Master Sunshine | Page 5

broad verandas always seemed like a palace to Master Sunshine. But best of all he loved the great stable where a prancing silver horse was always riding on the weather vane.
It was at the stable that he saw his friend Jacob, who was quite as wonderful in his knowledge of animals as Almira Jane.
It took a great deal of Master Sunshine's time just to repeat Jacob's stories to Almira Jane; and he noticed that whenever he began to tell Jacob about what Almira Jane said--Almira Jane was brought up on a Nova Scotia farm and knew everything about animals--his listener would stamp on the barn floor to show his approval, and would listen to every word.
The great stable was a very pleasant place these spring days. The horses were all so well groomed, their stalls were all so perfectly clean, and, in the barn beyond, the cows looked round from their place with such friendly eyes, Master Sunshine used to wish that every one in the village would come to admire the place and to talk with Jacob. He was sure that everyone who talked to Jacob would be kind to animals ever after.

CHAPTER III.
THE RAINY DAY.
The sky was all leaden and overcast when Master Sunshine woke up one morning. The fast-falling rain-drops were so big and so close together that it almost seemed as if some great sky-ocean was pouring down upon the earth. It was too wet for him to go to school, and he had to make up his mind to enjoy a quiet day in- doors.
Almira Jane put on her waterproof and rubbers, and attended to the hens and the geese; and in order to pay her back for doing his work, Master Sunshine polished the silver spoons and forks with whitening, and rubbed them with a chamois-skin until they fairly gleamed. Then after he had tidied up the wood-shed, and cut paper in a fancy pattern for the dresser shelves, he decided that he was a bit tired of doing things, and he curled up in the big crimson arm-chair by the dining-room window with a new story-book.
Presently Lucy's voice arose in a fretful wail.
Master Sunshine, I am sorry to say, shut his ears to her pitiful cry. He was so comfortable and cosey and the story-book was so interesting.
The wail became louder and louder. It was evident that Lucy was on her way down-stairs. In a moment she was in the room by his side, and by this time her wail had grown to a terrified scream.
"O Suns'ine! take zem kitty off!" she begged.
Truly enough his little sister was in great trouble. But a minute before Spry, the kitten, had strayed away from the mother-cat, and Lucy and she had got into mischief already.
Master Sunshine made haste to lift the kitten from Lucy's shoulder, where it had taken refuge; and he was very sorry to see that the sharp claws of the little paws had made their marks on her plump neck.
"Kiss it p'ease, and make it well," begged Lucy tearfully as she climbed on his knee; while the kitten, after looking nervously around, sought refuge in Master Sunshine's coat-pocket.
"Lucy was dwessin' kitty in dollie's clothes, and it went 'spitz!' and runned up her shoulder," wept Lucy.
Master Sunshine kissed the smarting neck, and cuddled the pet in his arms.
"Buzzer will slap kitty for biting sister wiz its finder nails," she begged.
"Brother will show sister how to be kind to kitty," he answered, as he drew the trembling ball of fur from its hiding-place, and stroked it with a tender hand. "Spry is not a dolly, and does not like to wear dollie's clothes. Lucy will rub her under her chin just above the white star on her breast, and she will sing a pretty cat-song to show how happy she is, and brother will show Lucy how to lift kitty by the loose skin about her neck. Lucy must play she is mother-cat whenever she plays with Spry."
And at the prospect of such a new and delightful game Lucy dried her eyes, and called him her "dee, dee Suns'ine."
And then, what do you suppose? Why, she just laid her tear-stained face up against his shoulder, and opened her rosy mouth in a great yawn, and dropped quietly off to sleep.
But Master Sunshine's thoughts were not quite so care-free as Lucy's. "Next time I must be a better brother," he said to himself; and when his mother came to carry the baby to her crib, he would not let her give him a word of praise. "I am too ashamed to tell you why, mother," he said; "but after this I mean to take better care of my little sister."
The rain kept falling steadily, and after dinner, when mamma had gone to lie down, and