Once upon a time there was a little girl named Mary.
She had no brothers and sisters, but she had a dear, good father and
mother.
Mary always went to school with her little friends.
She played with them after school and on Saturdays.
One Saturday in winter all the children went coasting down the long
hill near the school-house.
Mary took her new red sled and went with them.
Oh, it was such fun to coast down that long hill!
The children ran and laughed and shouted all the way.
They had not been coasting long when Mary fell off her sled right into
a snow bank.
That was fun, too, and Mary didn't care one bit.
But when she tried to stand up, it hurt her so it made tears come into
her brown eyes.
"Are you hurt very much?" asked Little Boy Blue.
"My foot hurts," said Mary, trying not to cry.
"We'll give you a ride home," said Jack Horner.
So Mary sat on her sled, and Boy Blue and Jack Horner played they were
her horses.
They trotted so fast that Mary was soon at home and in her mother's
arms.
When the doctor saw Mary's foot he shook his head.
"This little girl has sprained her foot," he said.
"She will have to stay in the house for some time."