That sand-bank in the pasture was one of the nicest of our playhouses.
There was neither dust nor dirt in it—nothing but clean, fine sand, with
now and then a pebble. It was not high, so there was no danger of a
great mass of sand falling down on us two children.
The sand-bank was not very far from the little brook. Myra and I would
carry pailful after pailful of water from the brook to it, until we had
moistened a large quantity of sand. Sometimes we would cover our little
bare feet with the cool, wet sand, packing it just as close as we could.
Then gently, O, so gently, we would pull our feet out from under the
sand. The little “five-toed caves” as we used to call them, would show
just as plain as could be, where our little feet had been! We used to
catch little toads and put them into those little damp caves, but they
would soon hop out.
We used to make the nicest pies and cakes and cookies out of that lovely
wet sand. We used to wish our sand-dainties were fit to eat!
Oftentimes, when we were tired of cooking, we would go to work and lay
out a wonderful garden with tiny flower-beds and winding paths, out of
that wet sand. Some of those flower-beds were star-shaped, some were
round as a wheel, and some were square. We used to gather handfuls of
wild-flowers and stick them down in, until every tiny bed blossomed into
pink and blue and white and gold!
We used to make sand-preserves out there. The time and the patience that
we used up in filling narrow-necked bottles with sand! After a bottle
was well-filled and shaken down, we would catch up that bottle and run
down to the brook. We would wash the outside of that bottle until it
shone like cut-glass, and then we would pack it away in a hollow stump
that we called our preserve-closet.
We used to play a game that we called “Hop-scotch” out in the old
sand-bank. In this game, you mark the sand off into rather large
squares. Then hopping along on one foot, you try with your toe to push a
pebble from one square into another.
_Percia V. White._
[Illustration: THE SAND-BANK GARDEN.]
“HOW MAMA USED TO PLAY.”