dances and 'At homes,' And sit up very late. I'll never touch
rice-puddings then, But pastry eat, and cheese, And always do just what
I like And go just where I please.
"When I grow up I'll have no nurse, Nor yet a governess; And lessons
will not bother me When I grow up, I guess. I'll pay no heed to proper
nouns, Nor yet to mood nor tense"-- Here nurse put in: "When you
grow up Let's hope you'll have some sense!"
[Illustration]
THE TEA PARTY.
[Illustration]
Little Miss Betty has had a tea-party Everyone came with an appetite
hearty; Animals, dollies, and toys were invited; Bobby was good and
our Baby delighted; And when it was over they ran and asked mother If
they might to-morrow have just such another!
TOMMY THE TEASE.
"Here's a pie I found cooling on the bench under the pantry window!"
said Tom Sommers. "I'm going to eat it all myself!"
[Illustration]
"That is the cook's pie. I saw her making it," said wee George.
"Won't 'ou div me some pie?" asked little Ella.
"No, I won't give you one single bit. This pie is full of plums and juice,
I know. Ah! but it will have a good taste! No, Nancy, Susanna, Mariah
Anniah you shall not have even a taste of this sweet pie!"
"My name is'nt 'Ria Sannia' 'Ou're a bad boy. 'Ou call me names. 'Ou
won't div me any pie! 'Ou eat it all alone!"
"Well, now, this is too bad. Not a knife in any of my pockets! Happen
to have a jack-knife with you, Georgie?"
"No, I haven't any knife."
"What, a big boy like you and no jack-knife?"
"I'd like one, but folks say I'm too little to have one yet. But I'm going
to save all my candy money now and buy one for myself."
"Very well, no knife, no pie! It's getting late and I must be going along.
It'll take me some time to get there for I must walk slowly so as not to
spill a drop of this juicy pie. Good bye."
Saying this, Tom walked away with the pie.
Just then a loud and angry voice was heard shouting, "Where's that
pie?" The stout cook came rushing upon the scene, shaking her dish
cloth and rolling pin in the air. "Who's got that pie?" she screamed as
she ran around and around and back again to the same bench where she
had placed the pie to cool. What was her surprise, then, to see the very
same pie just where she had left it!
"Oh it's that bad boy, Tom Sommers, who has been playing this trick
on me!" she shouted, in a loud voice. "Just let me catch him!"
THE YOUNG LAMB.
One day when brother John came home from market he brought a baby
lamb for Maude.
"I thought you'd like this little playmate, sister, you seem to be alone so
much. This baby doesn't know how to nibble grass yet and you'll have
to get mamma to show you how to bring him up."
[Illustration]
Maude was delighted with her present. Her mother took a baby's
nurse-bottle and filled it with sweet new milk and in a very short time
Lambkin could take, through the rubber tube, all the milk his kind
friends would give him.
Maude and her pet made a pretty picture playing together in the
meadow.
Nora, who worked in the kitchen, used to sing an odd little song, some
of the words being,
"Little lamb, little lamb, Will you leave your old dam And sit with me
by the nursery fire? You shall have bread and milk, And a cushion of
silk, And a cradle as soft as a lamb could desire.
"No! no, little child I'd rather run wild And play all the day by the side
of my dam; For we love one another Like you and your mother And
she'd cry all the day for the loss of her lamb."
TROTTY'S LESSON.
"Now try to learn this, Trotty. Of course, you're little and don't know
much, but when folks ask you how old your brother is you can just say
'a whole hand old!'"
[Illustration]
"What for buver?"
"Well, it's because I'm just five years old! You won't have to learn to
count yet, but you take a short path and say 'a whole hand old!' Now
will you do it?"
"I will try!"
RUTH.
"Company coming to-morrow and not a crumb of cake in the house!"
said Mrs. Brown one morning. "Jane's gone and there's all the sweeping
to do, the baby to take care of, and three meals a day to get!"
[Illustration]
"Mother, mother dear," called Ruth from the next room, "do let me
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