“Better late than never.” “What air you thinkin’ of, Phil?” “My wife, Dick.” “So was I! Ain’t it odd how fellers fall to thinkin’ of thar little women, when they get a quiet spell like this?” “Fortunate for us that we do get it, and have such memories to keep us brave and honest through […]

“He who serves well need not fear to ask his wages.” I It was under a blue cap that I first saw the honest face of Joe Collins. In the third year of the late war a Maine regiment was passing through Boston, on its way to Washington. The Common was all alive with troops […]

[Written in 1867.] “Bells ring others to church, but go not in themselves.” No one saw the spirits of the bells up there in the old steeple at midnight on Christmas Eve. Six quaint figures, each wrapped in a shadowy cloak and wearing a bell-shaped cap. All were gray-headed, for they were among the oldest […]

“I shall take mamma’s red sun-umbrella, it is so warm, and none of the children at school will have one like it,” said Lily, one day, as she went through the hall. “The wind is very high; I’m afraid you’ll be blown away if you carry that big thing,” called Nurse from the window, as […]

“A music-man! a music-man! Run quick, and see if he has got a monkey on his organ,” cried little Neddy, running to the window in a great hurry one day. Yes; there was the monkey in his blue and red suit, with a funny little cap, and the long tail trailing behind. But he didn’t […]

Once there was a little girl, named Kitty, who never wanted to do what people asked her. She said “I won’t” and “I can’t,” and did not run at once pleasantly, as obliging children do. One day her mother gave her a pair of new shoes; and after a fuss about putting them on, Kitty […]

Rosy was a nice little girl who lived with her mother in a small house in the woods. They were very poor, for the father had gone away to dig gold, and did not come back; so they had to work hard to get food to eat and clothes to wear. The mother spun yarn […]

In the barnyard a gray hen sat on her nest, feeling very happy because it was time for her eggs to hatch, and she hoped to have a fine brood of chickens. Presently crack, crack, went the shells, “Peep, peep!” cried the chicks; “Cluck, cluck!” called the hen; and out came ten downy little things […]

Two little boys sat on the fence whittling arrows one fine day. Said one little boy to the other little boy,– “Let’s do something jolly.” “All right. What will we do?” “Run off to the woods and be hunters.” “What can we hunt?” “Bears and foxes” “Mullin says there ain’t any round here.” “Well, we […]

“I wish I had a magic bracelet like Rosamond’s, that would prick me when I was going to do wrong,” said little May, as she put down the story she had been reading. There was no one else in the room, but she heard a sweet voice sing these words close to her ear:– “Now […]

PART I. If any one had asked Johnny Morris who were his best friends, he would have answered,– “The sun and the wind, next to mother.” Johnny lived in a little court that led off from one of the busiest streets in the city,–a noisy street, where horse-car bells tinkled and omnibuses rumbled all day […]

“I won’t be washed! I won’t be washed!” screamed little Betty, kicking and slapping the maid who undressed her one night. “You’d better go and live with the pigs, dirty child,” said Maria, scrubbing away at two very grubby hands. “I wish I could! I love to be dirty,–I will be dirty!” roared Betty, throwing […]

“All is fair in love and war.” I HOW THEY WERE FOUND “What a long sigh! Are you tired, Amy?” “Yes, and disappointed as well. I never would have undertaken this journey if I had not thought it would be full of novelty, romance, and charming adventures.” “Well, we have had several adventures.” “Bah! losing […]

On a cheery June day Mrs. Penelope Carroll and her niece Debby Wilder, were whizzing along on their way to a certain gay watering-place, both in the best of humors with each other and all the world beside. Aunt Pen was concocting sundry mild romances, and laying harmless plots for the pursuance of her favorite […]

Doctor Franck came in as I sat sewing up the rents in an old shirt, that Tom might go tidily to his grave. New shirts were needed for the living, and there was no wife or mother to “dress him handsome when he went to meet the Lord,” as one woman said, describing the fine […]

Nelly sat beside her mother picking lint; but while her fingers flew, her eyes often looked wistfully out into the meadow, golden with buttercups, and bright with sunshine. Presently she said, rather bashfully, but very earnestly, “Mamma, I want to tell you a little plan I’ve made, if you’ll please not laugh.” I think I […]

“If you please, I’ve come,” said a small girl, as she walked into a large room where three ladies sat at work. One of the ladies was very thin, one very stout, and the youngest very pretty. The eldest put on her glasses, the stout one dropped her sewing, and the pretty one exclaimed,– “Why, […]

AS the great steamer swung round into the stream the cloud of white handkerchiefs waving on the wharf melted away, the last good-byes grew fainter, and those who went and those who stayed felt that the parting was over,– “It may be for years, and it may be forever,” as the song says. With only […]

A PARTY of people, young and old, sat on the piazza of a seaside hotel one summer morning, discussing plans for the day as they waited for the mail. “Hullo! here comes Christie Johnstone,” exclaimed one of the young men perched on the railing, who was poisoning the fresh air with the sickly scent of […]

They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.–SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. “I’VE finished my book, and now what CAN I do till this tiresome rain is over?” exclaimed Carrie, as she lay back on the couch with a yawn of weariness. “Take another and a better book; the house is full of them, and […]