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THE STORY HOUR
A BOOK FOR THE HOME AND THE KINDERGARTEN
By Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith
Therefore ear and heart open to the genuine story teller, as flowers
open to the spring sun and the May rain.
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION. Kate Douglas Wiggin
PREFACE. Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith
THE ORIOLE'S NEST. Kate Douglas Wiggin
DICKY SMILY'S BIRTHDAY. Kate Douglas Wiggin
AQUA; OR, THE WATER BABY. Kate Douglas Wiggin
MOUFFLOU. Adapted from Ouida by Nora A. Smith
BENJY IN BEASTLAND. Adapted from Mrs. Ewing by Kate Douglas Wiggin and
Nora A. Smith
THE PORCELAIN STOVE. Adapted from Ouida by Kate Douglas Wiggin
THE BABES IN THE WOOD. E. S. Smith
THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS. Nora A. Smith
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY. Nora A. Smith
LITTLE GEORGE WASHINGTON. Part I. Nora A. Smith
GREAT GEORGE WASHINGTON. Part II. Nora A. Smith
THE MAPLE-LEAF AND THE VIOLET. Nora A. Smith
MRS. CHINCHILLA. Kate Douglas Wiggin
A STORY OF THE FOREST. Nora A. Smith
PICCOLA. Nora A. Smith
THE CHILD AND THE WORLD. Kate Douglas Wiggin
WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL. Kate Douglas Wiggin
FROEBEL'S BIRTHDAY. Nora A. Smith
INTRODUCTION.
Story-telling, like letter-writing, is going out of fashion. There are
no modern Scheherezades, and the Sultans nowadays have to be amused in
a different fashion. But, for that matter, a hundred poetic pastimes
of leisure have fled before the relentless Hurry Demon who governs this
prosaic nineteenth century. The Wandering Minstrel is gone, and the
Troubadour, and the Court of Love, and the King's Fool, and the Round
Table, and with them the Story-Teller.
“Come, tell us a story!” It is the familiar plea of childhood. Unhappy
he who has not been assailed with it again and again. Thrice miserable
she who can be consigned to worse than oblivion by the scathing
criticism, “She doesn't know any stories!” and thrice blessed she who
is recognized at a glance as a person likely to be full to the brim of
them.
There are few preliminaries and no formalities when the Person with a
Story is found. The motherly little sister stands by the side of her
chair, two or three of the smaller fry perch on the arms, and the baby
climbs up into her lap (such a person always has a capacious lap), and
folds his fat hands placidly. Then there is a deep sigh of blissful
expectation and an expressive silence, which means, “Now we are ready,
please; and if you would be kind enough to begin it with 'Once upon a
time,' we should be much obliged; though of course we understand that
all the stories in the world can't commence that way, delightful as it
would be.”
The Person with a Story smiles obligingly (at least it is to be hoped
that she does), and retires into a little corner of her brain, to
rummage there for something just fitted to the occasion. That same
little corner is densely populated, if she is a lover of children. In
it are all sorts of heroic dogs, wonderful monkeys, intelligent cats,
naughty kittens; virtues masquerading seductively as fairies, and vices
hiding in imps; birds agreeing and disagreeing in their little nests,
and inevitable small boys in the act of robbing them; busy bees laying
up their winter stores, and idle butterflies disgracefully neglecting
to do the same; and then a troop of lost children, disobedient children,
and lazy, industrious, generous, or heedless ones, waiting to furnish
the thrilling climaxes. The Story-Teller selects a hero or heroine
out of this motley crowd,--all longing to be introduced to Bright-Eye,
Fine-Ear, Kind-Heart, and Sweet-Lips,--and speedily the drama opens.
Did Rachel ever have such an audience? I trow not. Rachel never had tiny
hands snuggling into hers in “the very best part of the story,” nor was
she near enough her hearers to mark the thousand shades of expression
that chased each other across their faces,--supposing they had any
expression, which is doubtful. Rachel never saw dimples lurking in the
ambush of rosy cheeks, and popping in and out in such a distracting
manner that she felt like punctuating her discourse with kisses! Her
dull, conventional, grown-up hearers bent a little forward in their
seats, perhaps, and compelled by her magic power laughed and cried in
the right places; but their eyes never shone with that starry lustre
that we see in the eyes of happy children,--a lustre that is dimmed,
alas, in after years. Their eyes still see visions, but the “shadows
of the prison house” have fallen about us, and the things which we have
seen we “now can see no more!”
If you chance to be the Person with a Story, you sit like a queen on her
throne surrounded by her loyal subjects; or like an unworthy sun with a
group of flowers turning their faces towards you. Inspired by breathless
attention, you try ardently to do your very best. It seems to you that
you could never endure a total failure, and you hardly see how you could
bear, with any sort of equanimity, even the vacant gaze or restless
movement that would bespeak a vagrant interest. If you are a novice,
perhaps the frightful idea crosses your mind, “What if one of
these children should slip out of the room?” Or, still more tragic
possibility, suppose they should look you in the eye and remark with the
terrible candor of infancy, “We do not like this story!” But no; you
are more fortunate. The tale is told, and you are greeted with sighs of
satisfaction and with the instantaneous request, “Tell it again!” That
is the encore of the Story-Teller,--“Tell it again! No, not another
story; the same one over again, please!” for “what novelty is worth
that sweet monotony where everything is known, and loved because it is
known?” No royal accolade could be received with greater gratitude. You
endeavor to let humility wait upon self-respect; but when you discover
that the children can scarcely be dragged from your fascinating
presence, crying like Romeo for death rather than banishment, and that
the next time you appear they make a wild dash from the upper regions,
and precipitate themselves upon you with the full impact of their
several weights “multiplied into their velocity,” you cannot help
hugging yourself to think the good God has endowed you sufficiently to
win the love and admiration of such keen observers and merciless little
critics.
