history I want to tell you. My cousin is the Calla-lily and she has a
beautiful white gown which she wears. But she is striped as I am, and she
is a cousin, though she cares more for dress than I do, and looks very
stately and fine.
“I am more natural,” said Jack. “I’m a good sort of a chap. I like to
talk to my little friends and give them advice because I am very fond of
preaching.”
“He must be very fine,” the gnats said.
“How beautiful to give us advice,” the flies added.
And to himself Jack was saying: “The poor little insects, little do they
know me. I am not as fine as I make myself out to be. I should just say
I’m not.
“For I do not practice what I preach. I don’t believe in doing such a
foolish thing. That is, I preach to the little creatures and then I let
them come and see my pulpit—and then, it’s very, very seldom that I ever
let them out again.” Then Jack began to preach once more and gathered
about him more stupid and innocent little gnats and flies! But, of
course, as he is only a flower we can’t blame him too much.
JULY 23: The Tide
“Billie Brownie was talking to the High Tide as it came up over the
beach,” said daddy. “‘Don’t you ever work any faster or any slower?’
asked Billie Brownie.
“‘Certainly not,’ said the Tide. ‘Why should we?’
“‘It would be nice, I should think, to change some day and rush in very
suddenly, and then some other day stay way out on the beach and not come
in for hours and hours—long after you are due.’
“‘That would be very wrong,’ said the Tide. ‘We are helped in what we do
by two very noble creatures.’ And all the time the Tide was talking its
voice would get louder and louder, for all the waves were roaring and
making such a racket.
“‘Who are they?’ asked Billie Brownie.
“‘The Sun and the Moon,’ roared the Tide. ‘The Moon is three times more
important than the Sun—but the Sun is mighty helpful too. We do as they
say, you see. Twice every twenty-four hours of your time we come in
and go out. And we do this at such hours as the Sun and Moon wish. So
if people ask the Sun and Moon, or watch them for a time, they will be
able to tell just what we are going to do. And we never change the time
they’ve given us—never—NEVER!’ And the Tide bellowed this for all it was
worth.
“‘I wouldn’t keep such good time,’ said Billie Brownie, ‘no, not for any
creature—not even Mr. Sun or Mr. Moon. And yet I’m a great friend of
both.’
“‘Ah, you’re not such a friend as we are,’ said the Tide. ‘We have always
done as Mr. Moon said for years and years and years—too many for me to
remember.’
“‘But you might just as well be a clock and get wound up if you’re going
to keep such good time and do things just exactly when you’re supposed
to. It seems very foolish to me,’ and Billie Brownie put his head to one
side as he thought about it.
“‘Ah,’ said the Tide, ‘that’s just where you’re so wrong. A clock has to
be looked after. Some one has to wind it up. No one has to wind us up.
And a clock often gets out of order and goes to the clock-maker to be
mended. You never heard of the Tide going to a Tide Mender to be mended,
did you?’
“‘I never knew there was such a thing as a Tide Mender,’ said Billie
Brownie.
“‘There isn’t!’ said the Tide. ‘That’s just it. We don’t need one—for we
never get out of order. And no one has to worry about us or fuss about
us. We just do as Mr. Sun and Mr. Moon say—especially Mr. Moon, as I’ve
told you, for somehow,’ and the voice of the Tide grew lower, ‘Mr. Moon
has better judgment. I can whisper this to you now, for Mr. Sun has gone
to bed and won’t feel hurt! And now I must go out to the ocean again—for
I’ve been talking to you for hours.’”
JULY 24: Little Edith’s Garden
“‘Whatever shall I do?’ said little Edith to herself,” commenced daddy,
“‘I do want to have a garden so much and yet the snails eat it up!’
“While she was wondering like this a little voice whispered in her ear:
“‘Edith, Edith,’ it said.
“‘Yes,’ answered Edith looking about her. And then, seeing no one, said:
“‘Who are you? Where are you?’
“‘I’m the Fairy Queen,’ said the voice, ‘and you can’t see me because
I’ve put on my invisible robe—which no one can see but a Fairy. I’ve come
to talk to you. I know how you love your garden and that you’ve not been
able to make anything grow this summer. Listen!’ And a queer swishing
sound passed through the air.
“‘There!’ continued the Fairy Queen, ‘I have waved my invisible wand and
it will bring you luck. Do not plant any seeds for a week—then the snails
will think you have decided not to have any garden at all! It will be a
joke on them—but they have had enough feasts and now it is time for you
to have a garden!’
