Читать книгу: «Dear Santa Claus», страница 3

Chanticleer seemed to think they were not very well behaved and needed a good scolding; so he began to strut about and talk at the top of his voice; but the ducklings had their swim and came out as happy as could be.

Nelly thought the little chicks were prettier.Shep, the dog, could hunt eggs as well as they could, and he always helped them. After he had found a nest, he took each egg carefully in his mouth, and laid it in the basket which the children had brought; and he never broke one.

"I believe he could count them if he tried," said Nelly."Of course he can count," said Fred. "When we send him after the cows, he never leaves one behind, nor the sheep either. If one strays away, he hunts for it until he finds it. But he wouldn't hurt one of them for anything, no matter how hard he had to work to bring them in."

They watched the milking, and drank all the warm milk they wanted; and one day they helped churn."I believe I could make butter, too," said Nelly."Of course you could, dear," said her auntie; "it wouldn't take long for you to learn, either."Nelly was delighted with this, and wanted to begin right away.

FAIRY STORIES

LAURA, Eva, and Susy are three sisters who are very fond of fairy stories, as most little girls are.

Laura is the oldest, and reads the stories aloud to the others, while Humpty-Dumpty, the kitten, sits near and listen—or, at least, he seems to be listening.

But sometimes he gets tired of sitting still and jumps right up on Laura's book, so she has to stop. Then they all have a great frolic, and very often little brother Harry comes in to join in the fun, and they play until they are tired out.

One story which they like very much is about a little girl who was lost in the woods and wandered about for a long, long time, until she was so tired that she fell asleep on the ground, with the flowers all around her and the birds singing.

But the birds were really fairies and were watching over her to see that she was not harmed, and they sang to her on purpose to lull her to sleep, for they knew how tired she was.

And when she wakened, she understood what they said to her and knew they were fairies, and they led her out of the forest and all the way to her home. They asked her to come and visit them again, too, and promised to take good care of her.

Another of their favorite stories is about the flower fairies who come and dance and sing for little children in the forest when it is very still and the sun is shining brightly.

Laura says she thinks she has almost heard them sometimes, talking to the birds; and they often sit very quiet indeed, with their dollies hugged tightly in their arms, and listen and watch.Once Eva went to sleep when she was watching like this, out in the grove back of her home, and she dreamed that a fairy came and danced for her and sang the sweetest songs you ever heard.

"She was just like a little girl, too," said Eva. "She was bare-footed and hadn't any hat on her head, and she wanted me to come and dance with her."

"Did you?" asked little Susy, breathlessly.

"Of course!" said Eva. "We danced and danced and had just a lovely time together, and then I had to go and wake up."

"Oh, oh, oh, I wish I could have a dream like that!" cried little Susy; and she went and lay down on the couch right away, to see if she couldn't go to sleep and dream about fairies, too.