Now this charming little drama takes place in somebody's nursery corner
at twilight, when you are waiting for “that cheerful tocsin of the
soul, the dinner-bell,” or around somebody's fireside just before the
children's bedtime; but the same scene is enacted every few days in the
presence of the fresh-hearted, childlike kindergartner, of all women the
likeliest to find the secret of eternal youth. She chooses the story as
one of the vessels in which she shall carry the truth to her circle
of little listeners, and you will never hear her say, like the needy
knife-grinder, “Story? God bless you, I have none to tell, sir!”
If the group chances to be one of bright, well-born, well-bred
youngsters, the opportunity to inspire and instruct is one of the most
effective and valuable that can come to any teacher. On the other hand,
if the circle happens to be one of little ragamuffins, Arabs, scrips and
scraps of vagrant humanity (sometimes scalawags and sometimes
angels), born in basements and bred on curbstones, then believe me, my
countrymen, there is a sight worth seeing, a scene fit for a painter. It
might be a pleasant satire upon our national hospitality if the artist
were to call such a picture “Young America,” for comparatively few
distinctively American faces would be found in his group of portraits.
Make a mental picture, dear reader, of the ring of listening children in
a San Francisco free kindergarten, for it would be difficult to gather
so cosmopolitan a company anywhere else: curly yellow hair and rosy
cheeks ... sleek blonde braids and calm blue eyes ... swarthy faces and
blue-black curls ... woolly little pows and thick lips ... long, arched
noses and broad, flat ones. There you will see the fire and passion
of the Southern races and the self-poise, serenity, and sturdiness of
Northern nations. Pat is there, with a gleam of humor in his eye ...
Topsy, all smiles and teeth ... Abraham, trading tops with little
Isaac, next in line ... Hans and Gretchen, phlegmatic and dependable
... Francois, never still for an instant ... Christina, rosy, calm, and
conscientious, and Duncan, canny and prudent as any of his clan.
What an opportunity for amalgamation of races and for laying the
foundation of American citizenship! for the purely social atmosphere of
the kindergarten makes it a school of life and experience. Imagine such
a group hanging breathless upon your words, as you recount the landing
of the Pilgrims, or try to paint the character of George Washington
in colors that shall appeal to children whose ancestors have known
Napoleon, Cromwell, and Bismarck, Peter the Great, Garibaldi, Bruce, and
Robert Emmett.
To such an audience were the stories in his little book told; and the
lines that will perhaps seem commonplace to you glow for us with a
“light that never was on sea or land;” for “the secret of our emotions
never lies in the bare object, but in its subtle relations to our own
past.”
As we turn the pages, radiant faces peep between the words; the echo of
childish laughter rings in our ears and curves our lips with its happy
memory; there isn't a single round O in all the chapters but serves as
a tiny picture-frame for an eager child's face! The commas say, “Isn't
there any more?” the interrogation points ask, “What did the boy do
then?” the exclamation points cry in ecstasy, “What a beautiful story!”
and the periods sigh, “This is all for to-day.”
At this point--where the dog Moufflou returns to his little master--we
remember that Carlotty Griggs clapped her ebony hands, and shrieked in
transport, “I KNOWED HE'D come! _I_ KNOWED he'd come!”
Here is the place where we remarked impressively, “A lie, children, is
the very worst thing in the world!” whereupon Billy interrogated, with
wide eyes and awed voice, “IS IT WORSE THAN A RAILROAD CROSSING?” And
there is a sentence in the story of the “Bird's Nest” sacred to the
memory of Tommy's tear!--Tommy of the callous conscience and the marble
heart. Tommy's dull eye washed for one brief moment by the salutary
tear! Truly the humble Story-Teller has not lived in vain. Sing, ye
morning stars, together, for this is the spot where Tommy cried!
If you would be the Person with a Story, you must not only have one to
tell, but you must be willing to learn how to tell it, if you wish to
make it a “rememberable thing” to children. The Story-Teller, unlike the
poet, is made as well as born, but he is not made of all stuffs nor in
the twinkling of an eye. In this respect he is very like the Ichneumon
in the nonsense rhyme:&&
“There once was an idle Ichneumon
Who thought he could learn to play Schumann;
But he found, to his pains,
It took talent and brains,
And neither possessed this Ichneumon.”
To be effective, the story in the kindergarten should always be told,
never read; for little children need the magnetism of eye and smile as
well as the gesture which illuminates the strange word and endows it
with meaning. The story that is told is always a thousand times more
attractive, real, and personal than anything read from a book.
Well-chosen, graphically told stories can be made of distinct educative
value in the nursery or kindergarten. They give the child a love
of reading, develop in him the germ, at least, of a taste for good
literature, and teach him the art of speech. If they are told in simple,
graceful, expressive English, they are a direct and valuable object
lesson in this last direction.
