Pages for Laughing Eyes | Page 5

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!
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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.
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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.
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Bes-sie Burns said she would play she was a laun-dress. She did her part well.
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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.
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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!"
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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.
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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 want four or five," said Mrs. Brown to her lit-tle daugh-ter, An-nie, who had been help-ing her moth-er in the kit-chen work.
Hunt-ing for hen's eggs was great fun for the chil-dren at Brown Farm. Some-times two of them would go out to-geth-er, and each would try to get more eggs than the oth-er, and be the first to reach the kit-chen with a cap or hat full.
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An-nie placed a short light lad-der a-gainst a high beam in the barn, climbed up and just as she reached the top, her bright eyes peep-ing in through the hay piled up on the barn-loft floor, she saw a nice hol-low place, some-thing like a small cave, where one wise bid-dy had scratched out a co-sy nest for her-self, and laid some five large eggs. The hen had gone out for a walk or for a lunch-eon, so An-nie took four of the eggs, put them in-to the crown of her hat,