“In a short time Edith had real flowers, and her garden was more
beautiful than ever it had been, and often when she was working among the
flowers, she said half aloud:
“‘If the Fairy Queen is around me in her invisible robe, I want to thank
her, oh, so much, for my lovely garden.’”
JULY 25: The Earth Visits the Moon
“When Mr. Moon is ‘eclipsed,’ as they say, it means the earth gets in the
way, and when Mr. Sun is ‘eclipsed’ it means that Mr. Moon is in the way.
And that makes it dark—for an Eclipse is a shadow,” explained daddy.
“Mr. Moon was shining hard. He was very bright and the sky seemed to be
lighted up by him. All the stars were out and were twinkling with joy and
fun, for well they knew what was going to happen.
“Mr. Moon was also looking very fat and well! Goodness! but he was round
and big and jolly! He blinked one eye and then he winked with the other,
and he said to himself:
“‘The Earth is going to pay me a visit to-night. I am highly honored.
It’s not often that the earth comes my way—and that’s why I am all
dressed up in my best.’
“Pretty soon the grown-ups on the Earth saw a shadow come over part of
Mr. Moon’s face. Very, very slowly he grew darker, and the Earth people
all came out of doors to watch what was going to happen.
“‘I’m pretty important, I am,’ said Mr. Moon to two very tall pine trees.
And the pine trees whispered back in the slight, rustling breeze:
“‘Yes, Mr. Moon, you’re very important. And you show us off too. We look
handsome, and dark, and tall, when you throw your light over us.’
“‘Hush—’ said Mr. Moon. ‘The Earth is on its way.’
“And only half of Mr. Moon could be seen now. The other half was covered
up by a dark shadow.
“‘That’s the earth throwing its shadow on the moon,’ said the grownups to
each other. But up in the sky the Moon was saying:
“‘Well, how do you do, Mr. Earth? It’s a long time since I’ve seen you.
And how have you been all this time?’
“‘Well,’ said the Earth, as it cast its shadow over Mr. Moon still more,
‘I’ve been in my usual good health. I still am a pretty good and solid
soul, you know. I stand for so much too! I let folks walk all over me,
and still I never murmur in the least. I let the King of the Clouds pour
down on me—and Mr. Sun warms me up with his rays so that I begin to grow
thirsty again.
“‘And,’ the Earth continued, ‘sometimes the children dig me up—and I
don’t mind in the very least. It’s just my nature, I suppose!’
“‘Yes,’ said Mr. Moon, ‘you are a good-natured old soul.’
“‘Old?’ asked the Earth. ‘Why, every spring I am just as young and fresh
again as if I were not a minute old. Whatever do you mean, Mr. Moon?’
“‘That’s true,’ said Mr. Moon. ‘You certainly do come up younger every
spring—but you have been around a great many years.’
“‘It’s a good thing I have,’ laughed the Earth; ‘and now tell me how you
have been?’
“Mr. Moon was almost entirely covered by the Earth’s shadow as he began
his talk:
“‘I am shining as brightly as ever, and I still change my suit several
times a month. In fact, there’s not much difference in me—or in my life.
I do much the same things always. I’m what you might call a very sensible
old fellow. I do everything right on time, and enjoy myself hugely.’
“‘There, there,’ said the Earth. ‘I must be going again.’
“‘What short visits you pay,’ said Mr. Moon as he began to show his
brightness again.
“‘Do you know why I do that?’ whispered the Earth.
“‘No,’ said Mr. Moon, and he took a little walk along the sky.
“‘Because,’ said the Earth, ‘grown-ups think it’s a wonderful thing when
I call on you. I don’t let them get used to it—and so they think that
it’s very, very m-a-r-v-e-l-o-u-s! Look at all the Earth people, and then
you’ll agree with me.’
“And of course, true enough, down on the Earth, every one was looking at
the Eclipse.”
JULY 26: The Elephant’s Toothache
“The Elephant’s mouth was very much swollen,” said daddy, “and the Zoo
dentist said, ‘He has a very bad tooth, but we’ll fix this right away, so
he won’t have any more pain.’
“So they put something in the tooth and all around it so the elephant
wouldn’t feel any pain at all. It made it feel quite dull and the
throbbing which he had felt for two weeks went away.
“In a very few minutes, with the help of an instrument which made the
elephant shake a little nervously as he saw it (for he couldn’t imagine
what it might be), out came the tooth.
“‘There,’ said the Zoo dentist, ‘you will have no more pain.’