The ear of the child becomes used to refined intonations, and slovenly
language will grow more and more disagreeable to him. The kindergartner
cannot be too careful in this matter. By the sweetness of her tone and
the perfection of her enunciation she not only makes herself a worthy
model for the children, but she constantly reveals the possibilities of
language and its inner meaning.
“The very brooding of a voice on a word,” says George Macdonald, “seems
to hatch something of what is in it.”
Stories help a child to form a standard by which he can live and grow,
for they are his first introduction into the grand world of the ideal in
character.
“We live by Admiration, Hope, and Love; And even as these are well and
wisely fixed, In dignity of being we ascend.”
The child understands his own life better, when he is enabled to compare
it with other lives; he sees himself and his own possibilities reflected
in them as in a mirror.
They also aid in the growth of the imaginative faculty, which is
very early developed in the child, and requires its natural food.
“Imagination,” says Dr. Seguin, “is more than a decorative attribute
of leisure; it is a power in the sense that from images perceived and
stored it sublimes ideals.” “If I were to choose between two great
calamities for my children,” he goes on to say, “I would rather have
them unalphabetic than unimaginative.”
There is a great difference of opinion concerning the value of fairy
stories. The Gradgrinds will not accept them on any basis whatever, but
they are invariably so fascinating to children that it is certain they
must serve some good purpose and appeal to some inherent craving in
child-nature. But here comes in the necessity of discrimination.
The true meaning of the word “faerie” is spiritual, but many stories
masquerade under that title which have no claim to it. Some universal
spiritual truth underlies the really fine old fairy tale; but there
can be no educative influence in the so-called fairy stories which
are merely jumbles of impossible incidents, and which not unfrequently
present dishonesty, deceit, and cruelty in attractive or amusing guise.
When the fairy tale carries us into an exquisite ideal world, where the
fancy may roam at will, creating new images and seeing truth ever in new
forms, then it has a pure and lovely influence over children, who are
natural poets, and live more in the spirit and less in the body than
we. The fairy tale offers us a broad canvas on which to paint our
word-pictures. There are no restrictions of time or space; the world
is ours, and we can roam in it at will; for spirit, there, is ever
victorious over matter.
“Once upon a time,” saith the Story-Teller, “there was a beautiful
locust tree, that bent its delicate fans and waved its creamy blossoms
in the sunshine, and laughed because its flowers were so lovely and
fragrant and the world was so fresh and green in its summer dress.”
“It's queer for a tree to laugh,” said Bright-Eye.
“But queerer if it didn't laugh, with such lovely blossoms hanging all
over it,” replied Fine-Ear.
Everything is real to the happy child. Life is a sort of fairy garden,
where he wanders as in a dream. “He can make abstraction of whatever
does not fit into his fable; and he puts his eyes into his pocket just
as we hold our noses in an unsavory lane.”
Stories offer a valuable field for instruction, and for introducing in
simple and attractive form much information concerning the laws of plant
and flower and animal life.
A story of this kind, however, must be made as well as told by an
artist; for in the hands of a bungler it is quite as likely to be a
failure as a success. It must be compounded with the greatest care,
and the scientific facts must be generously diluted and mixed in small
proportions with other and more attractive elements, or it will be
rejected by the mental stomach; or, if received in one ear, will be
unceremoniously ushered from the other with an “Avaunt! cold fact! What
have thou and I in common!”
Did you ever tell a story of this kind and watch its effect upon
children? Did you ever note that fatal moment when it BEGAN to BEGIN to
dawn upon the intelligence of the dullest member of your flock that your
narrative was a “whited sepulchre,” and that he was being instructed
within an inch of his life?
“Treat me at least with honesty, my good woman!” he cries in his spirit.
“Read me lessons if you will, but do not make a pretense of amusing me
at the same moment!”
This obvious attitude of criticism is very disagreeable to you, but
never mind, it will be a salutary lesson. Did you think, O clumsy
visitor in childhood land, that simply because you called your stuffed
dolls “Prince” and “Princess” you could conduct them straight through
the mineral kingdom, and allow them to converse with all the metals with
impunity? Nest time make your scientific fact an integral part of the
story, and do not try to introduce too much knowledge in one dose. All
children love Nature and sympathize with her (or if they do not, “then
despair of them, O Philanthropy!”), and all stories that bring them
nearer to the dear mother's heart bring them at the same time nearer to
God; therefore lead them gently to a loving observation of
“The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun; the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods; rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green.”
Stories bring the force of example to bear upon children in the very
best possible way. Here we can speak to the newly awakened soul and
touch it to nobler issues. This can be done with very little of that
abstract moralizing which is generally so ineffective. A moral “lugged
in” by the heels, so to speak, without any sense of perspective on the
part of the Story-Teller, can no more incline a child to nobler living
than cold victuals can serve as a fillip to the appetite. The facts
themselves should suffice to exert the moral influence; the deeds should
speak louder than the words, and in clearer, fuller tones. At the end of
such a story, “Go thou and do likewise” sounds in the child's heart, and
a new throb of tenderness and aspiration, of desire to do, to grow, and
to be, stirs gently there and wakes the soul to higher ideals. In such a
story the canting, vapid, or didactic little moral, tacked like a tag on
the end, for fear we shall not read the lesson aright, is nothing short
of an insult to the better feelings. It used to be very much in vogue,
but we have learned better nowadays, and we recognize (to paraphrase
Mrs. Whitney's bright speech) that we have often vaccinated children
with morality for fear of their taking it the natural way.
