Project Gutenberg's Buttercup Gold and Other Stories, by Ellen Robena Field

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Title: Buttercup Gold and Other Stories

Author: Ellen Robena Field

Posting Date: September 21, 2008 [EBook #1978]
Release Date: November, 1999

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BUTTERCUP GOLD AND OTHER STORIES ***

Produced by Dianne Bean

BUTTERCUP GOLD AND OTHER STORIES

By Ellen Robena Field

Copyrighted, 1894, by the Bangor (Maine) Kindergarten Association

This book is lovingly dedicated to the dear kindergarten
children, and particularly to my little friend, Alice Caro Wing.

"Children are God's apostles, day by day sent forth preach of
love and hope and peace."--Lowell.

"Come to me, O, ye children!
And whisper in my ear
What the birds and winds are singing
In your sunny atmosphere.

Ye are better than all the ballads
That were ever sung or said;
For ye are living poems
And all the rest are dead."--Longfellow.

"And Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee,
Saying: 'Here is a story-book
Thy Father has written for thee."--Longfellow.

The Little New Year

One cold morning Maurice awoke from his dreams and sat up in bed and
listened. He thought he heard a knock at his window; but though the moon
was shining brightly, Jack Frost had been so busily at work that Maurice
could not see through the thickly painted panes. So he crept sleepily
out of bed, and opened the window, and whispered: "Who is there?"

"I am," replied a tinkling voice. "I am the little New Year, ho! ho! And
I've promised to bring a blessing to everyone. But I am such a little
fellow I need somebody to help me distribute them. Won't you please come
out and help?"

"Oh, it's so cold!" said Maurice; "I'd rather go back to my warm bed;"
"and he shivered as Jack Frost, who was passing, tickled him under the
chin with one of the frosty paint brushes.

"Never mind the cold," urged the New Year; "please help me."

So Maurice hurried into his clothes, and was soon out