“In a few days the elephant was himself again. The soreness had all gone
away and he was eating once more—and eating the most delicious of dishes,
for the keeper said:
“‘I want to reward you all I can, as you’re the bravest creature I’ve
ever known, for you’ve had this toothache for some time and we never knew
it until your mouth became so swollen. Yet you never complained. And that
was why you haven’t been eating well lately.’”
JULY 27: The Potato Skins
“The potato skin is receiving fair treatment and justice at last,” said
the second potato skin to the first potato skin.
“What is justice?” asked the first potato skin.
“Justice,” said the second potato skin, “is being just and to be just is
to be fair. Now do you understand?”
“I do,” said the first potato skin. “Please go on with your story, and
forgive me for the interruption. I don’t know much about manners. I
haven’t been up in the world enough. The ground is no place for manners,
you know; at least I didn’t think so. And then our chief callers and
friends were the potato bugs. They’re not overly mannerly.”
“I will forgive you,” said the second potato skin. “For I don’t know that
I am mannerly myself.” The second potato skin had been trying to tell a
story.
“A great professor made a study of us and he decided we were not
poisonous, as some people have tried to make out, but that we were
healthful and good, and that for people who didn’t care much for the
taste of the skins, we could be ground very fine and cooked with cream,”
continued the second potato skin.
“Fine, fine,” said the first potato skin. “To be cooked with cream sounds
very nice indeed.”
“That is the way we’re going to be used,” said the second potato skin.
“And isn’t it wonderful to think professors study us and our good points?”
“It does sound mighty fine,” said the first potato skin. “Somehow one
doesn’t think of the two together—professors and potatoes—but it is nice
to think that we are high enough up to be the companions of professors.”
JULY 28: The Traveling Flowers
“A great, great, great many years ago, oh, so many, many, many years ago,
there were not so many big cities as there are now,” said Mother Nature
one day to her children.
“There was more room everywhere and people almost all had gardens and
flowers and could walk just a little distance and gather all the wild
flowers they wanted.
“But the cities grew up and somehow, without meaning to, I’m sure, they
pushed the flowers out of the way.
“Many of the people missed the flowers and the ferns and the shrubs and
the Nature children. But they couldn’t do the work they had to in the
city and have gardens, too, for there wasn’t any room in the city for the
gardens.
“Well, when the spring-time came along one year, after so many cities
had grown bigger and bigger and so many people had gone to live in the
cities, the Nature children called and said:
“‘Mother Nature, the Dream King has told us that many, many people
from the cities will be out in the country places for holidays and for
week-ends this spring.
“‘So we have thought up a plan. You see, the Dream King tells us that
every once in a while the people get very tired from all the business
they must do and all the studying they must do, too.
“‘So we’ve decided we would look our very best all the time, so that when
the people from the cities come out to see us they may pick some of us
and take us home with them so we’ll cheer them up.’
“I told them I thought their idea was wonderful. And ever since then the
flowers have all looked their best and the shrubs have all looked their
best and the ferns have all looked their best, so they could cheer up the
city people when they were taken back after holidays.
“So when any of you are picked and carried to the cities, keep your
prettiest and freshest smiles on your faces.”
And they all promised Mother Nature they would.
JULY 29: The Visitors
“A little girl named Lillian,” said daddy, “had a very sore throat and
could only swallow soft foods.
“‘I think I will call my desserts my visitors,’ she said one day, ‘for I
will have to have some make-believe games now that I have to be in bed a
little while longer.’
“So when lunch time came and there was cornstarch on her tray, she would
say: ‘Welcome, Lord Cornstarch! How is Your Highness to-day? Of course
you can’t talk to me. But I can talk to you, and I will do you the great
honor due one of your rank and station—that is, I will eat you!’ Then she
would eat her dessert of cornstarch until it was all gone.
“When supper time came and she had cornstarch again, she would say:
‘Well, I am glad to see you, Lady Cornstarch. How is Your Highness this
fine evening? I don’t suppose Your Ladyship cares to have a little chat,
but I am sure Your Ladyship wouldn’t mind being eaten, eh?’ And so Lady
Cornstarch would disappear.
“On jelly day she would greet her lunch time jelly by saying: ‘Glad to
see you, Prince Jelly. It’s nice that you are such a pleasant prince and
will slip down so easily. I wouldn’t like it at all if you were horrid
and stiff, as I imagine some princes might be.’
“Her supper jelly she would greet in this fashion:
“‘Good evening, Princess Jelly, how are you this evening? I hope your
taste is very fine and that I will enjoy you.’ And then she would eat
Princess Jelly.
