Tommy, how came the dog in the +upper hall last night? I told you to tie him up in the shed-chamber." +Then I had to own up, and tell how I went late in the evening and +brought him to my room because he howled so. I said I was real sorry, +and father said he would try to forgive me, seeing it all turned out +well, and if Grip hadn't been there we should have lost so much money. +And says I: "Father, don't you mean to take him round to Station C this +morning?" "No, I don't," says father. Then mother said she didn't know +but she'd about as soon lose the silver as to keep such a dog as that +in the house, and Fred said if I must have a dog, why didn't father get +me a black-and-tan terrier--"or a lovely pug," says Liz; and between 'em +they got me so stirred up I didn't know what to do. I said I didn't want +a black-and-tan, and I'd throw a pug out of the window! And if nobody +wanted to keep Grip, we'd go off together somewhere and earn our living, +and I guessed the next time burglars got into the house and carried off +all the money and things because we weren't there to stop 'em, they'd be +sorry they 'd treated us so. Then I looked out of the window and winked +hard to keep from crying. Wasn't I a silly? + +"'For they were only teasing me, and every one of them wanted to keep +Grip. Well, that's all. No, it isn't quite all either; for one morning +a man came to the house and wanted to see father--horrid man with a red +face and a squint in one eye. I remembered him right away. He was one of +the crowd looking on at the dog-fight down in River Street. He said he'd +lost a dog, a very valuable dog, and he'd heard we'd got him. Father +asked what kind of a dog, and he said yellow, and went on describing our +Grip exactly, till I couldn't hold in another minute for fear father +would let him have the dog. So I got round behind father's chair and +whispered: "Buy him, father! buy him!" + +"'Fred called me a great goony, and said if I'd kept still father could +have got the dog for half what he paid for him. Just because Fred is +sixteen he thinks he knows every thing, and he's always lording it over +me. He says I'll never make a business man--I ain't sharp enough. But I +think five dollars is cheap enough for a dog that can tackle a burglar +and scare off tramps and pedlars--don't you?'" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +ONE DAY IN A MODEL CITY. + + +"I will tell you, to-day," said Miss Ruth, after the members of her +Society were quietly settled at their work, "about a race of little +people who lived thousands and thousands of years ago. When the great +trees were growing, out of which the coal we use was made, this race +inhabited the earth as they do now in great numbers. We know this +because their bodies are found perfectly preserved in pieces of coal and +amber. Amber, you know, is a kind of gum that drops from certain trees +and hardens, becoming very transparent and of a pretty yellow color. It +is supposed that the little creatures found imbedded in it came to +their death in running up the trunks of these trees, their feet sticking +in the soft gum, and drop by drop trickling down on them till they were +fast imprisoned in a beautiful transparent tomb. + +"I remember seeing once at a museum a small black ant preserved in +amber, and he looked so natural and lifelike, so like the ants we see +running about to-day, that it was hard to realize that he came to his +death so long, so very long ago; in fact, before this earth of ours was +ready for the creation of man. What strange sights those little +bead-eyes of his must have seen! + +"When our ancestors were rude barbarians, living in caves and in holes +they dug in the ground, the little people dwelt in cities built with +wonderful skill and ingenuity; and while our forefathers were leading a +rude, selfish life,--herding together, it is true, but with no organized +government or fixed principles of industry and good order, living each +one for himself, the strong oppressing the weak,--the little folks were +ruled by a strict civil and military code. They lived together as +brethren, having all things in common--were temperate, cleanly, +industrious, civilized. + +"Well, there are plenty of their descendants living all about us to-day, +and I want you to become better acquainted with them, for they are very +wise and cunning in their ways. Whenever you cross a meadow, or even +when you are walking on the public road, unless you take heed to your +steps, the chances are that you set your foot more than once on a little +heap of loose sand that we call an ant-hill. The next time you discover +the accident--I am sure you will not do it on purpose--wait a few +moments and see what will happen. What you have done is to block up the +main entrance to an underground city, sending a quantity of loose earth +down the avenue, which the inhabitants must at great labor remove. + +"Let us hope none of the little people were at that instant either +leaving or entering the city by that gate, for if so, they were either +killed outright or badly hurt. Soon you will see one and another citizen +pushing his way through the _debris_, running wildly and excitedly +about, as though greatly frightened and distressed at the state of +things. Then more carefully surveying the ruins, apparently consulting +together as to what is best to be done, until, a plan of action having +been devised and settled upon, if you wait long enough, you will see a +band of workers in an orderly, systematic manner begin to repair the +damage. All this happens every time you tread on an ant-hill. If a +passing animal breaks down the embankment,--a horse or a cow,--of course +the injury done is much greater. In such a case every worker in the city +is put to hard labor till the streets are cleared, the houses rebuilt, +and all traces of the disaster removed. + +"I am sure you will be interested to know what goes on from morning till +night in one of these ant-cities, and I have written out on purpose to +read to you this afternoon an account of one day's proceedings. I call +my paper + + +LIFE IN AN ANT-HILL; OR, ONE DAY IN A MODEL CITY. + +"At sunrise the doors and gates were opened, and every body was awake +and stirring, from the queen in her palace to the servants who brought +in the meals and kept things tidy about the houses; and then, in +accordance with a good old custom handed down from generation to +generation, the first thing every body did on getting out of bed was to +take a bath. Such a washing and scrubbing and sponging off and rubbing +down as went on in every house, you can imagine. It made no difference +what kind of work one was going about,--plastering, brick-laying, or +digging of ditches,--like a sensible fellow, he went fresh and clean to +it every day. + +"Of course the queen-mother and the little princes and princesses, with +a palace full of servants to wait on them, had all these offices of the +toilet performed for them; but what do you think of common working +folks going about from house to house to help each other wash up for the +day? Fancy having a neighbor step in bright and early to wash your face +and hands for you, or give you a sponge-bath, or a nice dry rub! + +"After the wash came milking-time. Now, all the cows were pastured +outside the city, and the servants who had the care of them hurried off +as fast as they could, because the milk was needed for breakfast, +especially for the babies. A beautiful road led to the milking-ground, +broad and level, and so clean and well kept that not a stick or stone or +rut or mud-hole was to be found in it from beginning to end. And this +was true of all the streets and avenues, lanes and alleys, about the +city. + +"I don't know how they managed to keep them in such good +condition--whether they appointed street commissioners or a committee on +highways; but I wish those who have the care of the roads in Greenmeadow +would take a lesson from them, so that two little girls I know needn't +be kept from church so many Sundays in the spring because the mud is +deep at the crossings. + +"But I must tell you about the cows. There were a great many of them +quietly feeding in their pleasant pasture, and they were of several +different kinds. I don't know by what names their masters called them, +but I do know these gentle creatures were to them just what the pretty +Alderneys and Durhams are to us, and that they were treated with all the +kindness and consideration the wise farmer gives to his domestic +animals. There was one kind, a little white cow with queer crooked horns +and quite blind. These they made pets of, not putting them out to +pasture with the rest of the herd, but allowing them to walk the streets +and go in and out of the houses at their pleasure, treating them much as +we treat our cats and dogs. + +"While the milking was going on, every cow was stroked and patted and +gently caressed, and the good little creatures responded to this +treatment by giving down their milk without a kick or a single toss of +the horns. Such nice milk as it was--as sweet and as rich as honey! and +the babies who fed on it got as fat as little pigs. + +"By the time breakfast was over, the sun was well up, and all in the +city went about the day's business. There was much building going on, +for the place was densely populated and was growing rapidly. Great +blocks were rising, story upon story, every part going on at the same +time, with halls and galleries and closets and winding staircases, all +connected and leading into each other, after a curious and wonderful +fashion. Of course it took a great many workmen to construct these +buildings--carpenters, masons, bricklayers, plasterers, besides +architects and engineers; for the houses were all built on scientific +principles, and there were under-ground passages to be built that +required great skill and practical knowledge in their construction. + +"The mortar and bricks were made outside the city gates, and all day +gangs of workers journeyed back and forth to bring in supplies. They +were hurrying, bustling, busy, but in good order and at perfect +understanding with each other. If one stopped to exchange greetings with +an acquaintance, to hear a bit of gossip perhaps, or to tell the latest +news, he would pick up his load in a great hurry and start off at a +round trot, as though he meant to make up for lost time. More than one +overburdened worker was eased of a part of his load, some good-natured +comrade adding it to his own. Thousands of bricks and as many loads of +mortar were brought into the city by these industrious people every day, +and their work was done quietly, thoroughly, and with wonderful +quickness and precision. + +"All this while there was plenty of indoor work going on; and the +queen's body-guard, the babies' nurses, the attendants on the princes +and princesses, the waiters and tenders, the sweepers and cleaners--all +were as busy as you please. It was a pretty sight to see the nurses +bring the babies out-of-doors for a sun-bath. The plump little +things--some of them wrapped in mantles of white or yellow silk, others +with only their skins to cover them--were laid down in soft spots on the +grass, where they were watched with the tenderest care by their +foster-mothers. If they were hungry, they had but to open their mouths +and there was plenty of food ready for them. If so much as a breath of +wind stirred the grass, or a little cloud obscured the sun, every nurse +snatched a baby and scampered back with it to the nursery, lest it +should take cold. + +"At noon the queen, attended by her body-guard, made a royal progress +through the city. She was of a portly presence, had pretty silky hair, +and was dressed plainly in dark velvet. The little princesses wore +ruffles and silk mantillas, of all the colors of the rainbow; but the +queen-mother had far more important business to attend to than the +adornment of her person, and in her self-devotion to her commonwealth +had long ago, of her own free will, laid aside flounces and furbelows. +What a good motherly body she was! and how devoted her subjects were to +her! Every-where she went she was followed by an admiring crowd. No home +was too humble for her to enter, and under each roof she was received +with the liveliest demonstrations of loyalty and delight. The happy +people thronged about her. They skipped, they danced, they embraced +each other in their joy. At times it was hard to restrain them within +proper bounds of respect to the royal person; but the guard well +understood their duties. They watched her every step, shielding and +protecting her with respectful devotion. They formed a barrier about her +when she rested, offered her refreshment at her first symptom of +weariness, and presently conducted her in regal state back to the +palace, hastening her progress at the last, that she might be spared the +sight of a sad little cavalcade just then approaching the gate. + +"There had been an accident to the workers employed in excavating an +under-ground road. A portion of the earth-works had caved in, and two +unfortunates had been buried in the ruins. Their companions, after hours +of arduous and indefatigable labor, had succeeded in recovering the +bodies, and were bringing them home for burial; while a third +victim--still living, but grievously crushed and wounded--was borne +tenderly along, with frequent stoppages by the way as his weakness +required. A crowd of sympathizing neighbors and friends went out to meet +the wonderful procession. Strong, willing arms relieved the weary +bearers of their burden, and the sufferer was conveyed to his home, +where his poor body was cleansed, and a healing ointment of wonderful +efficacy and power applied to his wounds. Meanwhile the corpses were +decently disposed outside the gates, awaiting burial; graves were +prepared in the cemetery, and at sunset the funeral took place. + +"But the day was not to end with this sad ceremony; for at twilight a +sentinel ran in with the glad news that two well-beloved citizens, sent +on an embassy to a distant country, and who had remained so long away +that they had been given up for dead, were returning: in fact, were at +that moment coming up the avenue to the gate. Then was there great +rejoicing, the whole city turning out to welcome them; and the poor +travelers, footsore and weary, and ready but now to lie down and die by +the road-side, so spent were they by the perils and hardships they had +undergone, suddenly found themselves within sight of home, surrounded by +friends, companions, brothers, who embraced them rapturously, praising +them for their fortitude and bravery, pitying their present weakness, +caressing, cheering, comforting them. So they were brought in triumph +back to their beloved city, where a banquet was prepared in honor of +their return. + +"So general and engrossing was the interest felt in this event, that a +public calamity had well-nigh followed. The attendants on the princes +and princesses (usually most vigilant and faithful), in the excitement +of the occasion, forgot their charge, and the young folks instantly +seized the opportunity to rush out of the city by a side gate; and when +they were discovered were half-way across the meadow, and making for the +wood beyond. In this wood (very dark and dreary) great danger, possibly +death, would have overtaken them; but the silly things, impatient of the +wholesome restraint