FRANKIE'S BREAKFAST.
FRANKIE was now old enough to like to hear stories, and almost every day
he asked, "Pease tell me tory, mamma." Sometimes, when he did not feel
like playing, he would ask her a great many times in a day.
One morning she went into the nursery, after she had eaten her own
breakfast, and found Sally feeding him with his bread and milk.
"He spits it out, ma'am," she said, "and won't let it down his throat."
"Patty want pig, mamma," said the little boy. He meant that he wanted a
fig.
"Has he had a fig this morning?" asked mamma.
"Yes, ma'am," said nurse. "Willie came in eating one, and Frankie cried
for it. So Willie gave it right up to him, though he had only taken one
mouthful. I think he is the generousest boy, ma'am, that I ever see."
Mamma smiled, and seemed very happy when she heard this. You know
nothing makes mammas so happy as to know that their little boys and
girls are good. She said to herself, "Dear child, I will give him
another when he comes in." Then she took Frankie in her arms, and told
nurse to go and eat her own breakfast. She tucked the bib nicely around
his neck, and then she began to feed him. But, as Sally said, he would
not let it down, but spit it all over his clothes and mamma's hand.
"Patty want pig," he said again.
"No, darling, you must eat your breakfast now," said mamma. "Though it
is not so sweet as a fig, it is very good, and will make my little boy
grow and be strong, so that he can run out to play like Willie."
"Patty want pig, mamma," said the baby, putting up his hand to pat
mamma's face. "Patty want pig vely much."
"Frankie shall have a fig by and by," said mamma; "now I will tell him a
little story.
"Once there was a little boy; his name was Harry. He had no kind mamma
to give him good breakfasts. His mamma had gone to heaven to live with
God.
"Little Harry was poor, and often when he woke up he was very hungry.
But he could not lay his head on his mamma's breast, because she was
dead, you know. Poor little Harry used to cry for somebody to come and
take care of him. All babies need some person to hold them and rock
them."
"Patty got mamma," cried the little boy.
"Yes, darling, Frankie has a mamma who loves him dearly, and tries to
take good care of him, and makes him nice warm clothes. But Harry had
none. The woman who let him live in her house was too busy to attend to
him; so, when he was cold, or hungry, or tired, and wanted to lay his
poor, weary head in her lap, she had no time to let him do so. Dear
little fellow, it would have done him so much good to have some kind
mamma take him in her lap and squeeze him close to her breast, as mamma
does Frankie, and call him her darling, dear little Harry. I think he
would have stopped crying at once, and he would have looked up in her
face and smiled his thanks."
Frankie was so much pleased with the story, that he put up his little
mouth to kiss mamma; and when he had done so, he patted her face softly,
and said, "Patty love oo." He could not say "you."
"One day," said mamma, "a kind lady called at the poorhouse where Harry
lived. He was sitting on a little bed in the corner, crying; but he
stopped when the lady went in. His hair had not been combed for many
days; his face was very dirty where the tears had run down over his
thin, pale cheeks; his clothes were soiled and torn; but the lady pitied
him very much. When she found he had no mamma, and that his papa was at
work a great way off, she wrapped her shawl about the poor baby, and
took him home in her carriage.
"First of all she gave him a cup of milk to drink, and then she told
nurse to bring some warm water in a tub, and some soap and towels, for
she was going to wash the poor baby. She did not wonder then that the
poor little fellow cried, for he was all sore, because he had had no
kind mamma to wash him and put on nice powder. She kept him in the water
a long time, and washed him very clean; and then she told the nurse to
go up garret and bring a small trunk with some baby clothes in it. She
had a little baby once, and these were his clothes. Then she tried to
get the snarls out of his hair, and by this time Harry was so tired, he
was glad to go to sleep.
"When he woke up he began to cry again, for he thought he was back in
his old home; but as soon as he saw the kind lady, he smiled very
sweetly. He held out his arms for her to take him. She had some warm
bread and milk all ready, and she took him in her lap and put a towel
round his neck and fed him.
"He did not spit it out on his clean clothes, but he ate it all, and
liked it very much; and then he looked up in the kind face that was
bending over him so fondly, and smiled, and tried to stroke her cheek.
This was all the way he knew how to thank her for his good breakfast."
When mamma had told the story, she took Frankie's cup and began to feed
him, and he did not spit out one mouthful, but ate the whole, even the
last drop.