Chapter 2

Marjie thought, as she gave Robin a hug, that there was never a dearer friend than he!

NO JOKE AT ALL.

"Ha!" thought Tommy Purr one day, "Here's a chance a joke to play; See him drop upon the floor All those books, and hear me roar!"

Chuckling to himself in glee, "I do love a joke," said he, Pushed poor Whiskers, just for fun-- Down the books came, every one.

But the biggest book of all, Happened on his crown to fall; Tommy roared with might and main, Not with laughter but with pain.

Tommy now has gone to bed With a big bruise on his head; Vinegar and paper brown Cover up his aching crown.

There in sorrow Tommy lies, Wishing he had been more wise; For although those books did fall, His joke proved no joke at all.

WINTER HOLIDAYS.

O it's merry in the winter When the holidays come round, When the air is crisp and frosty And the snow is on the ground.

Though Jack Frost may nip your noses, There is nothing that I know Like a jolly game of snowballs, Making feet and fingers glow!

You can take your baby sister For a voyage in a sleigh; You can build a monster snow-man That will pass the time away.

Then there's hanging up the holly And the Christmas mistletoe, Roasting chestnuts in the firelight, When you can't go out, you know.

If you try, you can be happy In a score of different ways. O, it's wonderful how pleasant Are the winter holidays!

WHEN I GROW UP.

"When I grow up my dress shall be All made of silk and lace, My hair I'll wear in some fine style That best will suit my face; With rings upon my fingers, too, And bracelets on my arms, I'll be the finest lady out, With wondrous mighty charms.

"When I grow up, you understand, I'll always dine at eight, And go to dances and 'At homes,' And sit up very late. I'll never touch rice-puddings then, But pastry eat, and cheese, And always do just what I like And go just where I please.

"When I grow up I'll have no nurse, Nor yet a governess; And lessons will not bother me When I grow up, I guess. I'll pay no heed to proper nouns, Nor yet to mood nor tense"-- Here nurse put in: "When you grow up Let's hope you'll have some sense!"

THE TEA PARTY.

Little Miss Betty has had a tea-party Everyone came with an appetite hearty; Animals, dollies, and toys were invited; Bobby was good and our Baby delighted; And when it was over they ran and asked mother If they might to-morrow have just such another!

TOMMY THE TEASE.

"Here's a pie I found cooling on the bench under the pantry window!" said Tom Sommers. "I'm going to eat it all myself!"

"That is the cook's pie. I saw her making it," said wee George.

"Won't 'ou div me some pie?" asked little Ella.

"No, I won't give you one single bit. This pie is full of plums and juice, I know. Ah! but it will have a good taste! No, Nancy, Susanna, Mariah Anniah you shall not have even a taste of this sweet pie!"

"My name is'nt 'Ria Sannia' 'Ou're a bad boy. 'Ou call me names. 'Ou won't div me any pie! 'Ou eat it all alone!"

"Well, now, this is too bad. Not a knife in any of my pockets! Happen to have a jack-knife with you, Georgie?"

"No, I haven't any knife."

"What, a big boy like you and no jack-knife?"

"I'd like one, but folks say I'm too little to have one yet. But I'm going to save all my candy money now and buy one for myself."

"Very well, no knife, no pie! It's getting late and I must be going along. It'll take me some time to get there for I must walk slowly so as not to spill a drop of this juicy pie. Good bye."

Saying this, Tom walked away with the pie.

Just then a loud and angry voice was heard shouting, "Where's that pie?" The stout cook came rushing upon the scene, shaking her dish cloth and rolling pin in the air. "Who's got that pie?" she screamed as she ran around and around and back again to the same bench where she had placed the pie to cool. What was her surprise, then, to see the very same pie just where she had left it!

"Oh it's that bad boy, Tom Sommers, who has been playing this trick on me!" she shouted, in a loud voice. "Just let me catch him!"

THE YOUNG LAMB.

One day when brother John came home from market he brought a baby lamb for Maude.

"I thought you'd like this little playmate, sister, you seem to be alone so much. This baby doesn't know how to nibble grass yet and you'll have to get mamma to show you how to bring him up."

Maude was delighted with her present. Her mother took a baby's nurse-bottle and filled it with sweet new milk and in a very short time Lambkin could take, through the rubber tube, all the milk his kind friends would give him.

Maude and her pet made a pretty picture playing together in the meadow.

Nora, who worked in the kitchen, used to sing an odd little song, some of the words being,

"Little lamb, little lamb, Will you leave your old dam And sit with me by the nursery fire? You shall have bread and milk, And a cushion of silk, And a cradle as soft as a lamb could desire.

"No! no, little child I'd rather run wild And play all the day by the side of my dam; For we love one another Like you and your mother And she'd cry all the day for the loss of her lamb."

TROTTY'S LESSON.

"Now try to learn this, Trotty. Of course, you're little and don't know much, but when folks ask you how old your brother is you can just say 'a whole hand old!'"

"What for buver?"

"Well, it's because I'm just five years old! You won't have to learn to count yet, but you take a short path and say 'a whole hand old!' Now will you do it?"

"I will try!"

RUTH.

"Company coming to-morrow and not a crumb of cake in the house!" said Mrs. Brown one morning. "Jane's gone and there's all the sweeping to do, the baby to take care of, and three meals a day to get!"

"Mother, mother dear," called Ruth from the next room, "do let me make the cake. I should like nothing better. It would be great fun."

"Great fun! Now that is what one says who knows nothing about it. It would be better to go without any cake at all than to place before our friends some that they cannot eat," replied the tired mother.

"When I was at Aunt Fanny's," said Ruth, "she taught me how to make a kind of cake that we all liked. Uncle John said he could eat all I could make. Do let me try, mother dear."

"Oh, Ruth, what a tease you are. Well, it will keep you quiet for a while and I suppose you must learn somehow."

Then Ruth ran into the kitchen in high glee. First she looked at the fire in the stove as Aunt Fanny had taught her to do. More coal was needed. So she had to go down cellar and bring up as much as she could in the hod. She opened the draughts and put on a little coal at first. When that had kindled she put on a little more. She took a whisk and swept out the stove oven. Then she put more water into the kettle on on top of the stove. Soon it was time to close the draughts. She put her hand into the oven to feel how hot it was just as she had seen her Aunt Fanny do.

When the stove was as she wanted it, Ruth ran out to the barn and found four warm eggs in nests among the hay. These she brought into the house, and breaking them into a bowl, began to beat them up quickly. Next she took a yellow dish from the dresser and put into it one cup of butter and two cups of sugar. For a long time she mixed these two together until they were "all one," as she called it.

Next she put the four beaten eggs into the bowl with the butter and sugar, and beat them until her little hands ached. Then she measured out three cups of flour and sifted it into another dish. With this she put two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, and then sifted flour and baking powder together. After this was done, she added a little of it at a time to the mixture of butter and eggs, beating away until all the flour had been used up. Then she put into it a teaspoonful of vanilla essence and added enough milk to make a thick batter. Little pans shaped like hearts and rounds, and one large round pan were then well greased, and the beaten up cake put into each pan until it was half full. Then the pans of cake were set into the oven and in ten or fifteen minutes all the tiny "hearts and rounds" were baked a light brown, while the large pan had to stay baking ten or fifteen minutes more.

A very happy child was young Ruth when she took out her pans of cake.

Her father, mother, brothers and the "company" who arrived the next day thought it the "nicest cake ever made by so young a little girl."

MISCHIEVOUS BABY.

Full of mischief? Well, yes, may be, Else he would not be a baby. But--when he's asleep, dear me, What baby could more quiet be?