in which, by order of the government, they were held +till they should arrive at years of discretion, thought only of gaining +their freedom, and were pushing on at a great pace, frisking and +frolicking together as they went. They were, however, seen in time to +avert the catastrophe, speedily brought back to duty, and given +decidedly, though respectfully, to understand that, though scions of a +royal race, they were still to consider themselves under tutors and +governors. + +"Then all was quiet. The gates were closed, the good little people laid +themselves down to sleep, the sentinels began their watch, and night +settled down upon the peaceful city. Presently the moon rose, lighting +its single shapely dome, the deserted road lately trod-den by so many +busy feet, and the dewy meadow where the cattle were resting. + +"And now I wish we might say goodnight to the simple, kindly people +whose occupations we have followed for a day, leaving them in the +assurance that many such days were to follow, and that they were long to +enjoy the peace and prosperity they so richly deserved. How pleasant to +think of them building their houses, tending their flocks, taking care +of the little ones, waiting upon their good queen, in the practice of +all those virtues that make a community happy and prosperous! But, alas! +this very day the chieftains of a neighboring tribe had met and planned +an assault upon this quiet city that was to result in great loss of +property and life, and of that which to them was far more precious than +either. + +"There was not the shadow of an excuse for the invasion. The hill +people--a fierce, brave tribe, trained under a military government, and +accustomed to fighting from their youth--had no quarrel with the +citizens of the plain, who had no mind to fight with their neighbors or +to interfere with any one's rights. But the hill people were +slave-holders, and, whenever their establishments wanted replenishing, +they sent out an army to attack some neighboring city; and if they +gained the victory (as they were pretty sure to do, for they were a +fierce, brave race), they would rush into every house in the city and +carry off all the babies they could find, to be brought up as slaves. + +"And this is what they had planned to do to the pretty city lying asleep +in the moonlight on a July evening. + +"They started about noon--a large body of infantry, making a fine show; +for they wore polished armor as black as jet, that shone in the sun, and +every one of them carried a murderous weapon. The advance guard was +made up of the biggest and bravest, while the veterans, and the young +soldiers who lacked experience, brought up the rear. + +"They had a long wearisome march across a rocky plain and up a steep +hill. Then there was a river to cross, and on the other side a stretch +of desert land, where the hot sun beat upon their heads, and where it +must have been hard to keep up the rapid pace at which they marched. But +they pressed on, and woe to him who stumbled and fell! for not a soldier +was allowed to stop an instant to help his fallen comrade. The whole +army swept on and over him, and there was no straggling from the close +ranks or resting for one instant till the day's journey was +accomplished. + +"The last stage of the journey was through a dreary wood. Here they +were exposed to many unseen dangers. Beasts of prey sprang out upon and +devoured them. A big bird swooped down and carried aloft some poor +wretch whose fate it was to fill the hungry maw of a baby bird. And many +an unfortunate, getting entangled in a soft gray curtain of silk that +hung across the path, struggled vainly to extricate himself, till the +hairy monster which had woven the snare crept out of his den and cracked +his bones and sucked the last drop of his blood. + +"It was night when, weary and dusty, the army reached the borders of the +wood. But they forgot both their fatigue and their losses by the way +when they saw before them in the middle of a green meadow, its dome +glittering in the light of the setting sun, the pretty, prosperous city +they had braved all these dangers to rob. + +"They rested that night, but were on the march soon after sunrise. A few +rushed forward to surprise the sentinels on guard, while the main body +of the army advanced more slowly, in solid phalanx, their brave +coats-of-mail catching the early rays of the sun. + +"Meanwhile the peaceful inhabitants, all unconscious of coming disaster, +pursued their usual occupations--waiting on the queen-mother, milking +the kine, building houses, cleaning the streets. Then came the alarm: +'The foe is at the gate!' and you should have seen of what brave stuff +the little folks were made; how each one left his occupation or dropped +his implement of labor, and from palace, hall, and hut, ran out to +defend the beloved city. Only the queen's body-guard remained and a few +of the nurses left in charge of the babies. + +"And it was wonderful to mark how their courage gave them strength. +Their assailants were of a taller, stronger race than they; but the +little folks had the advantage in numbers, were quiet and light in their +movements, and possessed a double portion of the bravery good patriots +feel in the defence of the commonwealth. + +"They threw themselves face to face and limb to limb upon their +assailants. With their living bodies they raised a wall across the track +of the army, and, as they came once and again, and yet again, they drove +them back. Hundreds were slain at every onslaught, but hundreds +instantly filled their places. There were plenty of single combats. One +would throw himself upon his antagonist and cling there till he was cut +in pieces and fell to the ground, and another and another would spring +to take his place to meet the same fate. Dozens fought together--heads, +legs, and bodies intertwining in an indistinguishable mass, each held in +a savage grip that only loosened in death. A dozen devoted themselves to +certain death for the chance of killing a single antagonist. Surely such +desperate bravery, such generous heroism, deserved to gain a victory! + +"But there was a sudden rush, a break in the ranks, and, lo! the little +people were running back to the city,--back in all haste,--if, by any +possibility, they might save from the victor's clutch the treasures they +prized most. But what availed their efforts? The enemy was close behind +them, forcing their way through the main entrance and the side gates, +till the whole army was pouring into the devoted city. + +"Can you imagine the scene that followed? The queen-mother and the young +princes and princesses were left undisturbed in their apartments, but +into every other house in the city, the rude soldiers rushed, searching +for the poor babies. Many of them their nurses had hidden away, hoping +that in the confusion their hiding-places would not be discovered; but +the cunning fellows--old hands some of them at the business--seemed to +know just where to look. Hundreds and hundreds of little ones were +captured that day. The faithful attendants clasped and clung to them, +suffering themselves to be torn in pieces before giving them up, but the +sacrifice was in vain. + +"The moon shone down that night upon a ghastly scene. The dead and +dying strewed the ground, and the avenues leading to the city were +choked with the slain. Hundreds of homes were made desolate, that only +the night before were full of peaceful content. + +"Meanwhile, the conquering army, laden with spoils, after another +difficult and toilsome journey had reached their home. The captive +babies were consigned to the care of slaves, procured long ago in a +similar way, and who, apparently contented and happy, for they knew no +other life, devoted all their energies to the service of their captors. + +"Well, it is an old story. Ever since the world began the strong have +oppressed the weak,--and ants or men, for greed or gold, will do their +neighbors wrong." + +"Well," said Mollie, as Miss Ruth laid down the last sheet of her +manuscript, "if you hadn't told us beforehand that it was ants you were +going to read about I should certainly have thought they were people. +Don't they act for all the world just like folks? and who would ever +think such little creatures could be so wise!" + +"What I want to know," said Susie, "is, If the ant-cities are +underground, how can any one see what goes on in them?" + +"That is easily managed," Miss Ruth answered. + +"A nest is taken up with a quantity of the earth that surrounds it, then +it is cut down from the top--as you would halve a loaf of bread--and the +divided parts are placed in glass cases made purposely to receive them. +Of course, the little people are greatly disturbed for a time, and no +wonder; but they soon grow accustomed to the new surroundings and go on +with their every-day employments as if nothing had happened. The sides +of the case make a fine firm wall for their city; they are furnished +with plenty of food and building material, and soon they can be seen +busy at work clearing their streets, building houses, feeding the +babies, and quite contented and happy in their glass city. If, after +months of separation, an ant from one half of the divided nest should be +put into the other he would be recognized at once and welcomed with joy; +but if a stranger were introduced he would be attacked and probably +killed." + +"We had a great time with the ants at our house last summer," said Eliza +Jones: "little mites of red things, you know, and they _would_ get into +the cake-chest and the sugar-bucket, and bothered ma so she had to keep +all the sweet things on a table with its legs in basins of water. They +couldn't get over that, you see." + +"Why not?" Mollie asked. "Can't they swim?" + +"Ours couldn't; lots of them fell in the water and were drowned." + +"Ants are usually quite helpless in the water," Miss Ruth said, "though +a French writer who has made the little folks a study, tells a story of +six soldier ants who rescued their companions from drowning. He put his +sugar-basin in a vessel of water, and several adventurous ants climbed +to the ceiling and dropped into it. Four missed their aim and fell +outside the bowl in the water. Their companions tried in vain to rescue +them, then went away and presently returned accompanied by six +grenadiers, stout fellows, who immediately swam to their relief, seized +them with their pincers and brought them to land. Three were apparently +dead, but the faithful fellows licked and rubbed them quite dry, rolling +them over and over, stretching themselves on them, and in a truly +skillful and scientific manner sought to bring back life to their +benumbed bodies. Under this treatment three came to life, while one only +partly restored was carefully borne away. 'I have seen it' is Du Pont de +Nervours's comment on what he thinks may be considered a marvelous +story, though it seems no more wonderful to me than many well-attested +facts in the lives of the little people." + +"It's all wonderful," Susie said. "It seems as though they must think +and reason and plan just as we do. Don't you think so, Auntie?" + +"Indeed I do, Susie. One who has long studied their ways ranks them next +to man in the scale of intelligence, and says the brain of an ant--no +larger perhaps than a fine grain of sand--must be the most wonderful +particle of matter in the world." + +"But they can't talk, Auntie?" + +"I am not so sure of that. Their voices may be too fine and high-pitched +for our great ears to hear. I fancy there is a deal of conversation +carried on in the grass and the bushes and the trees, that we know +nothing about." + +"How funny! What did you mean, Auntie, when you said the queen laid off +all her flounces and furbelows." + +"I was rather fancifully describing her wings, dear, which she takes off +herself when she enters the nest, having no further use for them. There +are three kinds of ants in every nest: perfect males and females, and +the workers. There are many different races of ants, from the great +white ant of Africa--a terror to the natives, though in some respects +his good friend--down to the little red-and-yellow meadow ants so common +among us. The ants I have told you about, the Rufians and the Fuscans, +are natives of America, and are found in New England. The big black ant +so common here, sometimes called the jet ant, is a carpenter and a +wood-carver. His great jaws bore through the hardest wood, and his +pretty galleries and winding staircases penetrate through the beams and +rafters of many an old mansion. Not long ago I accidentally killed a +carpenter ant, and in a few minutes a comrade appeared who slowly, and +apparently with great labor and fatigue, bore away the body. I felt as +though I were looking on at a funeral. + +"I wish I had time to tell you about the agricultural ant of Texas, and +the umbrella ants of Florida, who cut bits of leaf from the orange-trees +and march home with them in procession, holding each leaf in an upright +position. Fancy how odd they must look! But we have talked long enough +for this time about the little people, and I am sure you all agree with +King Solomon that they are 'exceeding wise.'" + +"I never will step on an ant-hill again if I can possibly help it," said +Susie. "It's too bad to make those hard-working folks so much trouble. + +"And I mean to put my ear close down to the ground," said Nellie Dimock, +"and listen and listen, so as to hear the ants talk to each other." