urry, for I want you to run to the grocery before
breakfast!" Mamma called from the foot of the stairs.

"Oh dear!" exclaimed Marjorie, "I don't want to get up!" and keeping her
head on the pillow just as long as she could Marjorie crawled out of bed
backwards.

Her clothes were scattered about the room and her stockings were turned
inside out. Her dress would not fasten and she cried, so that Mamma had
to come upstairs and dress her.

So you see Marjorie's day began all wrong, for everything started
topsy-turvy.

"Now hurry, dear!" Mamma said as she handed Marjorie the basket.

Marjorie slammed the door as she went out and she was so cross she
did not notice the beautiful sunshine nor hear the pretty songs which
greeted her from the tree tops.

"It's so far to the old store!" Marjorie grumbled to herself, as she
pouted her pretty lips and shuffled her feet along the path.

"Hello, Marjorie!" laughed a merry voice.

Marjorie saw a queer little elf sitting upon a stone at the side of the
road. His little green suit was so near the color of the leaves Marjorie
could scarcely distinguish him from the foliage. He wore a funny little
pointed cap of a brilliant red, and sticking in it was a long yellow
feather.

Two long hairs grew from his eyebrows and curled over his cap. He was
hardly as large as Marjorie's doll, Jane.

"Who are you, and where did you come from?" Marjorie cried, for she
thought him the most comical little creature she had ever seen.

"Why, I'm Merry Chuckle from Make-Believe Land!" replied the elf. "And
aren't you very cross this lovely day?"

"I did not want to get up!" cried Marjorie, "and I just hate to go to
the store! It's too far!" She dropped her basket on the ground and sat
down beside the elf on the large stone.

"Isn't it funny?" laughed Merry Chuckle. "There are hundreds of children
just like you who make hard work of getting up when they are called in
the morning and who remain cross and ugly all day long!"

"I really do not mean to be cross, but I just can't help it sometimes!"
Marjorie said.

"Oh, but indeed you can help it, Marjorie!" the elf solemnly said as
he shook his tiny finger at her nose. "And I am going to tell you how.
First of all, when you awaken in the morning you must say to yourself,
'Oh what a lovely, happy day this is going to be!' then raise your arms
above your head and take three long, deep breaths. Jump out of bed
quickly, always remembering to put you