Among the Farmyard People

the Farmyard People, by Clara
Dillingham Pierson

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Title: Among the Farmyard People
Author: Clara Dillingham Pierson
Illustrator: F.C. Gordon
Release Date: September 26, 2006 [EBook #19381]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE FARMYARD PEOPLE ***

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Among the Farmyard People

BY
Clara Dillingham Pierson
Author of "Among the Meadow People," and "Forest People".
Illustrated by F. C. GORDON
[Illustration]
NEW YORK Copyright by E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 31
WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 1899

TO THE CHILDREN
Dear Little Friends:
I want to introduce the farmyard people to you, and to have you call
upon them and become better acquainted as soon as you can. Some of
them are working for us, and we surely should know them. Perhaps, too,
some of us are working for them, since that is the way in this delightful
world of ours, and one of the happiest parts of life is helping and being
helped.
It is so in the farmyard, and although there is not much work that the
people there can do for each other, there are many kind things to be
said, and even the Lame Duckling found that he could make the Blind
Horse happy when he tried. It is there as it is everywhere else, and I
sometimes think that although the farmyard people do not look like us
or talk like us, they are not so very different after all. If you had seen
the little Chicken who wouldn't eat gravel when his mother was
reproving him, you could not have helped knowing his thoughts even if
you did not understand a word of the Chicken language. He was
thinking, "I don't care! I don't care a bit! So now!" That was long since,
for he was a Chicken when I was a little girl, and both of us grew up
some time ago. I think I have always been more sorry for him because
when he was learning to eat gravel I was learning to eat some things

which I did not like; and so, you see, I knew exactly how he felt. But it
was not until afterwards that I found out how his mother felt.
That is one of the stories which I have been keeping a long time for you,
and the Chicken was a particular friend of mine. I knew him better than
I did some of his neighbors; yet they were all pleasant acquaintances,
and if I did not see some of these things happen with my own eyes, it is
just because I was not in the farmyard at the right time. There are many
other tales I should like to tell you about them, but one mustn't make
the book too fat and heavy for your hands to hold, so I will send you
these and keep the rest.
Many stories might be told about our neighbors who live out-of-doors,
and they are stories that ought to be told, too, for there are still boys
and girls who do not know that animals think and talk and work, and
love their babies, and help each other when in trouble. I knew one boy
who really thought it was not wrong to steal newly built birds'-nests,
and I have seen girls--quite large ones, too--who were afraid of Mice! It
was only last winter that a Quail came to my front door, during the very
cold weather, and snuggled down into the warmest corner he could find.
I fed him, and he stayed there for several days, and I know, and you
know, perfectly well that although he did not say it in so many words,
he came to remind me that I had not yet told you a Quail story. And
two of my little neighbors brought ten Polliwogs to spend the day with
me, so I promised then and there that the next book should be about
pond people and have a Polliwog story in it.
And now, good-bye! Perhaps some of you will write me about your
visits to the farmyard. I hope you will enjoy them very much, but be
sure you don't wear red dresses or caps when you call on the Turkey
Gobbler.
Your friend, CLARA DILLINGHAM PIERSON.
Stanton, Michigan, March 28, 1899.

CONTENTS
PAGE THE STORY THAT THE SWALLOW DIDN'T TELL 1
THE LAMB WITH THE LONGEST