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE STORY OF OLD STAR. + + +"Say, Sam!" said Roy Tyler, as the two boys were driving old Brindle +home from pasture the next evening, "don't you wish she'd tell us some +stories about horses? I'm tired of hearing about cats and ants." + +"Well, I don't know," Sammy answered; "'twas funny about old Robber +Grim. There's just such an old cat round our barn, catchin' chickens and +suckin' eggs. I've fired more rocks at that feller--hit him once in the +hind leg an' he went off limpin'." + +"Well, I want a horse story, and I know she'd just as soon tell one as +not, if somebody would only ask her. Those girls will be wantin' +another cat story if we don't start something else. Girls always do like +cats," said Roy, a little scornfully. "Say, Sam, you ask her, will you?" + +"Why don't you ask her yourself?" + +"Oh, I don't know. I tried to yesterday, but somehow I couldn't get it +out." + +"Well, I'll tell you what I will do," said good-natured Sammy. "You come +round to-night after I get my chores done up, and we'll go together and +have it over with." + +"All right; I'll come," said Roy. + +They found Miss Ruth alone, for it was Thursday night and the minister's +family were at the prayer-meeting. The September evening was chilly, and +she was sitting before an open fire. + +"You do the talking," Roy whispered at the door, and accordingly Sammy, +after fidgeting in his seat a little, opened the subject. + +"Roy wants me to ask you," he began, and then stopped at a punch in the +side from Roy's knuckles, and began again: "Me and Roy would like--if it +wouldn't be too much trouble, and you'd just as soon as not--to have you +tell us a horse story next time." Then in a loud whisper aside to Roy: +"You _did_ ask me! You know you did." + +"Well, you needn't put it all on me, if I did," Roy answered, in the +same tone. + +Miss Ruth appeared not to notice this by-play. + +"A horse story," she said pleasantly; "yes, why not?" + +"You see," Sammy continued, "we like to hear about cats well enough, and +that ant battle was first-rate--I'd like to have seen it, I know; but +Roy, he says the girls might be writin' notes askin' you to tell more +cat stories and--and--well"-- + +"Yes, I see," she said; "too much of a good thing. Well, I will tell no +more cat stories, and it shall be all horse next Wednesday. Will that +suit you, Sammy? And Roy, do you like horses very much?" + +"Yes, 'm," said Roy, bashfully. + +"He says," said Sammy, rather enjoying the office of spokesman, "when he +grows up he means to have a fast trotter. I'd like to own a good horse +myself," continued Sam. + +"I know a boy about your age," said Miss Ruth, "whose father gave him, +for a birthday present, a Canadian pony; a funny looking little beast, +not much larger than a big dog, but strong enough to carry double +Herbert's weight." + +"Like the Shetland ponies at the show?" + +"Yes; but larger, and not so costly. He is a thick-set, shaggy fellow, +always looking as if he were not half-groomed, with his coat all rough +and tumbled, his legs covered with thick hair, his mane hanging on both +sides of his neck, and his forelock always getting into his bright +little eyes." + +"What color?" said Roy. + +"Dark brown; not handsome, but so affectionate and intelligent that you +would love him dearly. He is as frolicsome as a kitten, and I laughed +and laughed again to see him racing round the yard, hardly able to see +for the shag of hair tumbling over his eyes, playing queer tricks and +making uncouth gambols, more like a big puppy than a small horse. To be +sure he has a will of his own, and has more than once--just for +fun--thrown his young master over his head; but he always stands stock +still till the boy is on his back again, and as Herbert says: 'It is +only a little way to fall from his back to the ground.'" + +"How fast will he go?" Roy asked. + +"Fast enough for a boy to ride. From five to seven miles an hour, +perhaps, and keep it up all day, if need be, for the Canadian horses +have great strength and endurance. The last time I saw Herbert he told +me a pretty story about Elf King." + +"Is that his name?" + +"Yes; isn't it a pretty name? Elf for fairy, you know, and King for the +head of the fairies. But perhaps I am keeping you, boys. Is there any +thing you ought to be doing at home?" + +"No, no!" both answered together, and Sammy answered that he did up all +his chores before he came away. + +"Very well; then I will tell you about Elf King's visit to the +blacksmith." + +"Instead of next Wednesday?" + +"Oh, dear, no! I have a long story for next Wednesday. This is very +short, and doesn't count; is just a little private entertainment thrown +in on our own account." + +Roy, who had all this time sat uncomfortably on the edge of his chair, +settled back, and Sammy made use of his favorite expression:-- + +"All right!" + +"When Elf King came into Herbert's possession he had never been shod; +but very soon he was taken to the village blacksmith and four funny +little shoes fitted to his feet, which, when he was accustomed to, he +liked very much. + +"One day the blacksmith saw the pony trotting up to his shop without a +halter. He supposed the little thing had strayed from home, and drove +him off, and when he refused to go, threw stones at him to make him run +away. But in a few moments back he came again. When the blacksmith went +out a second time to drive him off he noticed his feet and saw that one +shoe was missing. So he made a shoe, the pony standing by, quietly +waiting. When the new shoe was fitted Elf King pawed two or three times +to see if it felt comfortable, gave a pleased little neigh, as much as +to say, 'Yes, that's all right; thank you!' and started for home on a +brisk trot. + +"Think how surprised and pleased Herbert was when he went to the stable +to ride Elf King to the blacksmith's, to find that the sharp little +pony had taken the business into his own hands." + +"I tell you," said Roy, "that's a horse worth having. What do you +suppose that boy would take for him?" + +"More money than you could raise in a hurry," said Sammy. "Miss Ruth, if +you had a horse now that jibbed, would you lick him?" + +"That jibbed," she repeated doubtfully. + +"Why, yes; stopped in the road, you know; wouldn't go." + +"Oh, yes; now I understand. No, indeed, Sammy! If I had a horse +that--jibbed, I should be very patient with him and try to cure him of +the bad habit by kindness. I should know that beating would make him +worse." + +"Well, that's what I think, and the other day pa and I were huskin' corn +in the barn, and there was a horse jibbed on our hill, and the driver +got down and licked him with the butt end of his whip, and kicked him +with his great cowhide boots, and I asked pa if I might take out a +measure of oats and see if I couldn't coax that horse to take his load +up the hill--you see pa owned a jibber once and I knew how he used to +manage him. And pa said I might, only I'd better look out or the fellow +would use me as he was usin' the horse. But I wasn't afraid, for he was +half-drunk, and I knew I could clip it faster'n he could. + +"Well, sir, I went out there and I stood around a while, and says I, +'What'll you bet I can't get your horse to the top of the hill?' And he +said he wouldn't bet a red cent. 'Well,' says I,'will you let me try +just for fun?' and he said, 'Yes, I might try all day if I wanted to.' +And I got him to stand one side, where the horse couldn't see him, and I +went up to the horse's head and stroked his nose and gave him a handful +of oats, just a little taste, you know, and when he was kind of calmed +down I went a ways ahead holdin' out the measure of oats, and if that +horse didn't follow me up that hill just as quiet as an old sheep, and +the man he stood by and looked streaked, I tell you!" + +Sammy told his story with considerable animation and some forcible +gestures. + +"That was well done," said Miss Ruth, "and I hope the cruel fellow +profited by the lesson you gave him. I don't think I'm naturally +vindictive, but when I see a man beating a horse I find myself wishing +I was strong enough to snatch the whip from him and lay it well about +his own shoulders. But come, boys, the fire is down to coals--just right +for popping corn. Sammy, you know the way to the kitchen. Ask Lovina for +the corn-popper and a dish, and, Roy, you'll find a paper bag full of +corn in the cupboard yonder. Quick, now, and we'll have the dish piled +by the time Susie and Mollie are back from meeting." + +"Haven't we had a gay old time," said Roy, on the way home, "and ain't +you glad I put you up to coming, Sam Ray?" And Sammy admitted that he +was. + + * * * * * + +"Now, girls and boys," said Miss Ruth, on the next Wednesday afternoon, +"I am going to take you on a long journey,--in fancy, I mean,--over the +hills and plains and valleys, to the country of the Far West, with its +rolling prairies and big fields of wheat and corn. You shall be set down +in a green meadow, with a stream running through it, shallow and clear +at this time of year, but a little later, when the September rains have +filled it, rushing along full of deep, muddy water. + +"Under a big oak in about the middle of the pasture you will find an old +horse feeding. He is fat and sleepy looking, and has a kind face, and a +white spot on his forehead. This is Old Star, Farmer Horton's +family-horse. You may pat his neck and stroke his nose and feed him a +cookie or a bit of gingerbread,--I am afraid the old fellow hasn't teeth +enough left to chew an apple,--and then you may sit near him on the +grass, and while I read aloud to you, fancy that he is talking, and, if +you have plenty of imagination, you will get + + +THE STORY OF OLD STAR, TOLD BY HIMSELF. + +"I hope nobody thinks I am turned out in this pasture because I am too +old to work. Horses pass here every day drawing heavy loads, older by +half a dozen years than I am, poor broken-down hacks too, most of them, +while I--well, if it wasn't for a little stiffness in the joints and a +giving out of wind, now and then, I can't see but what I'm as well able +to travel as I ever was. + +"The fact is, I never was put to hard work. There were always horses +enough besides me on the place to do the farm work and the teaming--Tom +and Jerry and the colt, you know; not Filly's colt: he died, poor +thing, before he was a year old, of that disease with a long name that +carried off so many horses all over the country: but a great shambling +big-boned beast old master swapped a yoke of steers for, over to Skipton +Mills. We called him Goliath, he was so tall: strong as an elephant, +too: a powerful hand at a horse-rake and mowing-machine. Well, well, how +time flies, to be sure! He's been dead and gone these five years, and +Tom and Jerry, they were used up long ago--there's a deal of hard work +to be done on a farm of this size, I can tell you; and as to Filly, she +came to a sad end, for she got mired down in the low pasture, and had to +be hauled out with ropes, poor critter, and died of the wet and the +cold. + +"Well, as I was saying, I never was put to hard work. I was born and +raised on the place, and I do suppose--though I say it, who +shouldn't--that I was an uncommon fine--looking colt, dark chestnut in +color, and not a white hair on me except this spot in my forehead that +gave me my name. When I was three months old, master made a present of +me to his oldest boy on his sixteenth birthday, and every half-hour +Master Fred could spare from his work, he used to spend in dressing down +and feeding me and teaching me cunning tricks. I could take an apple or +a lump of sugar from his pocket, walk down the slope behind the barn on +two legs, with my forefeet on his shoulders, and shake hands, old master +used to say, 'just like a Christian.' + +"Master Fred set great store by me, as well he might. He's traveled +hundreds of miles on my back over the prairies, and we've been out +together many a dark night when he'd drop the lines on my neck and say, +"Well, Star, go ahead if you know the way, for not one inch can I see +before my nose." That was after he learned by experience that I knew +better than he did where to go, and when to stop going. For he lost his +temper and called me hard names one night, when I stopped short in the +middle of the road and wouldn't budge an inch for voice or whip, with +the wind blowing a gale, and the rain coming down in bucketsful. But +when a flash of lightning showed the bridge before us clean washed away, +and only a few feet between us and the steep bank of the river, Master +Fred changed his tune. Afraid! not I; but I'm willing to own I _was_ a +little scared the day we got into the water down by Cook's Cove, for +you see I was hitched to the buggy and the lines got tangled about my +legs, and there were chunks of ice and lots of driftwood floating about, +and the current sucking me down; but master had got to shore and stood +on the bank calling, "This way, Star, this way!" and when I heard his +voice I--well, I don't know how I managed to do it, but I turned square +round and swam upstream with the buggy behind me, and got safe and sound +to land. I've heard Master Fred say my back was covered with +river-grass, and I trembled all over with the fright and the hard pull. + +"But, dear me, all that happened long ago when master was courting old +Tim Bunce's daughter Martha, down Stony Creek Road. How that girl did +take to me! She used to say she knew the sound of my hoofs on the road, +of a still night, when we were a mile away; and she'd say over a little +rhyme she'd got hold of somehow:-- + + 'Star, Star, good and bright, + I wish you may and I wish you might + Bring somebody to me I want to see to-night.' + +"If she said that twice, looking straight down the road, she told us we +were sure to come. She was a plump rosy-cheeked girl when Master Fred +brought her to be mistress here, though you mightn't think it to see her +now, what with the cooking and the dairy-work and raising a big family +of children. But if you want to know what mistress was like twenty years +ago, you've only to look at our Ada. + +"Now, there's a girl for you, as good as she is pretty, and getting to +be a woman grown; though I remember, as though it happened yesterday, +her mother's coming out one spring day to where I was nibbling grass in +the door-yard, with her baby in her arms, and holding up the little +thing to me, and saying, 'This is Ada, Star,--you must be good friends +with Ada,' Friends! I should say so. Before that child was a year old, +she used to cry to be held on my back for a ride, and when she was +getting better of the scarlet fever, she kept saying, 'Me 'ant to tee +ole 'Tar,' till, to pacify her, they led me to the open window of the +room where she lay, and she reached her mite of a hand from the bed to +stroke my nose and give me the lump of sugar she had saved for me under +her pillow. + +"Bless the child! And it was just so with all the rest, Tim and Martha +and Fred and Jenny and baby May--there was a new baby in that house +every year. Those young ones would crawl over me, and sit on me, when I +was lying down in the stable; ride me, three or four at a time, without +bridle or saddle, and cling to my neck and tail when there was no room +left on my back. They shared their apples and gingerbread with me, and +brought me goodies on a plate sometimes so that I might eat my dinner, +they said, 'like the rest of the folks,' I fetched them to and from +school, and trotted every day to the post-office and the Corners to do +the family errands; and when our Ada was old enough to be trusted to +drive, the whole lot of them would pile into the carryall, and away we +would go for a long ride, through the lanes and the shady woods that +border the pond, stopping a dozen times for the girls to clamber out and +pick the wild posies and for the boys to skip stones or wade in the +water. For _I_ was in no hurry to go on. There was plenty of tender +grass to be cropped by the roadside, and the young leaves of the maples +and white birch were sweet and juicy. + +"'Take good care of them, Star,' mistress used to say, standing in the +door-way to see us off; 'you have a precious load, but we trust you, +kind, faithful old friend,' + +"And so she might. I knew I must just creep down the hills with those +children behind me, and never stop for a drink at Rocky Brook, though I +were ever so thirsty, because of the sharp pitch down to the +watering-trough. And though from having been scared nearly to death, +when I was a colt, by a wheelbarrow in the road, I always _have_ to shy +a little when I see one, our Ada will tell you, if you ask her, that in +the circumstances, I behaved very well. + +"_She_ behaved well. She always chose the well-traveled roads, and gave +me plenty of room to turn. Once, I remember, they all wanted to take a +short cut by way of an old corduroy road; and though, if master had been +driving, I should have made no objection, and, as like as not, with a +little jolting and pitching, we should have got safe over, I didn't feel +like taking the responsibility, with all those young ones along, of +going that way; so I tried to make our Ada understand the state of my +mind, and after a while she did; for she said: 'Well, Star, if you don't +want to draw us over