FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160  
161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   >>   >|  
eat." "Have you eaten enough?" "Yes. I must go home now, or I shall be late." "Are you sure you know the way?" asked the lady, a little anxiously. "You're such a little thing!" "O, yes, mum! Go as I came." "Well, good by." "Good by, mum." But was Puppet _sure_ that she knew the way? * * * * * The next morning, a man walking on a road that ran by the edge of a meadow, was going to his work. Hark! What did he hear? Was it a cry! was it a child's cry? And what was that? It sounded like a fiddle. He stopped to look around. "I declare, we've had a high tide in the night!" said he, and trudged on. But what was that? _That_ was certainly a child's cry. The man looked sharply about. "It can't be she," he said. "Folks from heaven wouldn't cry, even if they were let to come--at least, if they were little children." And so he still looked sharply about. And looking, what did he see? He saw great haystacks of meadow hay out in the meadow, with the tide-water all about them. Then his eyes were fixed on one particular haystack. On its top, with her yellow hair and smiling face in sight, was--it could not be, though--but it was--a little girl, and dangling by the side of the stack was a guitar with a yellow face. The man waded through the water that lay between the dry land and the stack. "Crawl down to my shoulders;" and he stood by the side of the stack till she was on his shoulders, with her arms about his neck. [Illustration: {Puppet, with her guitar, sitting on top of a haystack}] "How came you there?" "I went everywhere to try to get home, and it was dark, all but the moon; and I saw the stack, and a board went from the ground to the top of it." "Sure enough, the prop." "And I was so tired!" "Poor child!" "And I never saw the water come before, and it was only wet enough to wet my feet when I got up." "Well, well! We'll go home and get something to eat." The man walked into his kitchen with the little girl and the guitar on his shoulders. "Why, John, are you back? Dear me, if there isn't that same child--Puppet!" John went off to his work again. Puppet ate her breakfast, and told her story, and then said,-- "Please, mum, may I play with the cart?" And because of her yellow hair, she might play with the cart. "But aren't you sick, and oughtn't you to take some medicine, and go to bed?" asked the lady, whose hair had grown gra
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160  
161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Puppet

 
meadow
 

shoulders

 

yellow

 

guitar

 

sharply


looked
 
haystack
 

Illustration

 
sitting
 

medicine

 

Please


kitchen

 

breakfast

 

walked

 

oughtn

 

ground

 

children


walking
 

morning

 

fiddle

 

stopped

 

sounded

 

anxiously


haystacks
 

smiling

 
trudged
 

declare

 

heaven

 
wouldn

dangling