It is a curious fact that children sympathize with the imaginary woes
of birds and butterflies and plants much more readily than with the
sufferings of human beings; and they are melted to tears much more
quickly by simple incidents from the manifold life of nature, than by
the tragedies of human experience which surround them on every side.
Robert Louis Stevenson says in his essay on “Child's Play,” “Once, when
I was groaning aloud with physical pain, a young gentleman came into the
room and nonchalantly inquired if I had seen his bow and arrow. He made
no account of my groans, which he accepted, as he had to accept so
much else, as a piece of the inexplicable conduct of his elders. Those
elders, who care so little for rational enjoyment, and are even the
enemies of rational enjoyment for others, he had accepted without
understanding and without complaint, as the rest of us accept the scheme
of the universe.” Miss Anna Buckland quotes in this connection a story
of a little boy to whom his mother showed a picture of Daniel in the
lions' den. The child sighed and looked much distressed, whereupon his
mother hastened to assure him that Daniel was such a good man that God
did not let the lions hurt him. “Oh,” replied the little fellow, “I was
not thinking of that; but I was afraid that those big lions were going
to eat all of him themselves, and that they would not give the poor
little lion down in the corner any of him!”
It is well to remember the details with which you surrounded your
story when first you told it, and hold to them strictly on all other
occasions. The children allow you no latitude in this matter; they
draw the line absolutely upon all change. Woe unto you, scribes and
Pharisees, if you speak of Jimmy when “his name was Johnny;” or if, when
you are depicting the fearful results of disobedience, you lose Jane in
a cranberry bog instead of the heart of a forest! Personally you do not
care much for little Jane, and it is a matter of no moment to you where
you lost her; but an error such as this undermines the very foundations
of the universe in the children's minds. “Can Jane be lost in two
places?” they exclaim mentally, “or are there two Janes, and are they
both lost? because if so, it must be a fatality to be named Jane.”
Perez relates the following incident: “A certain child was fond of a
story about a young bird, which, having left its nest, although its
mother had forbidden it to do so, flew to the top of a chimney, fell
down the flue into the fire, and died a victim to his disobedience. The
person who told the story thought it necessary to embellish it from his
own imagination. 'That's not right,' said the child at the first change
which was made, 'the mother said this and did that.' His cousin, not
remembering the story word for word, was obliged to have recourse to
invention to fill up gaps. But the child could not stand it. He slid
down from his cousin's knees, and with tears in his eyes, and indignant
gestures, exclaimed, 'It's not true! The little bird said, coui, coui,
coui, coui, before he fell into the fire, to make his mother hear; but
the mother did not hear him, and he burnt his wings, his claws, and his
beak, and he died, poor little bird.' And the child ran away, crying
as if he had been beaten. He had been worse than beaten; he had been
deceived, or at least he thought so; his story had been spoiled by being
altered.” So seriously do children for a long time take fiction for
reality.
If you find the attention of the children wandering, you can frequently
win it gently back by showing some object illustrative of your story, by
drawing a hasty sketch on a blackboard, or by questions to the children.
You sometimes receive more answers than you bargained for; sometimes
these answers will be confounded with the real facts; and sometimes they
will fall very wide of the mark.
I was once telling the exciting tale of the Shepherd's Child lost in
the mountains, and of the sagacious dog who finally found him. When I
reached the thrilling episode of the search, I followed the dog as he
started from the shepherd's hut with the bit of breakfast for his little
master. The shepherd sees the faithful creature, and seized by a sudden
inspiration follows in his path. Up, up the mountain sides they climb,
the father full of hope, the mother trembling with fear. The dog rushes
ahead, quite out of sight; the anxious villagers press forward in hot
pursuit. The situation grows more and more intense; they round a little
point of rocks, and there, under the shadow of a great gray crag, they
find&&
“What do you suppose they found?”
“FI' CENTS!!” shouted Benny in a transport of excitement. “BET YER THEY
FOUND FI' CENTS!!”
You would imagine that such a preposterous idea could not find favor in
any sane community; but so altogether seductive a guess did this appear
to be, that a chorus of “Fi' cents!” “Fi' cents!” sounded on every side;
and when the tumult was hushed, the discovery of an ordinary flesh and
blood child fell like an anti-climax on a public thoroughly in love
with its own incongruities. Let the psychologist explain Benny's mental
processes; we prefer to leave them undisturbed and unclassified.
If you have no children of your own, dear Person with a Story, go into
the highways and by-ways and gather together the little ones whose
mothers' lips are dumb; sealed by dull poverty, hard work, and constant
life in atmospheres where graceful fancies are blighted as soon as they
are born. There is no fireside, and no chimney corner in those crowded
tenements. There is no silver-haired grandsire full of years and wisdom,
with memory that runs back to the good old times that are no more. There
is no cheerful grandame with pocket full of goodies and a store of dear
old reminiscences all beginning with that enchanting phrase, “When I was
a little girl.”
Brighten these sordid lives a little with your pretty thoughts, your
lovely imaginations, your tender pictures. Speak to them simply, for
their minds grope feebly in the dim twilight of their restricted lives.