those logs, I'm not going to make you,' Now, wasn't +that sensible? + +"Well, if I was proud and happy to be trusted with master's family on +week-days, think how I must have felt of a Sunday morning in the summer +time, with mistress dressed in her silk gown, and our Ada in muslin and +pink ribbons, and the boys in their best clothes, and master riding +along-side on Tom or Jerry, all going to meeting together. I liked +hearing the bells ring, and I liked being hitched under the maple-trees, +with all the neighbors' horses to keep me company. We generally dozed +while the folks were indoors, and woke up brisk and lively, and started +for home in procession. + +"But, dear! dear! there came a time when, with five horses on the farm, +not one could be had to give the children a ride or to do a stroke of +work, when master had to foot it to the Corners, and the two steers, Old +Poke and Eyebright, dragged mistress and the children to meeting in the +ox-cart. + +"For we were all down with the epizooetic, coughing and sneezing enough +to take our heads off, and so sick and low, some of us, that we couldn't +stand in our stalls, and a man with a red face, Master Fred had over +from Skipton Mills, pouring nasty stuff down our throats, and making us +swallow big black balls of medicine that hurt as they went down--as if +we hadn't enough to suffer before! But our Jenny came to the stable with +a piece of pork-rind, and a bandage she'd made out of her little +red-flannel petticoat, and she wanted Master Fred to put it on my neck; +for, says she: 'That's what ma put on me when I had the sore +throat,'--the blessed child! + +"Well, we all pulled through except Filly's colt. He keeled over one +morning, poor fellow! and was dragged out and buried under the oaks in +the high pasture. But for some reason, I didn't pick up as quick as the +others. The cough held on, and I was pestered for breath, and I didn't +get back my strength; and what I ate didn't seem to fatten me up much, +for Master Fred says one day, laughing, 'Well, Old Star, we've saved +your skin and bones, and that's about all!' However, I got round again, +only my legs had a bad habit of giving way under me, without the least +bit of warning. + +"Our Ada did all she could to keep me up, holding a tight rein, and +saying, 'Steady, Star! steady!' when she saw any signs of stumbling. But +trying to keep from it seemed to make me do it all the more, and down I +would come on my poor knees and spill those children out of the wagon, +like blackberries from a full basket. + +"One day, after this had happened, master told our Ada she was not to +drive me any more, and before I had got over feeling bad about that, +there came some thing a great deal worse; for I was standing by the pump +in the backyard one day, and master and mistress were in the porch, and +I heard him tell her he had had an offer from Jones the milkman, to buy +me. 'Twould be an easy place, and he'd promised to treat me well, and +he'd about made up his mind to take up with it; for he couldn't afford +to keep a horse on the place that--well, I don't care to repeat the rest +of the speech. 'Twas rather hard on me, but I haven't laid it up against +master. Fact is, he had a deal to worry him about that time, for he was +disappointed in the wheat crop, and the heavy rains had damaged his +corn, and he was feeling mighty poor. + +"But mistress was up in arms in a minute. 'What, sell Star!' says she, +'our good, faithful Star, who's been in the family ever since you were a +boy! and to Ki Jones to peddle milk round Skipton Mills and Hull +Station! O pa!' says mistress, says she, 'have we got down so low as +that? Why 't would break our Ada's heart, and mine too, to see Star +hitched to a milk-cart. Rather than have you do that, says she, 'I'll go +in rags, and keep the children on mush and molasses;' and she put her +apron to her eyes. + +"'Well, well, don't fret!' says master,--and I thought he looked kind o' +ashamed,--'I haven't sold him yet I've a notion to turn him out to +grass a while, and see what that'll do for him,' So the next day he put +me in this pasture. + +"You see that plank bridge yonder, over the creek? That's where our Ada +fell into the water. Master has put up a railing, and made all safe +since the accident happened. 'T was a risky place always, though the +children have crossed it hundreds of times, and none of them ever +tumbled over before. + +"But I hadn't been here a week, when one sunshiny afternoon our Ada came +through the pasture, on her way to visit the sick Simmonses--there's +always some of that tribe down with the chills. She came running up to +me--her little basket, full of goodies, on her arm,--stopped to talk a +minute and feed me an apple, and then passed along, while I went on +nibbling grass, till I heard a scream and a splash, and knew, all in a +minute, she must have fallen off the plank bridge into the water. Dear! +dear! what was to be done? I ran to the fence, and looked up and down +the road. Some men were burning brush at the far end of the next field. +I galloped toward them, and back again to the creek, and whinnied and +snorted, and tried my best to make them understand that they were +needed; but they didn't appear to notice, and I just made up my mind, +that if any thing was done to save our Ada from drowning, I was the one +to do it. + +"I made my way through the alder-bushes down by the bank, to a place +where the current sets close in shore. At first I couldn't see any +thing, then all at once, there floated on the muddy water close to me, +the little red shawl she wore, then a hand and arm, and her white face +and brown hair all streaming. I caught at her clothes, and though Ada is +a stout girl of her age, and the wet things added a deal to her weight, +I lifted her well out of the water. I remember thinking, 'If only my +poor legs don't give out, I shall do very well,' And they didn't give +out, for when help came--it seems those men in the field _had_ noticed +me, and came to see what was the matter--they found me all in a lather +of sweat, and my eyes starting out of their sockets, but with my feet +braced against a rock, keeping our Ada's head and shoulders well above +water. + +"They got her home as quick as they could, and put her to bed between +hot blankets, and the next day she was none the worse for her ducking, +though she carried the print of my teeth in her tender flesh for many a +day; for how was I to know where the child's clothes left off and her +side began. + +"Of course they made a great fuss over me. Mistress came running to meet +me, and put both arms around my neck, and said: 'O Star, you have saved +our darling's life!' and the little ones hugged and kissed me, and the +boys took turns rubbing me down; and I stood knee deep in my stall that +night in fresh straw, and besides my measure of oats, had a warm mash, +three cookies, and half a pumpkin-pie for my supper. + +"But master only patted my neck, and said: 'Well done, Old Star!' Master +Fred and I always did understand one another. + +"There hasn't been any thing more said about selling me to Ki Jones. In +the winter I have a stall at the south side of the stable, where I get +the sun at my window all day, and in summer I live in this pasture, with +shady trees, and cool water, and grass and clover-tops in plenty. I have +nothing to do the live-long day, but to eat and drink and enjoy myself; +but I do hope folks passing along the road don't think I'm turned out in +this field because I'm too old to work." + +"Good-by, Old Star!" said Mollie, as her aunt laid down the paper. "We +are much obliged for your nice story, and we hope you'll live ever so +many years. I wouldn't hint for the world that you aren't as smart as +you used to be." + +"Isn't he rather a self-conceited old horse?" said Nellie Dimock. + +"Well, yes; but that is natural. I suppose he has been more or less +spoiled and petted all his life." + +"When he told about going to meeting," Fannie Eldridge said, "it +reminded me of a story mamma tells, of an old horse up in Granby, that +went to church one Sunday all by himself." + +"How droll! How did it happen, Fannie?" + +"Why, he belonged to two old ladies who went to church always, and +exactly at such a time every Sunday morning Dobbin was hitched to the +chaise and brought round to the front door and Miss Betsey and Miss +Sally got in and drove to church. But one Sunday something hindered +them, and Dobbin waited and waited till the bell stopped ringing and +all the other horses which attended church had gone by; and at last he +got clear out of patience, and started along without them. Mamma says +the people laughed to see him trot up to the church-door and down to the +sheds and walk straight into his own place, and when service was over +back himself out and trot home again." + +"What did Miss Betsey and Miss Sally do?" + +"Oh, they had to stay at home. When they came out they saw the old +chaise ever so far off, going toward the church, and they felt pretty +sure old Dobbin was going to meeting on his own account. That is a true +story Miss Ruth, every word of it--mamma says so." + +"Our old Ned cheated us all last summer," said Florence Austin, "by +pretending to be lame. He really was made lame, at first, one day when +mamma was driving, by getting a stone in his foot, and she turned +directly and walked him all the way back to the stable. But when William +had taken out the stone, he seemed to be all right, and the next +afternoon mamma and Alice and I started for a drive. We got about a mile +out of town, when all at once Ned began to limp. Mamma and Alice got out +of the phaeton, and looked his feet all over, for they thought may be he +had picked up another stone; but they couldn't see the least thing out +of the way, only that he limped dreadfully as if it half-killed him to +go. Well, there was nothing to be done but to give up our drive; for we +couldn't bear to ride after a lame horse!" + +"I can't either!" Mollie interjected. + +"Well, he had been lately shod, and our coachman thought that perhaps a +nail from one of the shoes pricked his foot, so he started to take him +to the blacksmith's. But don't you think, as soon as Ned knew that +William was driving, he started off at a brisk trot and wasn't the least +bit lame I but the next time mamma took him out, he began to limp +directly, and kept looking round as much as to say: 'How can you be so +cruel as to make me go, when you must see every step I take hurts me?' +But when mamma came home with him again, William said: 'It's chatin' you +he is, marm.'" + +"And what did your mother do?" + +"Well, as soon as she made up her mind that he was shamming, she took no +notice of his little trick, but touched him up with the whip, and made +him go right along. He knew directly that she had found him out. Oh, he +is _such_ a knowing horse! The other day Alice was leading him through +the big gate, to give him a mouthful of grass in the door-yard. Alice +likes to lead him about. When he stepped on her gown, and she held it up +to him all torn, and scolded him, she said: 'O Ned! aren't you ashamed +of yourself? how could you be so clumsy and awkward?' and she said he +dropped his head and looked so sorry and ashamed, as if he wanted to +say: 'Oh, I beg pardon! I didn't mean to do it,' that she really pitied +him, and answered as if he had spoken: 'Well, don't worry, Ned; it's of +no consequence,' Ned is such a pet. Papa got him in Canada, on purpose +for mamma and Alice to drive; and it was so funny when he first +came--he didn't understand a word of English, not even whoa. He belonged +to a Frenchman way up the country, and had never been in a large town, +and acted so queer--like a green countryman, you know, turning his head +and staring at all the sights. And it's lovely to see him play in the +snow. He was brought up in the midst of it, you know. When there's a +snow-storm he's wild to be out of the stable, and the deeper the drifts, +the better pleased he is. He plunges in and rolls over and over, and +rears and dances. Oh, it is too funny to see him! But I beg pardon, Miss +Ruth! I didn't mean to talk so long about Ned." + +"We are all glad to hear about him," she said, and Susie added that it +was very interesting. + +"My Uncle John owned a horse," said Roy Tyler, "that opened a gate and +a barn-door to get to the oat-bin, and he shut the barn-door after him +too. I guess you can't any of you tell how he did that!" + +"He jumped the gate, and shoved his nose in the crack of the door and +pried it open," said Sammy. + +"No, he didn't. That wouldn't be _opening_ the gate, would it?" Roy +retorted. "And how did he shut it after him?" + +"I think you had better tell us, Roy," said Miss Ruth. + +"Well, he reached over the fence, and lifted the latch with his teeth, +that's how he opened the gate; and he shut it by backing up against it +till it latched itself. Then he pulled out the wooden pin of the +barn-door, and it swung open by its own weight--see?" + +"Well, pa had a horse that slipped his halter and shoved up the cover +of the oat-bin, when he got hungry in the night and wanted a lunch," +said Sammy; "and I read about a horse the other day which turned the +water-tap when he wanted a drink, and pulled the stopper out of the pipe +over the oat-bin, just as he 'd seen the coachman do, so the oats would +come down, and"-- + +"But really now," Ruth Elliot, interrupted, "interesting and wonderful +as all this is, we must stop somewhere. I have another story to tell +you, about a minister's horse, but it can wait over till next week. Lay +aside your work, girls; it is past five o'clock." