Читать книгу: «Dear Santa Claus», страница 2

The Night After Christmas

 
'TWAS the night after Christmas, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring—excepting a mouse.
The stockings were flung in haste over the chair,
For hopes of St. Nicholas were no longer there.
The children were restlessly tossing in bed,
For the pie and the candy were heavy as lead;
While mamma in her kerchief, and I in my gown,
Had just made up our minds that we would not lie down,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my chair to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I went with a dash,
Flung open the shutter, and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of noon-day to objects below,
When what to my long anxious eyes should appear
But a horse and a sleigh, both old-fashioned and queer;
With a little old driver, so solemn and slow,
I knew at a glance it must be Dr. Brough.
I drew in my head, and was turning around,
When upstairs came the Doctor, with scarcely a sound.
He wore a thick overcoat, made long ago,
And the beard on his chin was white with the snow.
He spoke a few words, and went straight to his work;
He felt all the pulses,—then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
With a nod of his head to the chimney he goes:—
"A spoonful of oil, ma'am, if you have it handy;
No nuts and no raisins, no pies and no candy.
These tender young stomachs cannot well digest
All the sweets that they get; toys and books are the best.
But I know my advice will not find many friends,
For the custom of Christmas the other way tends.
The fathers and mothers, and Santa Claus, too,
Are exceedingly blind. Well, a good-night to you!"
And I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight:
"These feastings and candies make Doctors' bills right!"
 

NELLY'S VISIT

ONE summer, Nelly's auntie, who lived in the country, asked her to come and make a good, long visit, and you may be sure Nelly was very glad to go.

She had always lived in the city, and she thought it great fun to feed the hens and chickens and calves, and to watch all the animals and talk to them.

Cousin Fred was about her own age, so it was very pleasant for them to play together. Fred took her around the farm and told her about all the pets, and they soon knew her as well as though she had always lived there.

Milly, one of the horses, would eat out of a spoon, and Nelly and her cousin took turns feeding her. When they went away, she whinnied for them to come back again, but Nelly said, "You shall have some more to-morrow; you mustn't be a piggy-wiggy."

One day Fred and Nelly gathered flowers in the woods, and Nelly made a wreath to put upon her cousin's head.

"It seems just like fairyland out here," she said. "Let's play it is fairyland, and I'm a fairy and you're a brownie."

Fred thought that a very good game indeed, and they played that they lived in the flowers and could change themselves into birds, or squirrels, or people, whenever they wished.

But bye and bye they got hungry, and they couldn't live on the honey from the flowers, as real fairies might; so they spread out the lunch which they had brought and decided to be children again. It seemed as though they had never tasted anything quite so good as that lunch.

One day Speckle, the big hen, made a great fuss because her brood of ducklings went into the water. She flew about here and there on the bank of the stream, and called to them to come back, but the ducklings were having great fun and paid no attention at all to her.