The old, old stories will do; stories of love and heroism and sacrifice;
of faith and courage and fidelity. Kindle in tired hearts a gentler
thought of life; open the eyes that see not and the ears that hear not;
interpret to them something of the beauty that has been revealed to you.
You do not need talent, only sympathy, “the one poor word that includes
all our best insight and our best love.”
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.
PREFACE.
The fourteen little stories in this book are not offered as a collection
ample enough to satisfy all needs of the kindergartner.
Such a collection should embrace representative stories of all
classes--narrative, realistic, imaginative, scientific, and historical,
as well as brief and simple tales for the babies.
An experience of twelve years among kindergartners, however, has shown
us that there is room for a number of books like this modest example;
containing stories which need no adaptation or arrangement; which are
ready for the occasion, and which have been thoroughly tried before
audience after audience of children.
The three adaptations, “Benjy in Beast-Land,” “Moufflou,” and the
“Porcelain Stove,” have been made as sympathetically as possible. Their
introduction needs no apology, for they are exquisite stories, and in
their original form much too advanced for children of the kindergarten
age.
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.
NORA A. SMITH.
THE ORIOLE'S NEST.
“See how each boy, excited by the actual event, is all ear.”--Froebel.
There it hangs, on a corner of the picture frame, very much as it hung
in the old willow-tree out in the garden.
It was spring time, and I used to move my rocking-chair up to the
window, where I could lean out and touch the green branches, and watch
there for the wonderful beautiful things to tell my little children in
the kindergarten. There I saw the busy little ants hard at work on
the ground below; the patient, dull, brown toads snapping flies in the
sunshine; the striped caterpillars lazily crawling up the trunk of the
tree; and dozens of merry birds getting ready for housekeeping.
Did you know the birdies “kept house”? Oh, yes; they never “board” like
men and women; indeed, I don't think they even like to RENT a house
without fixing it over to suit themselves, but they 'd much rather go to
work and build one,
“So snug and so warm, so cosy and neat,
To start at their housekeeping all complete.”
Now there hung just inside my window a box of strings, and for two or
three days, no matter how many I put into it, when I went to look the
next time none could be found. I had talked to the little girls and
scolded the little boys in the house, but no one knew anything about
the matter, when one afternoon, as I was sitting there, a beautiful bird
with a yellow breast fluttered down from the willow-tree, perched on the
window-sill, cocked his saucy head, winked his bright eye, and without
saying “If you please,” clipped his naughty little beak into the string
box and flew off with a piece of pink twine.
I sat as still as a mouse to see if the little scamp would dare to come
back; he didn't, but he sent his wife, who gave a hop, skip, and a jump,
looked me squarely in the eye, and took her string without being a bit
afraid.
Now do you call that stealing? “No,” you answer. Neither do I; to be
sure they took what belonged to me, but the window was wide open, and I
think they must have known I loved the birds and would like to give them
something for their new house. Perhaps they knew, too, that bits of old
twine could not be worth much.
Then how busily they began their work! They had already chosen the place
for their nest, springing up and down in the boughs till they found a
branch far out of sight of snakes and hawks and cruel tabby cats, high
out of reach of naughty small boys with their sling-shots, and now
everything was ready for these small carpenters to begin their building.
No hammer and nails were needed, claw and bill were all the tools they
used, and yet what beautiful carpenter work was theirs!
Do you see how strongly the nest is tied on to those three slender
twigs, and how carefully and closely it is woven, so that you can
scarcely pull it apart? Those wiry black hairs holding all the rest
together were dropped from Prince Charming's tail (Prince Charming is
the pretty saddle-horse who crops his grass, under the willow-tree).
Those sleek brown hairs belonged to Dame Margery, the gentle mooly cow,
who lives with her little calf Pet in the stable with Prince Charming;
and there is a shining yellow spot on one side. Ah, you roguish birds,
you must have been outside the kitchen window when baby Johnny's curls
were cut! We could only spare two from his precious head, and we hunted
everywhere for this one to send to grandmamma!
Now just look at this door in the side of the nest, and tell me how a
bird could make such a perfect one; and yet I've heard you say, “It's
only a bird; he doesn't know anything.” To be sure he cannot do as many
things as you, but after all you are not wise enough to do many of the
things that he does. What would one of my little boys do, I wonder, if
he were carried miles away from home and dropped in a place he had never
seen? Why, he would be too frightened to do anything but cry; and yet
there are many birds, who, when taken away a long distance, will perch
on top of the weather-vane, perhaps, make up their little bits of minds
which way to go, and then with a whir-r-r-r fly off over house-tops and
church-steeples, towns and cities, rivers and meadows, until they reach
the place from which they started.
Look at the nest for the last time now, and see the soft, lovely lining
of ducks' feathers and lambs' wool.
Why do you suppose it was made so velvet soft and fleecy? Why, for the
little birds that were coming, of course; and sure enough, one morning
after the tiny house was all finished, I leaned far out of the window
and saw five little eggs cuddled close together; but I did not get much
chance to look at those precious eggs, I can tell you; for the mamma
bird could scarcely spare a minute to go and get a drink of water, so
afraid was she that they would miss the warmth of her downy wings.