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +TUFTY AND THE SPARROWS. + + +Florence Austin came early to the Society the next Wednesday afternoon, +and found Miss Ruth on the piazza, + +"I am glad to see you, Florence," she said. "I was just wishing for a +helper. Mollie and Susie have gone on an errand, and I am alone in the +house, and here is a whole family in trouble that I can't relieve." + +"What is the matter?" said the little girl. + +"A baby bird has fallen out of the nest, and I am too lame to-day to +venture down the steps; and papa and mamma are in great distress, and +the babies in the nest half-starved, and can't have their dinner +because the old birds dare not leave poor chippy a moment lest some +stray cat should get him. See the little thing down there in the grass +just under the woodbine!" + +Florence descended the piazza-steps at two jumps, and was back with the +young bird in her hand. + +"Now where shall I put him, Miss Ruth?" + +Ruth Elliot pointed out the nest. It was in the thickest growth of the +woodbine, just over their heads; and when Florence had climbed in a +chair, she had her first look at a nest of young birds. The little city +girl was delighted. + +"How cunning!" she exclaimed. "Oh, how awfully cunning! four in +all--three of them with their mouths wide open. No wonder this little +fellow got pushed out. Here, you droll little specimen, crowd in +somewhere! He isn't hurt at all, for he seems as lively as any of them." + +As Florence jumped down from the chair, Susie and Mollie and the Jones +girls came up the walk. + +"What are you two doing?" Mollie called out. + +"Florence has just restored a lost baby to his distressed family," her +aunt answered. "Come into the house, girls, and let papa and mamma +Chippy get over their fright and look after the babies. Florence, I am +greatly obliged to you. I should have felt very sorry if harm had come +to the little one, for I have watched that nest ever since the old birds +began to build." + +The little girl replied politely that she was glad she had been of use. + +"I know what chippies' nests are made of," said Mollie: "fine roots and +fibers, and lined beautifully with soft fine hair," + +"Did you watch the birds while they were making it, Mollie?" + +"No; but one night after tea, when Auntie and Susie and I were playing +at choosing birds,--telling which bird we liked best and why, you +know,--papa came along and said: 'I choose the chirping sparrow for my +bird'; and when we laughed at him and called for his reasons (because +chippies are such insignificant things, you know, and no singers), he +told us he liked them because they were tame and friendly, and because +they built such neat, pretty nests; and he pulled an old nest he had +saved in pieces, and showed us how it was put together." + +"Yes," said Susie; "and the other reason he gave for liking them best +was, that they got up early and rang the rising-bell for all the other +birds. That was such a funny reason for papa to give, for we all know he +dearly loves his morning nap." + +"Really, now, do the chippies get up first in the morning?" said +Florence. + +"With the first peep of day," Miss Ruth answered. "This morning I heard +their cheerful twitter before a ray of light had penetrated to my room; +and a welcome sound it was, for it told me the long night was over. One +dear little fellow sang two or three strains before he succeeded in +waking any body; then a robin joined in, in a sleepy kind of way; then +two or three wrens, and then a cat-bird; and, last of all, my little +weather-bird, which, from the topmost branches of the elm-tree, warbled +out to me that it was a pleasant day. Oh, what a sweet concert they all +gave me before the sun rose!" + +"I never heard of a weather-bird, Aunt Ruth." + +"Your Uncle Charlie gave him that name, Susie, when we were children. +His true name is Warbling Verio; but we used to fancy the little fellow +announced what kind of day it would be. If clear he called out: +'Pleasant day!' three times over, with a pause between each sentence and +a long-drawn-out Yes at the close; or, if it rained, he said 'Rainy day' +or 'Windy day,' describing the weather, whatever it might be, always +with an emphatic _Yes_. + +"One day he talked to me, but it was not about the weather. Things had +gone wrong with me all the morning. I had spoken disrespectfully to my +grandmother, and had been so cross and impatient with baby Walter that +mother had taken him from me, though she could ill spare the time to +tend him. Then I ran through the garden to a little patch of woods +behind the house, and sat on an old log, in a very bad humor. + +"Presently, high above my head in the branches of the walnut-tree, the +weather-bird began his monotonous strain. I paid no attention to him at +first, I was so taken up with my own disagreeable thoughts, till it came +to me all at once that he was not telling me it was a pleasant day, +though the sun was shining gloriously and a lovely breeze rustled the +green leaves. What was it the little bird was saying over and over +again, as plain as plain could be? 'NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY +GIRL! Y-E-S.' + +"I rubbed my eyes and pinched my arm, to make sure I was awake; for I +thought I must have dreamed it. But no, there it was again, sweet, sad, +reproachful: 'NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! NAUGHTY GIRL! Y-E-S,' + +"I jumped up in a rage, and called it a horrid thing; and when it +wouldn't stop, but kept on reproaching me with my evil behavior, I could +bear it no longer, but put my fingers in my ears and ran back to the +house and up to my own room, where I cried with anger and shame. But +solitude and reflection soon brought me to a better state of mind; and, +long before the day was over, I had confessed my fault and was forgiven. +But though I wanted very much to see a new water-wheel Charlie set up +that afternoon in the brook, I dared not go through the wood to get to +it, lest that small bird should still be calling, 'Naughty girl! Y-e-s.' + +"Charlie grumbled the next morning when I wakened him out of a sound +sleep by shouting gayly from my little bed in the next room that his +weather-bird was calling, 'Pleasant day!' 'Why, what _should_ he call,' +he wanted to know, 'with the sun shining in at both windows?' + +"I never told my brother how the bird had given voice to my accusing +conscience, nor has the lesson ever been repeated; for from that day to +this the Warbling Verio has made no more personal remarks to me." + +"There's a bird down in Maine" said Ann Eliza Jones, "they call the +Yankee bird, 'cause he keeps saying, 'All day +whittling--whittling--whittling.'" + +"Yes; and the quails there always tell the farmers when they must hurry +and get in their hay," said her sister. "When it's going to rain they +sing out: 'More wet! more wet!' and 'No more wet!' when it clears off." + +"Aunt Ruth," said Mollie, "please tell us about the funny little bantam +rooster who used to call to his wife every morning: 'Do--come +out--n-o-w!'" + +"Very well; but we are getting so much interested in this bird-talk that +we are making rather slow progress with our work. Suppose we all see how +much we can accomplish in the next ten minutes." + +Upon this Mollie caught up the block lying in her lap, Florence +re-threaded her needle, Nellie Dimock hunted up her thimble, which had +rolled under the table, and industry was the order of the day. + +And while they worked, Miss Ruth told the story of + + +THE WIDOW BANTAM. + +"She belonged to our next-door neighbor, and we called her the Widow +because her mate--a fine plucky little bantam rooster--was one day slain +while doing battle with the great red chanticleer who ruled the +hen-yard. + +"I took pity on the little hen in her loneliness, and singled her out +from the flock for special attention. She very soon knew my voice, would +come at my call, and used to slip through a gap in the fence and pay me +a visit every day. If the kitchen door were open she walked in without +ceremony; if closed, she flew to the window, tapped on the glass with +her bill, flapped her wings, and gave us clearly to understand that she +wished to be admitted. Once inside, she set up a shrill cackling till I +attended to her wants, and scolded me at the top of her voice if I kept +her long waiting. When she had eaten more cracked corn and Indian meal +than you would think so small a body could contain, she walked about in +a slow, contented way, and was ready for all the petting we chose to +give her. + +"She was a pretty creature, with a speckled coat and a comb the color of +red coral: very small, but lively and vigorous, and exhibiting in all +her movements both grace and stateliness. She would nestle in my lap, +take a ride on my shoulder, and walk the length of my arm to peck at a +bit of cake in my hand, regarding me all the while with a queer +sidelong glance, and croaking out her satisfaction and content. When she +was ready to go she walked to the kitchen door, and asked in a very +shrill voice to be let out. She continued these visits till late in the +fall, when she was shut up with the rest of our neighbor's flock for the +winter. + +"One bitter cold day in January we heard a faint cackle outside, and, +opening the kitchen door, found our poor widow in a sorry plight. One +foot was frozen, her feathers were all rough and dirty, her wings +drooping, her bright comb changed to a dull red. How she escaped from +the hen-house, surmounted the high fence, and hobbled or flew to our +door, we did not know; but there she was, half-dead with hunger and +cold. + +"We did what we could for her. I bathed and bandaged the swollen foot, +and made a warm bed for her in a box in the shed, from which she did not +offer to stir for many days. I fed her with bits of bread soaked in warm +milk, and Charlie said, nursed and tended her as if she had been a sick +baby. She was very gentle and patient, poor thing! and allowed me to +handle her as I pleased, always welcomed my coming with a cheerful +little cackle, and, as she got stronger, trotted after me about the shed +and kitchen like a pet kitten. + +"In the spring, when she was quite well again, I restored her to her +rightful owner. Perhaps she had grown weary of her solitary life, for +she seemed delighted to rejoin her old companions; but every day she +made us a visit, and at night came regularly to roost in the shed. + +"One morning we heard two voices instead of one outside our window, and +behold! Mrs. Bantam had taken another mate--a fine handsome fellow, so +graceful in form and brilliant in plumage that we at once pronounced him +a fit companion to our favorite hen. They were evidently on the best of +terms, croaking and cackling to each other, and exchanging sage opinions +about us as we watched them from the open door. I am sure she must have +told him all about her long illness the previous winter, and pointed me +out as her nurse, for he nodded and croaked and cast sidelong looks of +friendly regard in my direction. + +"But when Mrs. Bantam came into the kitchen for her luncheon she could +not induce Captain Bantam to follow. In vain she coaxed and cackled, +running in and out a dozen times to convince him there was nothing to +fear. He would not believe her nor budge one inch over the door-sill. +She lost patience at last, and rated him soundly; but as neither coaxing +nor scolding availed, and she was eating her meal with a poor relish +inside, while he waited unhappily without, we settled the difficulty by +putting the dish on the door-step, where they ate together in perfect +content. + +"But a more serious trouble came at bed-time, for Mrs. Bantam expected +to roost as usual in the shed, while the Captain preferred the old +apple-tree where the rest of the flock spent their nights. The funny +little couple held an animated discussion about it which lasted far into +the twilight--and neither would yield. The Captain was very polite and +conciliatory. He evidently had no mind to quarrel: but neither would he +give up the point. He occasionally suspended the argument by a stroll +into the garden, where, by vigorous scratching, he would produce a +choice morsel, to which he called her attention by an insinuating 'Have +a worm, dear?' She never failed to accept the offering, gulping it down +with great satisfaction, but was too old a bird to be caught by so +shallow a trick, for she would immediately return to her place by the +shed window, and resume her discourse. When she had talked herself +sleepy she ended the contest for that night by flying through the window +and settling herself comfortably in the old place, while the Captain +took his solitary way across the garden and over the fence to the +apple-tree. + +Every night for a week this scene occurred under the shed window; then, +by mutual consent, they seemed to agree to go their several ways without +further dispute. About sunset the Captain might be seen politely +escorting his mate to her chosen lodging-house, and, after seeing her +safely disposed of for the night, quietly betaking himself to his roost +in the apple-tree. + +"He was at her window early every morning crowing lustily. Charlie and I +were sure he said: 'Do--come--out--now! Do--come--out--n-o-w!' and were +vexed with the little hen for keeping him waiting so long. But his +patience never failed; and, when at last she flew down and joined him, a +prouder, happier bantam rooster never strutted about the place. All day +long he kept close at her side, providing her with the choicest tidbits +the garden afforded, and watching her with unselfish delight while she +swallowed each dainty morsel. In the middle of the day they rested under +the currant-bushes, crooning sleepily to each other or taking a quiet +nap. + +"One day we missed them both, and for three weeks saw them only at +intervals, Mrs. Bantam always coming alone, eating a hurried meal, and +stealing away as quickly as possible; while the Captain wandered about +rather dejectedly, we thought, in the society of the other hens. + +"But one bright morning we heard Mrs. Bantam clucking and calling with +all her old vigor; and there she was at the kitchen-door, the prettiest +and proudest of little mothers, with three tiny chicks not much larger +than the baby chippies you saw in the nest, Florence, but wonderfully +active and vigorous for their size. We named them Bob and Dick and +Jenny, and, as they grew older, were never tired of watching their +comical doings. Their mother, too, afforded us great amusement, while we +found much in her conduct to admire and praise. She was a fussy, +consequential little body, but unselfishly devoted, and ready to brave +any danger that threatened her brood. Charlie and and I learned more +than one useful lesson from the bantam hen and her young family. + +"One of these lessons we put into verse, which, if I can remember, I +will repeat to you. We called it + + +CHICKEN DICK THE BRAGGER. + + 'Scratch! scratch! + In the garden-patch, + Goes good Mother Henny; + Cluck! cluck! + Good luck! Good luck! + Come, Bob and Dick and Jenny! + + A worm! a worm! + See him squirm! + Who comes first to catch it! + Quick! quick! + Chicken Dick, + You are the chick to snatch it! + + "Peep! peep! + While you creep, + My long legs have won it! + Cuck-a-doo! + I've beat you! + Don't you wish you'd done it?" + + Dick! Dick! + That foolish trick + Of bragging lost your dinner; + For while to crow + You let it go, + Bob snatched it up--the sinner! + + Bob! Bob! + 'T was wrong to rob + Your silly little brother, + And in the bush + To fight and push, + And peck at one another. + + But Bobby beat, + And ate the treat.