she called them.
[Illustration: ALL HER CHILDREN LIKED TO VISIT GRANDMA.]
"But I must just tell you this, my dear, for the tu-lip-story al-ways
makes me think of it.
"There came a day, at last, when we had to send Har-vey to school.
Tom-my Short took him, with his green wool-len bag, slate, pen-cil,
and two cook-ies, just round the cor-ner to Miss Burt's school. Aft-er a
few weeks, Grand-pa Chase met the new pu-pil in the gar-den one day,
just as he came in from school.
"'Well, Har-vey' said Grandpa, 'I suppose you can spell al-most an-y
thing by this time!'
"'Yes, sir?' said Har-vey.
"'Can you spell rat?'
"'R-a-t, rat' said the small boy, with much pride.
"'Ver-y well, my boy. Now can you spell mouse?'
"Har-vey wrink-led up his fore-head and tried hard to think how it
could be done. Aft-er a few min-utes the child said, 'No, Grandpa, I
can't do it.'
"'What,' cried Grandpa Chase, 'you can spell a great rat and can't spell a
lit-tle bit of a mouse!'
"A-gain Har-vey thought hard, and then he said, 'Yes I can spell a big
rat, but I guess a spelt mouse is a great deal big-ger than a spelt rat!'"
CHEER UP!
[Illustration]
You do not like this weath-er, Ralph, But March is pass-ing by, We'll
sure-ly have bright days at last, With A-pril's laugh-ing sky.
CHILDREN'S WORK.
The Berk-ville Ham-let School pu-pils took much in-ter-est in the Fresh
Air Chil-dren who had been sent out to their vil-lage for sum-mer
out-ings. They had thought of ways in which mon-ey could be raised to
help a-long the good cause.
"Why could-n't we have some tab-leaux and oth-er things in our school
house on Sa-tur-day af-ter-noons in May?" asked Jen-nie Hill.
"Tom-my Burns would print the tickets and all the chil-dren in the
vil-lage will, I know, sell them."
So the mat-ter was talked ov-er, and all the peo-ple liked the plan so
much that the young folks soon be-gan to prac-tice their parts for the
first day.
Le-on and Ef-fie King were to wear old time cos-tumes, stand ver-y
still, and not speak. They made a pleas-ing tab-leau. There was a
plat-form in the school room, on the back of which were placed
ev-er-green trees. For some scenes a pho-tog-ra-pher's screens were
used for a back-ground.
[Illustration]
An-na Mor-ris ap-peared af-ter Le-on and Ef-fie. She made a pret-ty
pic-ture.
Al-lan Frost, in a clear, pleas-ant voice gave the name of each scene.
He was a boy in the Pri-ma-ry class. All liked to hear young Al-lan
speak. When he called "The Task," the cur-tain, which had been hung
a-cross the plat-form end of the room, was pulled aside, and there sat
Ann Green, the lar-gest girl in school look-ing as if she were hard at
work at the task of puzz-ling out some prob-lem.
[Illustration]
Bes-sie Burns said she would play she was a laun-dress. She did her
part well.
[Illustration]
The school chil-dren thought up what they would like to be. Hen-ry
Hard-ing a dark-eyed, black hair-ed boy said he thought he could get
him-self up to look like a pic-ture he seen of an East-ern Grass Sell-er.
So he was announced un-der that ti-tle. All thought he looked his part.
It would make too long a sto-ry to tell ev-er-y thing a-bout that show.
But the last scene was rath-er an odd one. One far-mer who lived out a
short dis-tance from the vil-lage, had an old-fash-ioned ma-chine which
had been in his cel-lar for a great man-y years. One of the school boys
knew of this queer ar-ti-cle and coaxed the loan of it for the show.
[Illustration]
Jer-ry Jar-vis, fath-er of one of the pu-pils, said that he had turned the
crank of that ma-chine time and time a-gain when he was a boy, and
that he was will-ing to go on the stage with it at that time if it would
help a-long the "Show," and raise mon-ey for the "Cause." So when the
clos-ing scene came Al-lan Frost called "The Grind-er!"
[Illustration]
The folks all en-joyed those Sa-tur-day af-ter-noons. The chil-dren tried
to va-ry the shows as much as they could. One day they gave a con-cert.
Once they sold home-made can-dy and cakes. Their "Col-o-ni-al Loan"
par-ty was much praised. The vil-lage had man-y treas-ures in old
chi-na, fur-ni-ture, can-dle sticks, kit-chen ar-ti-cles, pic-tures, guns,
swords, and clothes of old times.
[Illustration]
All were sur-prised at the ti-dy sum col-lect-ed and man-y a poor ci-ty
child re-joiced in the out-ing that mon-ey brought to them through the
Fresh Air So-ci-ety.
EGGS IN THE HAY MOW.
"Run out to the barn, An-nie and see if you can find some eggs. I mean
to make cake this morn-ing and I shall
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the
Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.