There she sat in the long May days and warm, still nights: who but a
mamma would be so sweet and kind and patient?--but SHE didn't mind the
trouble--not a bit. Bless her dear little bird-heart, they were not eggs
to her: she could see them even now as they were going to be, her five
cunning, downy, feathery birdlings, chirping and fluttering under her
wings; so she never minded the ache in her back or the cramp in her
legs, but sat quite still at home, though there were splendid picnics
in the strawberry patches and concerts on the fence rails, and all the
father birds, and all the mother birds that were not hatching eggs, were
having a great deal of fun this beautiful weather. At last all was over,
and I was waked up one morning by such a chirping and singing--such a
fluttering and flying--I knew in a minute that where the night before
there had been two birds and five eggs, now there were seven birds and
nothing but egg-shells in the green willow-tree!
The papa oriole would hardly wait for me to dress, but flew on and off
the window-sill, seeming to say, “Why don't you get up? why don't you
get up? I have five little birds; they came out of the shells this very
morning, so hungry that I can't get enough for them to eat! Why don't
you get up, I say? I have five little birds, and I am taking care of
them while my wife is off taking a rest!”
They were five scrawny, skinny little things, I must say; for you know
birds don't begin by being pretty like kittens and chickens, but look
very bare and naked, and don't seem to have anything to show but a big,
big mouth which is always opening and crying “Yip, yip, yip!”
Now I think you are wondering why I happen to have this nest, and how
I could have taken away the beautiful house from the birds. Ah, that is
the sad part of the story, and I wish I need not tell it to you.
When the baby birds were two days old, I went out on a long ride
into the country, leaving everything safe and happy in the old green
willow-tree; but when I came back, what do you think I found on the
ground under the branches?----A wonderful hang-bird's nest cut from the
tree, and five poor still birdies lying by its side. Five slender necks
all limp and lifeless,--five pairs of bright eyes shut forever! and
overhead the poor mamma and papa twittering and crying in the way little
birds have when they are frightened and sorry--flying here and there,
first down to the ground and then up in the tree, to see if it was
really true.
While I was gone two naughty boys had come into the garden to dig for
angle-worms, and all at once they spied the oriole's nest.
“O Tommy, here's a hang-bird's nest, such a funny one! there's nobody
here, let's get it,” cried Jack.
Up against the tree they put the step-ladder; and although it was almost
out of reach, a sharp jack-knife cut the twigs that held it up, and down
it fell from the high tree with a heavy thud on the hard earth, and the
five little orioles never breathed again! Of course the boys didn't know
there were any birdies in the nest, or they wouldn't have done it for
the world; but that didn't make it any easier for the papa and mamma
bird.
Now, dear children, never let me hear you say, “It's no matter, they're
only birds, they don't care.”
Think about this nest: how the mother and father worked at it, weaving
hair and string and wool together, day by day! Think how the patient
mamma sat on the eggs, dreaming of the time when she should have five
little singing, flying birds to care for, to feed and to teach! and then
to have them live only two short days! Was it not dreadful to lose her
beautiful house and dear little children both at once?
Never forget that just as your own father and mother love their dear
little girls and boys, so God has made the birds love their little
feathery children that are born in the wonderful nests he teaches them
to build.
DICKY SMILEY'S BIRTHDAY.
“In order to be especially beneficial and effective, story-telling
should be connected with the events and occurrences of life.”--Froebel.
Dicky Smiley was eight years old when all these things happened that I
am going to tell you; eight years old, and as bright as a steel button.
It was very funny that his name should be Smiley, for his face was just
like a sunbeam, and if he ever cried at all it was only for a minute,
and then the smiles would creep out and chase the tear-drops away from
the blue sky of his eyes.
Dicky's mother tried to call him Richard, because it was his papa's
name, but it never would say itself somehow, and even when she did
remember, and called him “Richard,” his baby sister Dot would cry,
“Mamma, don't scold Dicky.”
He had once a good, loving papa like yours, when he was a tiny baby in
long white clothes; but the dear papa marched away with the blue-coated
soldiers one day, and never came back any more to his little children;
for he died far, far away from home, on a green battlefield, with many
other soldiers. You can think how sad and lonely Dicky's mamma was, and
how she hugged her three babies close in her arms, and said:&&
“Darlings, you haven't any father now, but the dear God will help your
mother to take care of you!”
And now she was working hard, so very hard, from morning till night
every day to get money to buy bread and milk and clothes for Bess and
Dot and Dicky.
But Dicky was a good little fellow and helped his mamma ever so much,
pulling out bastings from her needlework, bringing in the kindling
and shavings from the shed, and going to the store for her butter and
potatoes and eggs. So one morning she said:&&
“Dicky, you have been such a help to me this summer, I'd like to give
you something to make you very happy. Let us count the money in your
bank--you earned it all yourself--and see what we could buy with it. To
be sure, Bess wants a waterproof and Dot needs rubbers, but we do want
our little boy to have a birthday present.”
“Oh, mamma,” cried he, clapping his hands, “what a happy day it will
be! I shall buy that tool-box at the store round the corner! It's such a
beauty, with a little saw, a claw-hammer, a chisel, a screw-driver, and
everything a carpenter needs. It costs just a dollar, exactly!”
Then they unscrewed the bank and found ninety-five cents, so that it
would take only five cents more to make the dollar. Dicky earned that
before he went to bed, by piling up wood for a neighbor; and his
mamma changed all the little five and ten cent pieces into two bright
half-dollars that chinked together joyfully in his trousers pocket.