“And it made the time she had to spend in bed pass much more quickly this
way.”
JULY 30: The Little Bumblebee’s Mistake
“The fairies had a fancy-dress ball last night,” commenced daddy.
“They all went as different flowers. One little fairy was dressed so
she looked like a bright red nasturtium, another was dressed as a pink
rambler rose, another as a yellow golden-glow, another as a pansy,
another as a little forget-me-not, and all of them, in short, in lovely
costumes like flowers.
“The Fairy Queen wore the costume of the American Beauty Rose, and her
wand was one tall, tall rose, very full and big and splendid.
“They had dancing and games and all the elves, the brownies and many
of the wood creatures had been invited. But one of the funniest things
happened you can imagine. Some of the fairies had dressed themselves as
honey-suckles. They kept together and danced together so they would look
like a vine. Others had dressed as a vine of morning-glories.
“Pretty soon a buzzing was heard. It was louder than the band of crickets
they had engaged for the music; it was louder than the sounds that came
from the laughter of the fairies.
“You see, nobody had thought of such a thing happening. The bumble-bees
and the humming birds, who had all gone to sleep, had in their dreams
imagined they saw lovely morning glories still awake and lovely
honey-suckles all over the vines.
“One little bumble-bee went to his smaller brother and nudged him, saying,
“‘Oh, look over there; morning-glories!’
“The other little bumble-bee was about to turn over and go to sleep, for
he had scarcely so much as peeped to see, when he, too, suddenly noticed
all the morning-glories. They awoke all the bumble-bees far and near and
made so much fuss and noise that they woke up the humming-birds, who
always notice what the bumble-bees are up to.
“Of course the humming-birds immediately spied the honey-suckles, and you
should have seen them scamper.
“When the fairies realized what had happened they almost lost their
balance in the dances, for they shook all over with laughter.
“As the bumble-bees and the humming-birds got nearer they, too, saw that
they had made a mistake, but the fairies at once called out,
“‘Come to the party and dance, too, and we will give you honey, for we
are having it for supper. We couldn’t give a ball and dress like flowers
without having flower-honey for supper.’
“And this delighted them all.”
[Illustration: “AS THE BUMBLE-BEES GOT NEARER THEY, TOO, SAW THEY HAD
MADE A MISTAKE”—_Page 182_]
JULY 31: Ripe Raspberries
“Did you hear the great news?” asked one of the raspberry bushes of
another bush.
“No, what is the great news?” asked the other raspberry bush.
“There is going to be a great raspberry hunt to-day,” the first raspberry
bush said.
“Well, if they see us they won’t have to hunt very far,” the second
raspberry bush said.
“That is so,” answered the first raspberry bush, “and they know we’re
here. We let some of our messengers tell them. The only thing is they are
not sure whether or not we are ripe, and so they will be delighted when
they find how easily we come off the bushes. For when we’re ripe we come
off easily and when we’re not ripe we stick on and show we aren’t ripe
enough to come off.”
AUGUST 1: The Brave Mocking Bird
“I have a true story to tell you this evening, children,” said daddy, “of
a mocking bird.
“Mr. Mitchell Mocking Bird was his name and he was a pet in a large
family of children. They all loved him and he could speak a good many
words, and he could sing like ever so many birds. He was allowed out
of his cage, too. One night Mitchell began to scream. How he did yell!
Piercing yells went all through the house! And he hurried from one
bedroom to another. He awoke the mother and daddy of the children first
and then he woke up the children.
“‘Come!’ he called. It was a word he could say, and he kept repeating it
over and over again.
“‘Come! Come! Come!’ And they all hurried, one after the other, and
followed the mocking bird downstairs.
“What should they see but a tiny blaze, which every few minutes seemed to
grow and splutter and burst into a bigger flame.
“‘Water! Every one get water!’ shouted the children’s daddy, and the
mocking bird kept calling:
“‘Come!’
“They were all thoroughly frightened but they kept their wits about them
and kept filling buckets and jugs with water which they poured over the
flame.
“After a little while it was out. The Mocking Bird looked very tired.
His eyes blinked as if he could hardly keep awake, and it was just then
that every one of them noticed him.
“‘Mitchell, you have saved the house and our lives. That fire would have
spread and goodness knows what would have happened,’ said their daddy.
‘What a fine, brave bird you are.’
“And the children stroked Mitchell and said:
“‘Fine, brave bird. Daddy says so, too! Our lovely Mitchell Mocking Bird.’