-- + Dear children, though you're winners, + Be modest all; + For pride must fall, + And braggers lose their dinners.' + +"And now I will tell you an adventure of young Dick's, in which a habit +he had of crowing on all occasions proved very useful to him. He grew to +be a fine handsome fellow, and was sold to a family who lived on the +meadow-bank. + +"There was a big freshet the next autumn, the water covering the meadows +on both sides of the river, and creeping into cellars and yards and +houses. It came unexpectedly, early one morning, into the enclosure +where Dick, with his half-dozen hens, was confined, and all flew for +refuge to the roof of the neighboring pig-pen. But the incoming flood +soon washed away the supports of the frail building, and it floated +slowly out into the current to join company with the wrecks of +wood-piles and rail fences, the spoils from gardens and orchards, in the +shape of big yellow pumpkins and rosy apples, bobbing about in the +foaming muddy stream, and all the other queer odds and ends a freshet +gathers in its course. + +"From his commanding position, Dick surveyed the scene, and thought it a +fitting occasion to raise his voice. He stretched himself to the full +height of his few inches, flapped his wings, and crowed--not once or +twice, but continually. Over the waste of waters came his shrill +'Cock-a-doodle-doo!' All the cocks along the shore answered his call; +all the turkeys gobbled, and the geese cackled. His vessel struck the +heavy timber of a broken bridge, and lurched and dipped, threatening +every moment to go to pieces. The waves splashed and drenched them, and +the swift current carried them faster and faster down to the sea. It was +all Dick and his little company could do to keep their footing, and +still the plucky little fellow stood and crowed. + +"A neighbor who was out in his boat gathering drift-wood, recognizing +Dick's peculiar voice, went to the rescue, and, taking this strange +craft in tow, brought the little company, with their gallant leader, +drenched and draggled but still crowing lustily, safe to land. + +"And that is all I can tell you about Dick, for it is five o'clock, and +time to put up our work." + +"I like every kind of bird," said Florence Austin at the next meeting of +the Society, "except the English sparrows. They are a perfect nuisance!" + +"Why, what harm do they do?" Nellie asked. + +"Harm!" said Florence; "you don't know any thing about it here in the +country. We had to cut down a beautiful wisteria-vine that climbed over +one side of our house because the sparrows would build their nests in +it, and made such a dreadful noise in the morning that nobody on that +side of the house could sleep. And they drive away all the other birds. +We used to have robins hopping over our lawn, and dear little +yellow-birds used to build their nests in the pear-trees; but since the +sparrows have got so thick, they have stopped coming. My father says the +English sparrow is the most impudent bird that ever was hatched. He +actually saw one snatch away a worm a robin had just dug up. I believe I +hate sparrows!" + +"I don't," said Nellie. "I have fed them all winter. They came to the +dining-room window every morning, and waited for their breakfast; and a +funny little woodpecker, blind of one eye, came with them sometimes." + +"They do lots of good in our gardens," said Mollie, "digging up grubs +and beetles. Papa told us so." + +"There's nobody in this world so bad," said Susie, sagely, "but that you +can find something good to say about them." At which kindly speech Aunt +Ruth smiled approval. + +"I think," she said, "this will be a good time to tell you a story +about an English sparrow and a canary-bird I will call it + + +TUFTY AND THE SPARROW. + +"One morning in April a young canary-bird whose name was Tufty escaped +through an open window carelessly left open while he was out of his +cage, and suddenly found himself, for the first time in his life, in the +open air. He alighted first on an apple-tree in the yard, and then made +a grand flight half-way to the top of the elm-tree. + +"The sun was bright and the air so still that the light snow which had +fallen in the night yet clung to the branches and twigs of the tree, and +Tufty examined it with interest, thinking it pretty but rather cold as +he poked it about with his bill, and tucked first one little foot, and +then the other, under him to keep it warm. Presently he heard an odd +little noise below him, and, looking down, saw on the trunk of the tree +a bird about his own size, with wings and back of a steel-gray color, a +white breast with a dash of dull red on it, and a long bill, with which +he was making the noise Tufty had heard by tapping on the tree. + +"'Good-morning!' said Tufty, who was of a friendly and social +disposition, and was beginning to feel the need of company. + +"'Morning!' said the woodpecker, very crisp and shorthand not so much as +looking up to see who had spoken to him. + +"If you had heard this talk you would have said Tufty called out: 'Peep! +peep!' and the woodpecker--but that's because you don't understand +bird-language. + +"'What are you doing down there?' said Tufty, continuing the +conversation. + +"'Getting my breakfast,' said the woodpecker. + +"'Why, I had mine a long time ago!' said Tufty. + +"He didn't in the least understand how that knocking on the tree was to +bring Mr. Longbill's morning meal; but he was afraid to ask any more +questions, the other had been so short with him. + +"Just then he heard a hoarse voice overhead saying, 'Come along! come +along!' and, looking up, saw a monstrous black creature sailing above +the tops of the trees. It was only a crow on his way to the swamp, and +he was trying to hurry up his mate, that always would lag behind in that +corn-field where there wasn't so much as a grain left; but Tufty, which +by this time you must have discovered was a very ignorant bird, thought +the black monster was calling _him_, and piped back feebly: 'I can't! I +can't!' and was all of a tremble till Mr. Crow was quite out of sight. + +"He sat quiet, looking a little pensive, for the fact was, he was +beginning to feel lonely, when there flew past him a flock of brown +birds chirping and chattering away at a brisk rate. 'Now for it!' +thought Tufty, 'here's plenty of good company;' and he spread his wings +and flew after them as fast as he could. But he could not keep up with +them, but, panting and weary, alighted on the roof of a house to rest. +And here he saw such a pretty sight; for on a sunny roof just below him +were two snow-white pigeons. One was walking about in a very +consequential way, his tail-feathers spread in the shape of a fan, and +turning his graceful neck from side to side in quite a bewitching +fashion. Just as Tufty alighted, the pretty dove began to call: 'Come, +dear, come! Do, dear, do!' in such a sweet, soft, plaintive voice, as if +his heart would certainly break if his dear _didn't_ come, that Tufty, +who in his silly little pate never once doubted that it was he the +lovely white bird was pining for, felt sorry to disappoint him, and +piped back: 'Oh, if you please, I should like to ever so much! but you +see I must catch up with those brown birds over there;' and, finding his +wind had come back to him, he flew away. The pigeon, which had not even +seen him, and had much more important business to attend to than to +coax an insignificant little yellow-bird, went on displaying all his +beauties, and crooning softly, 'Do, dear! do! do! do!' + +"Tufty had no trouble in finding the brown birds, for long before he +came to the roof of the barn where they had alighted he heard their loud +voices in angry dispute; and they made such an uproar, and seemed so +fractious and ill-tempered, that Tufty felt afraid to join them, but +lingered on a tree near by. + +"Presently one of them flew over to him. She was a young thing--quite +fresh and trim-looking for a sparrow. + +"'Good-morning!' she said, hopping close to him and looking him all over +with her bright little eyes, + +"'Good-morning!' said Tufty, as brisk as you please. + +"'Now, I wonder where you come from and what you call yourself,' said +the sparrow. 'I never saw a yellow-bird like you before. How pretty the +feathers grow on your head!' and she gave a friendly nip to Tufty's +top-knot. + +"Tufty thought she was getting rather familiar on so short an +acquaintance, but he answered her politely, told her his name, and that +he came from the house where he had always lived, and was out to take an +airing. + +"'I want to know!' said the sparrow. 'Well, my name is Brownie. Captain +Bobtail's Brownie, they call me, because Brownie is such a common name +in our family. It's pleasant out-of-doors, isn't it? Oh, never mind the +fuss over there!'--for Tufty's attention was constantly diverted to the +scene of the quarrel--'they are always at it, scolding and fighting. +Come, let's you and I have a good time!' + +"'What is the fuss about?' said Tufty. + +"'A nest,' said Brownie, contemptuously. 'Ridiculous, isn't it? Snow on +the ground, and not time to build this two weeks; but you see, _he_ +wants to keep the little house on top of the pole lest some other bird +should claim it, and _she_ wants to build in the crotch of the +evergreen, and the neighbors are all there taking sides. She has the +right of it--the tree is much the prettier place; but dear me! she might +just as well give up first as last, for he's sure to have his +way--husbands are such tyrants!' said Captain Bobtail's Brownie, with a +coquettish turn of her head; 'but come, now, what shall we do?' + +"'I'm too cold to do any thing,' said Tufty, dolefully. + +"The sun was hidden by a cloud and a cold wind was blowing, and the +house-bird, accustomed to a stove-heated room, was shivering. + +"'Take a good fly,' said Brownie; 'that will warm you,' + +"'But I'm hungry,' piped Tufty. + +"'All right!' said Brownie. 'I know a place where there's a free lunch +set out every day for all the birds that will come--bread-crumbs, seeds, +and lovely cracked corn. Come along! you'll feel better after dinner,' + +"So they flew, and they flew, and Brownie was as kind as possible, and +stopped for a rest whenever Tufty was tired, and chatted so agreeably +and pleasantly, that before they reached their journey's end Tufty had +quite fallen in love with her. Then, too, the sun was shining again, +and the brisk exercise of flying had set the little bird's blood in +motion, so that he was warm again, but oh, so hungry! + +"They came at last to a brown cottage with a broad piazza, and it was on +the roof of this piazza that a feast for the birds was every day spread. +But as they flew round the house Tufty became very much excited. + +"'Stop, Brownie!' he cried; 'let me look at this place! Surely I've been +here before. That red curtain, that flower-stand in the window, +that--Oh! oh! there's my own little house! Why, Captain Bobtail's +Brownie, you've brought me home!' + +"Now, all this time Tufty's mistress had been in great trouble. As soon +as she discovered her loss she ran out-of-doors, holding up the empty +cage and calling loudly on her little bird to return. But he was high up +in the elm-tree watching the woodpecker, and, if he heard her call, paid +no attention to it. Very soon he flew after the sparrows, and she lost +sight of him. Not a mouthful of breakfast could the poor child eat. + +"'I shall never see my poor little Tufty again, mamma!' she said. 'I saw +him flying straight for the swamp, and he never can find his way back!' +and she cried as if her heart would break. + +"In the middle of the forenoon her brother Jack called to her from the +foot of the stairs:-- + +"'What will you give me, Kittie,' he said, 'if I will tell you where +Tufty is?' + +"'O Jack! do you know? Have you seen him? Where? where?' cried the +little girl, coming downstairs in a great hurry. + +"'Be quiet!' said Jack. 'Now, don't get excited; your bird is all right, +though I'm sorry to say he's in rather low company,' And he led her to +the dining-room window that looked into the garden, and there, sure +enough, was Tufty on a lilac-bush. Brownie was there too. She was +hopping about and talking in a most earnest and excited manner. It was +easy to see that she was using all her powers of persuasion to coax +Tufty not to go back to his old home, but to help her build a little +house out-of-doors, where they could set up housekeeping together. + +"Kittie knew just what to do. She ran for the cage and for a sprig of +dried pepper-grass (of all the good things she gave her bird to eat, he +liked pepper-grass best), and, standing in the open door-way, called: +'Tufty! Tufty!' He gave a start, a little flutter of his wings, and +then, with one glad cry of recognition, and without so much as a parting +look at poor Brownie, flew straight for the door, and alighted on the +top of his cage. + +"'How strangely things come about, mamma?' Kittie said that evening as +they talked over this little incident. 'Jack has laughed at me all +winter for feeding the sparrows, and called them hateful, quarrelsome +things, and said I should get nicely paid next summer when they drove +away all the pretty song-birds that come about the house. And now, don't +you see, mamma, one of the sparrows I have fed all winter--I knew her +right away by a funny little dent in her breast--has done me such good +service? Why, I am paid a hundred thousand times over for all I have +ever done for the sparrows.'" + +"And what became of poor Brownie?" Nellie asked. "I almost hoped Tufty +would stay out with her, she was such a good little sparrow." + +"She lingered about the garden for a while, making a plaintive little +noise; but when the family of Brownies came to dinner she ate her +allowance, and flew away with them, apparently in good spirits. But +Tufty moped for a day or two, and, as long as he lived, showed great +excitement at the sight of a flock of sparrows; and it is my private +opinion that, if a second opportunity had been given him, Kittie Grant's +Tufty would have gone off for good and all with Captain Bobtail's +Brownie." + +Susie Elliot walked part of the way home with Florence Austin, and the +two little girls, who were fast becoming intimate friends, talked over +the events of the afternoon. + +"How much your auntie knows about animals and birds!" said Florence; +"she seems almost as fond of them as if they were people." + +"Yes," Susie answered; "she was always fond of pets, papa says; and, +ever since she has been ill, she has spent a great deal of time watching +them and studying their ways. I think it makes her forget the pain," + +"Is it the pain that keeps her awake at night, Susie? You know she said +this afternoon she was glad to hear the chippy-birds, because then she +knew the long night was over; and she looked so white, and couldn't get +down those three little easy steps to pick up the baby-bird. But she +walks about the garden sometimes with a crutch, doesn't she?" + +"Oh, yes! and she's better than when she first came here to live, only +she never can be well, you know. Today is one of her poor days; but she +used to be so ill that she was hardly ever free from pain. You never +would have known it, though, she was always so cheerful and doing +something to give us good times." + +"Can't she ever be made well, Susie? There's doctors in town, you know, +who cure _every thing_," said the little girl. + +Susie shook her head. + +"Papa says she has an incurable disease;" and then seriously--"I think +if Jesus were here he would put his hands on auntie and make her well." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +PARSON LORRIMER'S WHITE HORSE. + + +"And now for the story of the minister's horse," Mollie Elliot said, +when Miss Ruth's company of workers had assembled on the next Wednesday +afternoon. "I suppose he was an awfully good horse, which set an example +to all the other horses in the parish to follow. Say, Auntie, wasn't +he?" + +"When my grandmother was a little girl," Ruth Elliot began, "she lived +with her father and mother in a small country town among the New +Hampshire hills: and of all the stories she told in her old age about +the quiet simple life of the people of Hilltown, the one her +grandchildren liked best to hear was + + +THE STORY OF PARSON LORRIMER'S WHITE HORSE. + +"Parson Lorrimer had lived thirty years in Hilltown before he owned a +horse. He began to preach in the big white meeting-house when he was a +young man, and, as neither he nor his people wanted a change, when he +was sixty years old he was preaching there still. It was a scattered +parish, with farm-houses perched on the hill-sides and nestled in the +valleys; and the minister, in doing his work, had trudged over every +mile of it a great many times. He made nothing of walking five miles to +a meeting on a December evening, with the thermometer below zero, or of +climbing the hills in a driving snow-storm to visit a sick parishioner. +He was a tall, spare man, healthy and vigorous, with iron-gray hair, a +strong kind face, and a smile in his brown eyes that made every baby in +Hilltown stretch out its arms to him to be taken. + +"Not a chick or child had Parson Lorrimer of his own. He had never +married, but lived in the old parsonage, a stately mansion, with rooms +enough in it to accommodate a big family, with only an elderly widow and +her grown-up son to minister to his wants and to keep him company. His +study was at the back of the house, and looked out upon the garden and +orchard, so that the smell of his pinks and roses came to him as he +wrote, and the same robins, year by year, built their nests within reach +of his hand in the branches of the crooked old apple-tree that shaded +his window. + +"The minister was fond of caring for living creatures, both small and +great, and every domestic animal about the place knew it. The cat +jumped fearlessly to his knee, sure of a welcome. The cow lowed after +him if he showed himself at the window. The little chicks fluttered to +his shoulder when he appeared in the door-yard, and the old sow with her +litter of pigs kept close at his heels as he paced the orchard, +pondering next Sunday's sermon. + +"He remembered them all. There was always a handful of grain for the +chickens in the pocket of his study-gown, a ripe pumpkin in the shed for +Sukey; and the good man would laugh like a school-boy, as the funny +little baby-pigs rolled and tumbled over each other for the apples he +tossed them. A great, good, gentle man, learned and wise in theology and +knowledge of the Scriptures, with tastes and habits as simple as a +child. + +"But I must hurry on with my story, or you will think I am telling you +more about the parson than his horse. The good man realized, one day, +that he was not as young as he used to be, and that climbing Harrison +Hill on a July afternoon and walking five miles in a drizzling rain +after a preaching service were not so easy to do as he had found them a +dozen years before. So he wisely concluded to call in the aid of four +strong legs in carrying on his work, and that is how he came to buy a +horse. + +"The people of Hilltown heartily approved of this plan, and several were +anxious to help him. + +"Deacon Cowles had a four-year-old colt, raised on the farm, 'a real +clever steady-goin' creetur, that he guessed he could spare--might be +turned in for pew-rent;' and Si Olcott didn't care if he traded off his +gray mare on the same conditions. She was about used up for farm-work, +but had considerable go in her yet--could jog round with the parson for +ten years to come. + +"The minister received these offers with politeness, and promised to +think of them; and then one day after a brief absence from home, set +every body in the parish talking, by driving into town seated in an open +wagon, shining with fresh paint and varnish, and drawn by a horse the +like of which had never been seen in Hilltown before. + +"He was of a large and powerful build, and most comely and graceful in +proportion, with a small head, slender legs, and flowing mane and tail. +In color, he was milk-white, while his nose and the inside of his +pointed ears were of a delicate pink. He held his head high, stepping +proudly and glancing from side to side in a nervous, excited way; but he +had a kind eye, and the watching neighbors saw him take an apple from +the hand of his new master, after they turned in at the parsonage gate. +In answer to all questions, the parson said he had purchased the horse +at Winterport, of a seafaring man, that he was eight years old, and his +name was Peter. But to neither man nor woman in Hilltown did he ever +tell the sum he paid in yellow gold and good bank-notes for the white +horse, + +"A few days after the purchase, Parson Lorrimer attended a funeral, and +when the service at the house was ended, and he had shaken hands all +round with the mourners, and exchanged greetings with neighbors and +friends, he stepped out to the side-yard, where he had fastened his +horse, and drove round the house to take his place before the hearse; +for in Hilltown it was the custom for the minister to lead the +procession to the burying-ground. + +"It was Peter's first appearance in an official capacity, and he stepped +with sufficient dignity into the street, where a long line of wagons and +chaises, led off by the mourners' coach and the big black hearse, waited +the signal to start, while in the door-yard and along the sidewalk were +ranged the foot-passengers; for at a funeral in Hilltown everybody went +to the grave. + +"A passing breeze caught a piece of paper lying in the road, and +flirted it close to Peter's eyes. He gave a tremendous leap sideways, +and it was a marvel no one was struck by his flying heels, then +gathering himself together he ran. How he did run! The good folks +scattered right and left with amazing quickness, considering their +habits of life; for in the slow little town, every body took things fair +and easy, and the white horse dashed past the string of wagons, the +mourners' equipage, and the tall black hearse. There was a cloud of +dust, a rattling of wheels, a clatter of hoofs, and Peter and the parson +were far down the road. The people gazed after their departing spiritual +guide in speechless astonishment. The mourners' heads were thrust far +out of the coach windows. Even the sleepy farm-horses pricked up their +ears: while old Bill, the sexton's clumsy big-footed beast, which for +fifteen years had carried the dead folks of Hilltown to their graves, +and had never before been known, on these solemn occasions to depart +from his slow walk, made a most astonishing departure; for, taking his +driver unawares, he suddenly started after the flying white steed, +breaking into a lumbering gallop, that set plumes nodding, curtains +flapping, and glasses rattling, and made the huge unwieldly vehicle +lurch and bob about in a way to threaten a shocking catastrophe. + +"A vigorous twitch of the lines, and a loud 'Whoa, now, Bill! Whoa, I +tell ye!' soon brought the sexton's beast to a stand-still. I am sure he +must have shared his master's surprise at such unseeming conduct, who +wondered 'What in time had got into the blamed crittur!' But neither +voice nor rein checked Peter's speed. On he flew, down the hill past the +post-office, the meeting-house, and the tavern. It was a straight road, +and his driver kept him to it. Fortunately there were no collisions, and +at the last long ascent his pace slackened and he turned of his own +accord in at the parsonage gate. + +"At the village store and the tavern that evening, Peter's evil behavior +was talked about. + +"'He's a sp'iled horse,' Jonathan Goslee, the minister's hired man, +said, 'though you can't make parson think so. He's dead sure to run +ag'in. A horse knows when he's got the upper hand, jest as well as a +child, and he'll watch his chance to try it over ag'in, you see if he +don't.' + +"But the next time Peter shied and tried to run, it was the minister +who got the upper hand; and when the short excitement was over, and the +horse quiet and subdued, he was driven back to within a few paces of the +object of his fright. A neighbor was called to stand at his head, while +his master took down the flaming yellow placard that had caused all the +trouble, and slowly and cautiously brought it to him, that he might see, +smell, and touch it, talking soothingly to him and petting and caressing +him. When he had become accustomed to its appearance, and had learned by +experience that it was harmless, it was nailed to the tree again and +Peter passed it the second time without trouble. + +"'If I'd owned the horse,' the minister's helper said, when he told this +story, 'I s'pose I should have _licked_ him by,--but I guess, in the +long run, parson's way was best.' + +"This was one of many lessons Peter received to correct his only serious +fault. He was willing and swift, intelligent and kind, but so nervous +and timid, and made so frantic by his fear of any unknown object, that +he was constantly putting the minister's life and limbs in jeopardy. But +he had a wise, patient teacher, and he was apt to learn. + +"My grandmother was fond of telling some of the means adopted to bring +about the cure;--how one day after Peter had shied at sight of a +wheelbarrow, the parson trundled the obnoxious object about the yard for +half an hour in view of the stable window, then emptied a measure of +oats in it, and opened the stable door; how the horse trotted round and +round, drawing each time a little nearer, then came close, snorted and +wheeled,--his master standing by encouraging him by hand and +voice,--until, unable longer to resist the tempting bait, he put his +pink nose to the pile and ate first timidly, then with confidence. After +that, the old lady said, Peter felt a particular regard for wheelbarrows +in general, hoping in each one he happened to pass to find another +toothsome meal. + +"He suffered at first agonies of terror at sight of the long line of +waving, flapping garments he had to pass every Monday in his passage +from the big gate to the stable; but, through the minister's devices, +grew so familiar with their appearance, that he took an early +opportunity of making their closer acquaintance, and mouthed the +parson's ruffled shirt, and took a bite of the Widow Goslee's dimity +short-gown. + +"And so the kindly work went on. Peter gained trust and confidence every +day, learning little by little that his master was his friend, that +under his guidance no harm came to him, no impossible task was given to +him; until at length confidence cast out fear, and the white horse +became as docile and obedient as he had always been willing and strong. + +"These qualities, on one occasion, stood him in good stead; for the +parsonage barn and stable one night burned to the ground. Peter's stall +was bright with the red light of the fire, and the flames crackled +overhead in the barn-loft when the parson led out his favorite, +trembling in every limb, his eyes wild with terror, but perfectly +obedient to his master's hand. It was as if he had said: 'I must go, +even through this dreadful fire, if master leads the way.' + +"There was a Fourth of July celebration in the next parish, and Parson +Lorrimer was invited to deliver the oration. He rode over on horseback, +took the saddle from Peter's back, and turned him loose in a pasture +where other of the guests' horses were grazing. A platform was erected +on the green, with seats for the band, the invited guests, and the +speaker of the day; while the people gathered from both parishes were +standing about in groups waiting for the exercises to commence. Flags +were flying, bells ringing, and a field-piece, that had seen service in +the War of the Revolution, at intervals belched out a salute in honor of +the day. The band was playing a lively tune, when suddenly there was a +stir and a dividing to the right and left of the crowd gathered about +the stand, and through the lane thus formed came the minister's white +horse. + +"He trotted leisurely up, stopped before the platform, and made a bow, +then began to dance, keeping time to the music, and going round and +round in a space quickly cleared for him by the lookers-on. I don't know +whether it was a waltz the band was playing, or if horses were taught to +waltz so long ago; but whatever kind of dance it was,--gallopade, +quickstep, or cotillion,--Peter, in his horse-fashion, danced it well. +Faster and faster played the music, and round and round went the pony. +The people laughed and shouted, and Peter made his farewell bow and +trotted soberly out of the ring, in the midst of a great shout of +applause. + +"How did Parson Lorrimer feel? Of all that amused and wondering crowd, +not one was more taken by surprise than he--both at this exhibition of +Peter's accomplishments and at the tale it told of his early days; for +it was impossible to doubt that at some time in his life he had been a +trained horse in a circus. From the field near by he had recognized the +familiar strains that used to call him to his task, and had leaped the +fence and made his way to where the crowd was gathered, to play his +pretty part on the village green, before the sober citizens of +Centerville and Hilltown, as he had played it hundreds of times before, +under the canvas, to the motley crowd drawn together by the attractions +of the ring. + +"Of course the minister felt sorry and ashamed when he learned, in this +public way, of the low company Peter had kept in his youth. Whenever a +traveling circus had stopped at Winterport, Parson Lorrimer had not +failed to warn his young people from the pulpit to keep their feet from +straying to this place of sinful amusement. But mingled with his +chagrin, I think he must have felt a little pride in the ownership of +the beautiful creature, so intelligent to remember, and so supple of +limb to perform, the unaccustomed task. + +"He took pains to narrate more fully than he had thought necessary +before, how he had come in possession of the animal. He had gone, he +said, on business to Winterport, and on the wharf, early one morning, +had met a man in the dress of a sailor leading the white horse. In +answer to inquiries, the stranger said he had taken the horse In payment +of a debt, and was about to ship him on board a trading-vessel then +lying in the dock, bound to the East Indies. Would he sell, the minister +asked, on this side of the water? Yes, if he could get his price. While +they talked, Parson Lorrimer caressed the horse, who responded in so +friendly a way that the minister, who had lost his heart at first sight +to the beautiful creature, then and there made the purchase, waiting +only till the banks were open to pay over the money. He had asked few +questions; had known, he said, by Peter's eyes that he was kind, and by +certain unmistakable marks about him that he came of good stock. Of the +stranger, he had seen nothing from that day, and could not even remember +his name. + +"'I always knew,' Jonathan Goslee said, 'that the critter had tricks +and ways different from common horses, I've catched him at 'em +sometimes. One day I found him with his bran-tub bottom upwards, amusin' +himself tryin' to stand with all four legs on it at once. And he'll +clear marm's clothes-line at a leap as easy as you'd jump over a pair of +bars. But I never happened to catch him practisin' his +dancin'-lesson--must have done it, though, on the sly, or he couldn't +have footed it so lively that day over to Centerville. Well, sometimes I +think--and then ag'in I don't know. If that there sailor feller stole +the horse he sold in such a hurry to parson, why didn't the owner make a +hue and cry about it, and follow him up? 