The next morning he was up almost at the same time the robins and
chimney-swallows flew out of their nests; jumped down the stairs, two at
a time, and could scarcely eat his breakfast, such a hurry as he was in
to buy the precious tool-box. He opened the front door, danced down the
wooden steps, and there on the curb in front of the house stood a little
girl, with a torn gingham apron, no shoes, no hat, and her nut-brown
curls flying in the wind; worse than all, she was crying as if her heart
would break.
“Why, little girl, what's the matter?” asked Dicky, for he was a
kind-hearted boy, and didn't like to see people cry.
She took down her apron and sobbed:&&
“Oh, I've lost my darling little brown dog, and I can never get him
back!”
“Why, has somebody poisoned him--is he dead?” said Dicky.
She shook her head.
“No, oh no! The pound-man took him away in his cart--my sweet little bit
of a dog; he has such a cunning little curly tail, and long, silky ears;
he does all kinds of tricks, and they'll never let me in at home without
Bruno.”
And then she began to cry harder than ever, so that Dicky hardly knew
what to say to her.
Now the pound, children, is a very large place somewhere near the city,
with a high fence all around it, and inside are kept colts and horses,
the little calves and mother cows, and the sheep and goats that run away
from home, or are picked up by the roadside. The pound-man rides along
the street in a big cart, which has a framework of slats built over
it, so that it looks something like a chicken-coop on wheels, and in
it--some of you have seen him do it--he puts the poor dogs that haven't
collars on, and whose masters haven't paid for them. Then he rides away
and locks them up in the great place inside the high fence, and they
have to stay awhile. The dogs are killed if nobody comes for them.
“Well,” said Dicky, “let us go and see the pound-man. Do you know where
he lives?”
“Yes, indeed,” answered the little girl, whose name was Lola. “I ran
behind the cart all the way to the pound. I cried after Bruno, and Bruno
whined for me, and poked his nose between the bars and tried to jump
out, but he couldn't. It's a pretty long way there, and the man is as
cross as two sticks.”
But they started off, and on and on they walked together, Dicky having
tight hold of Lola's hand, while she told him about the wonderful things
Bruno could do; how he could go up and down a ladder, play the fife
and beat the drum, make believe go to sleep, and dance a jig. It was by
these tricks of his that Lola earned money for her uncle, with whom she
lived; for her father and mother were both dead, and there was no one in
the whole world who loved the little girl. The dear mother had died in a
beautiful mountain country far across the ocean, and Lola and Bruno
had been sent in a ship over to America. Now this dear, pretty mamma of
Lola's used to sing to her when she rocked her to sleep, and as she grew
from a baby to a tiny girl she learned the little songs to sing to Bruno
when he was a little puppy. Would you like to hear one of them? She used
to sing it on the street corners, and at the end of the last verse that
knowing, cunning, darling Bruno would yawn as if he could not keep awake
another minute, tuck his silky head between his two fore paws, shut his
bright eyes, give a tired little sigh, and stay fast asleep until Lola
waked him. This is the song:&&
Wake, lit-tle Bru-no! Wake, lit-tle Bru-no,
Wake, lit-tle Bru-no quick-ly!
When the two children came to the pound and saw the little house at the
gate where the pound-man lived, Dicky was rather frightened and hardly
dared walk up the steps; but after a moment he thought to himself, “I
won't be a coward; I haven't done anything wrong.” So he gave the door
a rousing knock, for an eight-year-old boy, and brought the man out at
once.
“What do you want?” said he, in a gruff voice, for he did seem rather
cross.
“Please, sir, I want Lola's little brown dog. He's all the dog she has,
and she earns money with him. He does funny tricks for ten cents.”
“How do you think I know whether I've got a brown dog in there or not?”
growled he. “You'd better run home to your mothers, both of you.”
At this Lola began to cry again, and Dicky said quickly:&&
“Oh, you 'd know him soon as anything,--he has such a cunning curly tail
and long silky ears. His name is Bruno.”
“Well,” snapped the man, “where's your money? Hurry up! I want my
breakfast.”
“Money!” cried Dicky, looking at Lola.
“Money!” whispered little Lola, looking back at Dicky.
“Yes,” said he, “of course! Give me a dollar and I will give you the
dog.”
“But,” answered Lola, “I haven't a bit of money; I never have any.”
“Neither have”--began Dicky; and then his fingers crept into his
trousers pocket and felt the two silver half-dollars that were to buy
his tool-box. He had forgotten all about that tool-box for an hour, but
how could he--how could he ever give away that precious money which
he had been so long in getting together, five cents at a time? He
remembered the sharp little saw, the stout hammer, the cunning plane,
bright chisel, and shining screw-driver, and his fingers closed round
the money tightly; but just then he looked at pretty little Lola, with
her sad face, her swollen eyes and the brave red lips she was trying to
keep from quivering with tears. That was enough; he quickly drew out the
silver dollar, and said to the pound-man:&&
“Here's your dollar--give us the dog!”
The man looked much surprised. Not many little eight-year-old boys have
a dollar in their trousers pocket.
“Where did you get it?” he asked.
