FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   >>  
ee no one. "Ethel! Ethel!" it called again, this time very near. She looked around, saying, "Here I am; who is calling?" "It is I. Don't you see me? I am close beside you," said the same sweet voice. Looking down Ethel saw at her feet a tiny creature all dressed in dainty green. "Oh!" thought she, "this must really and truly be a fairy. Why, I supposed fairies were only make-believe people!" and Ethel was so surprised that she forgot to answer the little creature. Soon the fairy said: "Ethel, because you love the birds and the flowers and the trees and all the animals, I have come to take you out into the country to visit your friends." Ethel clapped her hands and said: "Oh, I should love to go to the country! but I haven't any friends there." "Yes, you have," said the fairy, "come and see." So away they went, and Ethel all the time wondered whom the fairy could possibly mean by her friends; but they went so fast that, before she had time to do much thinking, Ethel found herself in a great, green meadow, bright and fresh and cool. Soon they came to a tree with spreading branches; and there, lying under it and resting in its shade, was a gentle looking creature with soft eyes, long smooth horns, and a hairy dress of red and white. "Here," said the fairy, "is one of your friends, and a very good friend she is too." "Oh," said Ethel, "now I know whom you mean by my friends!" I wonder who can tell me why the fairy called the cow Ethel's friend. Yes, because without this friend Ethel would miss her cup of milk at breakfast and the golden butter for her bread. Ethel gave the white star on the cow's forehead a gentle pat and, looking into her great dark eyes, she said, "Surely you are my friend, Bossy." But the fairy said, "Come on, little girl, there are many more friends to see." So Ethel visited all the friendly animals,--the sheep with their woolly coats, the pigs in their sty, the chickens, the ducks and the geese in the barnyard, the pigeons in their home on the roof, the great clever collie in his kennel; and she found that she owed something to every one of them. Just as she was giving Rover a farewell pat, old Dobbin, harnessed to the farm wagon, came clattering up to the barn. "Here comes the best friend of all!" cried Ethel. "What should we do without Dobbin to carry the milk and the butter and the eggs to the city, to draw the wood and the coal that keep us warm, to help the farmer
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   >>  



Top keywords:

friends

 

friend

 

creature

 

animals

 

country

 

butter

 

Dobbin

 

gentle

 
called
 
chickens

friendly

 
visited
 

woolly

 

looked

 

breakfast

 
golden
 

forehead

 
Surely
 

pigeons

 

clattering


farmer

 
kennel
 

collie

 
clever
 

harnessed

 

farewell

 
giving
 

barnyard

 

dressed

 

dainty


thought
 

clapped

 
possibly
 

Looking

 

wondered

 

fairies

 

answer

 

surprised

 

forgot

 

supposed


flowers

 

smooth

 
calling
 
people
 

resting

 

thinking

 

meadow

 

bright

 

branches

 

spreading