“Mitchell was almost asleep. The fire was out. He had finished his work.
He was ready to rest now. He didn’t care about praise. But he was happy
that they all loved him so. And how he cared for them. He had saved them
and they knew it. He was very happy. And in his own bird way he had
thought all this out.
“But to the great surprise of them all, Mitchell said a word they had
never known he could say, but it was just the right one. ‘Safe, all
safe,’ said Mitchell, as he went to sleep.”
AUGUST 2: The Milkweed Plants
Now the milkweed plant is rather thick with a hollow center and through
this center the white milk goes which gives the plant its food. The milk
doesn’t care for the air and so that is why the milk stains our hands
when we pick the plants.
The leaves are large and of a yellow, gray-green color, while the flowers
which grow in clusters are of a pink-lavender shade.
But the little pods filled with seeds are the things the children like
and if you see a milkweed plant just look at the little pods.
“I must have milk to drink and to make me strong,” said Milly Milkweed.
“So must I,” said Mamie Milkweed.
“And not only does it make us strong,” said Milly, “but it gives strength
to the butterflies which feast upon us, for if we are strong and
delicious it makes them strong and beautiful.
“Ah,” said Mamie, “it’s fine to have butterflies and children for
friends, and to have our very own milkman always with us. We’re never
forgotten in the early mornings by any possible accident. No, we always
have our milkman and we have friends.”
AUGUST 3: Telephone Peas
“Hello, Telephone Peas and String-Beans,” said Lord Lettuce. “Lady
Lettuce and the Lettuce youngsters are coming up, too, and there are
going to be lots of crops of us. We make a fine salad, we’re so young and
tender and fresh. Seems to me, Telephone Peas, you hurried me up. You
know this is our second crop. We’ve been here before. But I do believe it
was your very name that hurried me.
“I heard you say it and I acted as my relatives say people do when they
hear the telephone. I’ve even heard that they’ve left the salad on their
plates and have answered the telephone before they ate their salad. Yes,
your very name and saying it must have hurried us.”
“Well,” said the Telephone Peas, “we feel up to date. We don’t know that
there is any special reason for our name, but we have grown to like it
mighty well. We’re supposed to be a large, good kind, too; in fact, one
of the best there are.”
“Dear me,” said one of the String-Beans, “I wish some one would call our
family the Airplane String-Beans or something like that. Or perhaps we
might be called the Submarine String-Beans.”
“There wouldn’t be much sense to that,” said the Potato, almost ready to
eat, “for you are up on vines. Now we might have that name because we’re
in the ground, though it is true we are not under the water.”
And the garden vegetables all agreed that that was true but that the
Telephone Peas had a fine family name in reality.
AUGUST 4: The Harebell Umbrellas
“The musk-ox,” said daddy, “is prepared for the rain by the coarse hair
which grows on top of his nice, soft hair. This coarse hair, as you know,
catches the rain and then he shakes it all off so that his body doesn’t
get wet.
“The umbrella bird can put up some of his feathers just as people put up
their umbrellas and that protects him from the rain.
“Both the great big musk-ox and the little umbrella bird are very proud
that they always have their rain protectors with them, and they have
very little use for people who forget their umbrellas and borrow other
people’s and then forget to return them.
“Of course the musk-ox and the umbrella bird can’t very well lend their
umbrellas because they don’t carry them around by the beak or front paw,
but instead have their umbrellas attached to them.
“But they aren’t the only creatures to be so careful about the rain, that
is, there are some flowers who are just as careful, and the harebell,
of which I am going to tell you, sees that none of its family will ever
drown.
“Now, the harebell family of flowers are blue in color. The flowers grow
on thin, rather tall stems, and when the flowers are in bud they grow
very straight and stand right up. When the tiny buds burst into flowers,
if they stayed straight up, as they stand when they are buds, every time
the rain came it would fill the little flowers and completely drown them,
and make them droop forever.
“The little blue petals aren’t strong enough to stand the rain, and the
flowers are shaped so the rain would come right into them and fill them
up—for the harebells are like little bells. So they drop their little
heads just before they open and then the rain can’t hurt them.”
AUGUST 5: A Children’s Circus
“This way to the big show,” some children were shouting. “Come right
along,” they said. “This is the way to see all the wonders of the age.
Look at the Frog-Child, the Snake-Lady, the Toad-Man, the Turtle Babies.”
All the children went in the direction from which the shouts and orders
were given.
The children who were shouting were very much excited. “Admission to the
show, ten cents,” they kept saying. “It’s the most wonderful show in the
world.”