“I earned every cent of it,” answered poor Dicky with a lump in his
throat and a choking voice. “I brought in coal and cut kindlings for
most six months before I got enough, and there ain't another tool-box in
the world so good as that one for a dollar--but I want Bruno!”
{Illustration: “Here's your dollar--give us the dog'”}
Then the pound-man showed them a little flight of steps that led up to
a square hole in the wall of the pound, and told them to go up and look
through it and see if the dog was there. They climbed up and put their
two rosy eager faces at the rough little window. “Bruno! Bruno!” called
little Lola, and no Bruno came; but every frightened homesick little
doggy in that prison poked up his nose, wagged his tail, and started
for the voice. It didn't matter whether they were Fidos, or Carlos, or
Rovers, or Pontos; they knew that they were lonesome little dogs, and
perhaps somebody had remembered them. Lola's tender heart ached at the
sight of so many fatherless and motherless dogs, and she cried,&&
“No, no, you poor darlings! I haven't come for you; I want my own
Bruno.”
“Sing for him, and may be he will come,” said Dicky; and Lola leaned her
elbow on the window sill and sang:&&
Lit-tle shoes are sold at the gate-way of Heaven,
And to all the tattered lit-tle an-gels are giv-en;
Slum-ber my dar-ling, Slum-ber my dar-ling,
Slum-ber my dar-ling sweet-ly.
Now Bruno was so tired with running from the pound-man, so hungry, so
frightened, and so hoarse with barking that he had gone to sleep; but
when he heard Lola's voice singing the song he knew so well, he started
up, and out he bounded half awake--the dearest, loveliest little brown
dog in the world, with a cunning curly tail sticking up in a round bob
behind, two long silky ears that almost touched the ground, and four
soft white feet.
Then they were two such glad children, and such a glad little brown
dog was Bruno! Why, he kissed Lola's bare feet and hands and face,
and nearly chewed her apron into rags, he was so delighted to see his
mistress again. Even the cross pound-man smiled and said he was the
prettiest puppy, and the smartest, he had ever had in the pound, and
that when he had shut him up the night before he had gone through all
his funny tricks in hopes that he would be let out.
Then Dicky and Lola walked back home over the dusty road, Bruno running
along beside them, barking at the birds, sniffing at the squirrels, and
chasing all the chickens and kittens he met on the way, till at last
they reached the street corner, where Lola turned to go to her home,
after kissing her new friend and thanking him for being so good and kind
to her.
But what about Master Dicky himself, who had lost his tool-box? He
didn't feel much like a smiling boy just then. He crept in at the back
door, and when he saw his dear mother's face in the kitchen he couldn't
stand it a minute longer, but burst out crying, and told her all about
it.
“Well, my little son,” said she, “I'm very, very sorry. I wish I could
give you another dollar, but I haven't any money to spare. You did just
right to help Lola find Bruno, and buy him back for her, and I'm
very proud of my boy; but you can't give away the dollar and have the
tool-box too. So wipe your eyes, and try to be happy. You didn't eat any
breakfast, dear, take a piece of nice bread and sugar.”
So Dicky dried his tears and began to eat.
After a while he wanted to wipe his sticky, sugary little mouth, and as
he took his clean handkerchief out of his pocket, two shining, chinking,
clinking round things tumbled out on the floor and rolled under
the kitchen table! What could they have been! Why, his two silver
half-dollars, to be sure. And where in the world did they come from, do
you suppose? Why, it was the nicest, funniest thing! The pound-man was
not so cross after all, for he thought Lola and Dicky were two such kind
children, and Bruno such a cunning dog, that he could not bear to take
Dicky's dollar away from him; so while the little boy was looking the
other way the pound-man just slipped the money back into Dick's bit of a
pocket without saying a word. Wasn't that a beautiful surprise?
So Dicky ran to the corner store as fast as his feet could carry him,
and bought the tool-box.
Every Saturday afternoon he has such a pleasant time playing with it!
And who do you suppose sits on the white kitchen floor with Dot and
Bess, watching him make dolls' tables and chairs with his carpenter's
tools? Why, Lola, to be sure, and a little brown dog too, with a cunning
curly tail turned up in a round bob behind, and two long silky ears
touching the floor. For Dick's mamma had such a big heart that I do
believe it would have held all the children in the world, and as Lola's
uncle didn't care for her the least little bit, he gave her to this
mamma of Dicky's, who grew to love this little girl almost as well as
she loved her own Dicky and Dot and Bess.
AQUA; OR, THE WATER BABAY.
{Footnote: The plan of this story was suggested to me many years ago; so
many, indeed, that I cannot now remember whether it was my friend's own,
or whether he had read something like it in German.--K. D. W.}
“This standing above life, and yet grasping life, and being stirred by
life, is what makes the genuine educator.”--Froebel.
It was a clear, sunshiny day, and out on the great, wide, open sea there
sparkled thousands and thousands of water-drops. One of these was a
merry little fellow who danced on the silver backs of the fishes as they
plunged up and down in the waves, and, no matter how high he sprung,
always came down again plump into his mother's lap.
His mother, you know, was the Ocean, and very beautiful she looked that
summer day in her dark blue dress and white ruffles.
By and by the happy water-drop tired of his play, and looking up to the
clear sky above him thought he would like to have a sail on one of
the white floating clouds; so, giving a jump from the Ocean's arms, he
begged the Sun to catch him up and let him go on a journey to see the
earth.