'Twould have been easy enough +to track the beast to Hilltown. And then ag'in, if 'twas all fair and +square, and he took the horse for a debt, why didn't he sell him to a +show company for a fancy price, instead of shippin' him off to the Indys +in one of them rotten old tubs, that as like as not would go under +before she'd made half the voyage. But there, we never shall get to the +bottom facts in the case, any more than we shall ever know how much +money parson paid down for that horse,' + +"And they never did. + +"My grandmother remembered Parson Lorrimer as an old man, tall and +straight, with flowing white hair, a placid face, and kind, dim eyes +that gradually grew dimmer, till their light faded to darkness. For the +last four years of his life he was totally blind, She remembered how he +used to mount the pulpit-stairs, one hand resting upon the shoulder of +his colleague, and, standing in the old place, with lifted face and +closed eyes, carry on the service, repeating chapter and hymns from +memory, his voice tremulous, but still sweet and penetrating. + +"She remembered going to visit the old man in his study. It was +summer-time, and he sat in his arm-chair at the open window, and on the +grass-plat outside--so near that his head almost touched his master's +shoulder--the old white horse was standing; for they had grown old +together, and together were enjoying a peaceful and contented old age. +Every bright day for hours Peter stood at the window, and in the +winter-time, when he was shut in his stable, the old man never failed to +visit him. + +"But one November afternoon, Parson Lorrimer being weary laid himself +down upon his bed, where presently the sleep came to him God giveth to +his beloved. + +"The evening after his funeral a member of the household passing the +study-door was startled at seeing in the pale moonlight a long, ghostly +white face peering in at the window. + +"It was only Peter, that had slipped his halter and wandered round to +the old place looking for his master. He allowed them to lead him back +to his stable, but every time the door was opened he whinnied and turned +his head. As the days passed and the step he waited for came no more, +hope changed to patient grief. His food often remained untasted; he +refused to go out into the sunshine; and so, gradually wasting and +without much bodily suffering, he one day laid himself down and his life +slipped quietly away. + +"He was buried outside the grave-yard, at the top of the hill, as near +as might be to the granite head-stone that recorded the virtues of 'Ye +most faithful Servant and Man of God Silus Timothy Lorrimer Who for 52 +Yrs did Minister to This Ch and Congregation in Spiritual Things. + + 'The faithful Memory of The Just + Shall Flourish When they turn To Dust.' + +"Peter has no head-stone to mark his grave, but his memory is green in +Hilltown. The old folks love to tell of his beauty, his intelligence, +and his life-long devotion to his master; and there is a tradition +handed down and repeated half-seriously, half in jest, that when +Gabriel blows his trumpet on the resurrection morning, and the dead in +Hilltown grave-yard awake, Parson Lorrimer will lead his flock to the +judgment riding on a white horse." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE QUILTING. + + +The patchwork quilt was finished. The pieces of calico Miss Ruth from +week to week had measured and cut and basted together, with due regard +to contrast and harmony of colors, were transformed into piles of +gay-colored blocks; the blocks multiplied and extended themselves into +strips, and the strips basted together had kept sixteen little hands +"sewing the long seam" for three Wednesday afternoons. And now it was +finished, and the quilting had begun. + +Miss Ruth had decided, after a consultation with the minister's wife, +that the girls might do this most important and difficult part of the +business. She wanted the gift to be theirs from beginning to end--that, +having furnished all the material, they should do all the work. How +pleased and proud they were to be thus trusted, you can imagine, while +the satisfaction they took in the result of the summer's labor repaid +their leader a hundred-fold for her share in the enterprise. + +Never was a quilt so admired and praised. Of all the odds and ends the +girls had brought in, Ruth Elliot had rejected nothing, not even the +polka-dotted orange print in which Mrs. Jones delighted to array her +baby or the gorgeous green-and-red gingham of Nellie Dimock's new apron. + +It took two long afternoons of close work for the girls (not one of whom +had ever quilted before) to accomplish this task; but they did it +bravely and cheerfully. There were pricked fingers and tired arms and +cramped feet, and the big dictionary that raised Nellie Dimock to a +level with her taller companions must have proved any thing but an easy +seat; but no one complained. + +Let us look in upon the Patchwork Quilt Society toward the close of this +last afternoon. + +"I was sewing on this very block," Mollie Elliot is saying, leaning back +in her chair to survey her work, "when Aunt Ruth was telling us how +Captain Bobtail's Brownie brought Tufty home. + +"That pink-and-gray block over there in the corner," said Fannie +Eldridge, pointing with her needle, "was the first one I sewed on. I +made awful work with it, too; for when Dinah Diamond set herself on +fire with the kerosene lamp I forgot what I was about, and took ever so +many long puckery stitches that had to be picked out," + +"If I should sleep under that bed-quilt," said Sammy Ray (Sammy and Roy +had been invited to attend this last meeting of the Society), "what do +you suppose I should dream about?" + +No one could imagine. + +"A white horse and a yellow dog," the boy said, "'cause I liked those +stories best." + +"Yes," said Mollie; "and of course Nellie Dimock would dream about cats, +wouldn't you, Nell? and Roy Tyler about moths and butterflies, and +Florence Austin about birds, and I--well, I should dream of all the +beasts and the birds Aunt Ruth has told us about, all jumbled up +together." + +"I shall always remember one thing," Nellie Dimock said, "when I think +about our quilt." + +"What is that, Nellie?" + +"Not to step on an ant-hill if I can possibly help it, because it blocks +up the street, and the little people have to work so hard to cart away +the dirt." + +"I ain't half so afraid of worms as I used to be," Eliza Ann Jones +announced, "since I've found out what funny things they can do; and next +summer I'm going to make some butterflies out of fennel-worms," + +"Roy says," Sammy began, and stopped; for Roy was making forcible +objections to the disclosure. + +"Well, what does Roy say?" Miss Ruth asked, knowing nothing of the kicks +administered under the table. + +"He won't let me tell," said Sammy. + +"He's always telling what I say," said Roy. "Why don't he speak for +himself?" + +"Well, I never!" said Sammy. "I thought you was too bashful to speak, +and so I'd do it for you." + +"What was it, Roy?" + +"Why, I said, when I owned a horse, if he should happen to shy, you +know, I'd cure him of it just as that minister cured Peter." + +Here there was a pushing back of chairs and a stir and commotion, for +the last stitch was set to the quilting. Then the binding was put on, +and the quilt was finished; but the September afternoon was finished +too, and Lovina Tibbs lighted the lamps in the dining-room before she +rang the bell for tea. + +Lovina had exerted herself in her special department to make this last +meeting of the Society a festive occasion. She gave to the visitors +what she called "a company supper"--biscuits deliciously sweet and +light, cold chicken, plum-preserves, sponge-cake, and for a central dish +a platter containing little frosted cakes, with the letters "P.Q.S." +traced on each in red sugar-sand. + +When the feast was over, one last-admiring look given to "our quilt" and +the girls and boys had all gone home, Susie and Mollie sat with their +mother in Miss Ruth's room. + +"Auntie," said Susie, who for some moments had been gazing thoughtfully +in the fire, "I have been thinking how nice it would be if, when our +quilt goes to the home missionary, all the interesting stories you have +told us while we were sewing on it could go too. Then the children in +the family would think so much more of it--don't you see? I wish there +was some way for a great many more boys and girls to hear those +stories." + +"Why, that's just what Florence Austin was saying this afternoon," said +Mollie. "She said she wished all those stories could be printed in a +book." + +"You hear the suggestion, Ruth," Mrs. Elliot said. + +But Ruth smiled and shook her head, + +"They are such simple little stories," said she. + +"For simple little people to read--'for of such is the kingdom of +heaven.' Think, Ruth, if, instead of one Eliza Jones 'making butterflies +out of fennel-worms' next summer, and in that way getting at some +wonderful facts far more effectively than any book could teach her, +there should be a dozen, aria perhaps as many boys resolving, like Roy, +to use kindness and patience instead of cruelty and force in their +dealings with a dumb beast. But you know all this without my preaching. +Ten times one make ten, little sister." + +"If I thought my stones would do good," she said. + +"Come, I have a proposition to make," said the minister's wife. "You +shall write out the stories--you already have some of them in +manuscript--and I will fill in with the doings of the Patchwork Quilt +Society. Do you agree?" + +And that is how this book was written. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + +The Girl Chum's Series + +ALL AMERICAN AUTHORS. +ALL COPYRIGHT STORIES. + +A carefully selected series of books for +girls, written by popular authors. These +are charming stories for young girls, well +told and full of interest. Their simplicity, +tenderness, healthy, interesting motives, +vigorous action, and character painting will +please all girl readers. + +HANDSOME CLOTH BINDING. +PRICE, 60 CENTS. + +BENHURST, CLUB, THE. By Howe Benning. + +BERTHA'S SUMMER BOARDERS. By Linnie S. Harris. + +BILLOW PRAIRIE. A Story of Life in the Great West. By Joy Allison. + +DUXBERRY DOINGS. A New England Story. By Caroline B. Le Row. + +FUSSBUDGET'S FOLKS. A Story For Young Girls. By Anna F. Burnham. + +HAPPY DISCIPLINE, A. By Elizabeth Cummings. + +JOLLY TEN, THE; and Their Year of Stories. By Agnes Carr Sage. + +KATIE ROBERTSON. A Girl's Story of Factory Life. By M.E. Winslow. + +LONELY HILL. A Story For Girls. By M.L. Thornton-Wilder. + +MAJORIBANKS. A Girl's Story. By Elvirton Wright. + +MISS CHARITY'S HOUSE. By Howe Benning. + +MISS ELLIOT'S GIRLS. A Story For Young Girls. By Mary Spring Corning. + +MISS MALCOLM'S TEN. A Story For Girls. By Margaret E. Winslow. + +ONE GIRL'S WAY OUT. By Howe Benning. + +PEN'S VENTURE. By Elvirton Wright. + +RUTH PRENTICE. A Story For Girls. By Marion Thorne. + +THREE YEARS AT GLENWOOD. A Story of School Life. By M. E. Winslow. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York + + * * * * * + +The Girl Comrade's Series + +ALL AMERICAN AUTHORS. ALL COPYRIGHT STORIES. + +A carefully selected series of books for girls, written by popular +authors. 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In which the Winnebagos take a thousand mile auto trip. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS LARKS AND PRANKS; or, The House of the Open Door. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON ELLEN'S ISLE; or, The Trail of the Seven +Cedars. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE OPEN ROAD; or, Glorify Work. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS DO THEIR BIT; or, Over the Top with the +Winnebagos. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SOLVE A MYSTERY; or, The Christmas Adventure at +Carver House. + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT CAMP KEEWAYDIN; or, Down Paddles. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York + + * * * * * + +The AMY E. BLANCHARD Series + +Miss Blanchard has won an enviable reputation as a writer of short +stories for girls. Her books are thoroughly wholesome in every way and +her style is full of charm. The titles described below will be splendid +additions to every girl's library. Handsomely bound in cloth, full +library size. Illustrated by L.J. 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A charming story of the travels and adventures of +two young American girls, and an elderly companion in Europe, It is not +only well told, but the amount of information contained will make it a +very valuable addition to the library of any girl who anticipates +making-a similar trip. Their many pleasant experiences end in the +culmination of two happy romances, all told in the happiest vein. + +TALBOT'S ANGLES. A charming romance of Southern life. Talbot's Angles +is a beautiful old estate located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The +death of the owner and the ensuing legal troubles render it necessary +for our heroine, the present owner, to leave the place which has been in +her family for hundreds of years and endeavor to earn her own living. +Another claimant for the property appearing on the scene complicates +matters still more. The untangling of this mixed-up condition of affairs +makes an extremely interesting story. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent prepaid on receipt of price by the +publishers + +A.L. BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d Street, New York + + * * * * * + +The Boy Allies +(Registered in the United States Patent Office) +With the Navy + +By ENSIGN ROBERT L. DRAKE + +Handsome Cloth Binding, Price 60 Cents per Volume + +Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, young American lads, meet each other +in an unusual way soon after the declaration of war. Circumstances place +them on board the British cruiser "The Sylph" and from there on, they +share adventures with the sailors of the Allies. Ensign Robert L. 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BURT COMPANY, 114-120 East 23d St., New York + + * * * * * + +The Boy Allies With +(Registered in the United States Patent Office) +the Army + +By CLAIR W. HAYES + +Handsome Cloth Binding, Price 60 Cents per Volume + +In this series we follow the fortunes of two American lads unable to +leave Europe after war is declared. They meet the soldiers of the +Allies, and decide to cast their lot with them. Their experiences and +escapes are many, and furnish plenty of the good, healthy action that +every boy loves. + +THE BOY ALLIES AT LIEGE; or, Through Lines of Steel. + +THE BOY ALLIES ON THE FIRING LINE; or, Twelve Days Battle Along the +Marne. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE COSSACKS; or, A Wild Dash Over the +Carpathians. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN THE TRENCHES; or, Midst Shot and Shell Along the +Aisne. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN GREAT PERIL; or, With the Italian Army in the Alps. + +THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN; or, The Struggle to Save a +Nation. + +THE BOY ALLIES ON THE SOMME; or, Courage and Bravery Rewarded. + +THE BOY ALLIES AT VERDUN; or, Saving France from the Enemy. + +THE BOY ALLIES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES; or, Leading the American +Troops to the Firing Line. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH HAIG IN FLANDERS; or, The Fighting Canadians of +Vimy Ridge. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH PERSHING IN FRANCE; or Over the Top at Chateau +Thierry. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH THE GREAT ADVANCE; or, Driving the Enemy Through +France and Belgium. + +THE BOY ALLIES WITH MARSHAL FOCH; or, The Closing Days of the Great +World War. + +For sale by all booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price by the +publishers. + +A.L. 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