The godmother arrived for the christening, dressed in plum-colored satin and carrying a small brown parcel. “Fortunatus’ purse!” whispered one of the guests, nudging his neighbor. “A mere trifle for the boy,” said the fairy godmother, laying the parcel down on the table. “It is a very common gift to come from my hands, but […]

“‘Down in the deep, with freight and crew,Past any help she lies,And never a bale has come to shoreOf all thy merchandise. ‘For cloth o’ gold and comely frieze,’Winstanley said, and sigh’d,‘For velvet coif, or costly coat,They fathoms deep may bide. ‘O thou, brave skipper, blithe and kind,O mariners bold and true,Sorry at heart, right […]

“What is home, and where, but with the loving?” FELICIA HEMANS. At last Ida was allowed to go out. She was well wrapped up, and escorted by Nurse in a short walk for the good of her health. It was not very amusing, but the air was fresh and the change pleasant, although the street […]

Clown. Madman, thou errest: I say there is no darknessbut Ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than theEgyptians in their fog…. What is the opinion of Pythagorasconcerning wild fowl? Malvolio. That the soul of our grandam might haplyinhabit a bird. Clown. What thinkest thou of his opinion? Malvolio. I think nobly of the soul, […]

IDA.… “Thou shall not lackThe flower that’s like thy face, pale Primrose.” Cymbeline. The little old lady lived over the way, through a green gate that shut with a click, and up three white steps. Every morning at eight o’clock the church bell chimed for Morning Prayer–chim! chime! chim! chime!–and every morning at eight o’clock […]

“It did not move my grief, to seeThe trace of human step departed,Because the garden was deserted,The blither place for me! “Friends, blame me not! a narrow kenHath childhood ‘twixt the sun and sward:We draw the moral afterward–We feel the gladness then.” E. BARRETT BROWNING. “I remember,” said Mrs. Overtheway, “old as I am, I […]

TINY. “Oh Toby, my dear old Toby, you portly and princely Pug! “You know it’s bad for you to lie in the fender:–Father says that’s what makes you so fat–and I want you to come and sit with me on the Kurdistan rug. “Put your lovely black nose in my lap, and I’ll count your […]

THE OWL IN THE IVY BUSH. OR, THE CHILDREN’S BIRD OF WISDOM. INTRODUCTION. “Hoot toots, man, yon’s a queer bird!” —Bonnie Scotland. I am an Owl; a very fluffy one, in spite of all that that Bad Boy pulled out! I live in an Ivy Bush. Children are nothing to me, naturally, so it seems […]

There was once an old man whom Fortune (whose own eyes are bandaged) had deprived of his sight. She had taken his hearing also, so that he was deaf. Poor he had always been, and as Time had stolen his youth and strength from him, they had only left a light burden for death to […]

A Legend It is said that in Norway every church has its own Niss, or Brownie. They are of the same race as the Good People, who haunt farmhouses, and do the maids’ work for a pot of cream. They are the size of a year-old child, but their faces are the faces of aged […]

LADDERS TO HEAVEN.[7] A Legend. There was a certain valley in which the grass was very green, for it was watered by a stream which never failed; and once upon a time certain pious men withdrew from the wide world and from their separate homes, and made a home in common, and a little world […]

CHAPTER I. “A MAN NAMED SOLOMON.” JAEL AND THE CHINA POODLE. JOHNSON’S DICTIONARY. NAIL-SPOTS. FAMILY BEREAVEMENTS. A FAMILY DOCTOR. THE BOOKS IN THE ATTIC. A PUZZLING TALE. “A JOURNEY TO GO.” Doctor Brown is our doctor. He lives in our village, at the top of the hill. When we were quite little, and had scarlet-fever, […]

“Be sure, my child,” said the widow to her little daughter, “that you always do just as you are told.” “Very well, Mother.” “Or at any rate do what will do just as well,” said the small house-dog as he lay blinking at the fire. “You darling!” cried little Joan, and she sat down on […]

A Legend. “Break forth, my lips, in praise, and ownThe wiser love severely kind:Since, richer for its chastening grown,I see, whereas I once was blind.” —The Clear Vision, J. G. WHITTIER. In days of yore there was once a certain hermit, who dwelt in a cell, which he had fashioned for himself from a natural […]

CHAPTER I. Mother is always trying to make us love our neighbors as ourselves. She does so despise us for greediness, or grudging, or snatching, or not sharing what we have got, or taking the best and leaving the rest, or helping ourselves first, or pushing forward, or praising Number One, or being Dogs in […]

LETTER I. “All is fine that is fit.”–Old Proverb. DEAR LITTLE FRIEND, When, with the touching confidence of youth that your elders have made-up as well as grown-up minds on all subjects, you asked my opinion on Ribbon-gardening, the above proverb came into my head, to the relief of its natural tendency to see an […]

MR. AND MRS. SKRATDJ. Once upon a time there lived a certain family of the name of Skratdj. (It has a Russian or Polish look, and yet they most certainly lived in England.) They were remarkable for the following peculiarity. They seldom seriously quarrelled, but they never agreed about anything. It is hard to say […]

Every child knows how to tell the time by a dandelion clock. You blow till the seed is all blown away, and you count each of the puffs–an hour to a puff. Every child knows this, and very few children want to know any more on the subject. It was Peter Paul’s peculiarity that he […]

(Translated from the German of VICTOR BLUeTHGEN.) What a hot, drowsy afternoon it was. The blazing sun shone with such a glare upon the farmyard that it was almost unbearable, and there was not a vestige of grass or any green thing to relieve the eye or cast a little shade. But the fowls in […]

And what became of Flaps after they all left Hencastle? Well, he led his company on and on, but they could find no suitable place to settle in; and when the fowls recovered from their fright, they began to think that they had abandoned the castle too hastily, and to lay the blame on Flaps. […]