The Project Gutenberg EBook of Animal Children, by Edith Brown Kirkwood

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Title: Animal Children
The Friends of the Forest and the Plain

Author: Edith Brown Kirkwood

Illustrator: M. T. Ross

Release Date: February 17, 2006 [EBook #17782]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Animal
Children

_The Friends of the
Forest and the Plain._

[Illustration]

By
Edith Brown Kirkwood

Drawings by
M.T. Ross

[Illustration]

Published by

P.F. Volland & Co.

Chicago

Copyright 1913
P.F. Volland & Company
All Rights Reserved

_Ninth Edition_

_To all children who find
friends in the Forest or on
the Plain, and especially to
Samuel and to Gilbert, this
book is lovingly dedicated._

FOREWORD

When God made the world
He planted the flowers and
the grass and the trees to
make things beautiful to
look upon; He swung the sun and
the moon and the stars in the sky
to make things bright; He put the
birds in the trees to fill the air with
music, and when He made the
animals we believe that he intended
them to be the friends of man.

Why, isn't the dog the best playmate
that a boy can have? Did
any one ever hear of Towser or Gyp
being false friends? And the soft,
dainty, cunning bit of a fluffy ball
of a kitten who comes rubbing its
downy sides against the tiny girl's
skirts begging for a return caress,
is there a play-fellow more lovable?
And the squirrel who comes begging
at the window for nuts; the bunny
rabbit who snuggles its delicate nose,
trustingly, under the little boy's
chin; the horse who has been man's
friend in times of trouble and of
peace, bearing his burdens or scampering
with him over the fields and
roads in play; the cow who has sent
her good milk to the babies of all
time; the sheep and the goats who
have given of their wool to keep us
warm,--we love them all dearly.

In this volume we have tried to
make friends and playmates of all
of the animals. You have loved the
"Flower Children" and the "Bird
Childr