Part 5
But more fun was coming. When the ice became firm, Caroline and her brothers went to the Park to skate. Marie did not know how to skate, but Harold said she must have a slide on the ice, and that he would take good care of her. So Marie was tucked snugly into a sled, with plenty of robes to keep her warm.
Edmund played horse and pulled, while Harold did the pushing.
“One for the money, Two for the show, Three to make ready, and Four to go,”
shouted Harold, and away they went like the wind.
Caroline, and Bébé, Marie’s dog, tried to keep pace with them, but were soon left far behind.
Was not Marie lucky to have such kind cousins?
THE LAPLANDER.
This Laplander looks as if he were sitting for his photograph, though I don’t expect photographers ever go to such a cold country as his. Lapland, you know, is in the northern part of Russia, and the people there dress in furs and skins all the time.
To go swiftly over the snow, they wear big shoes like the one the man is holding. These are strapped on the feet, and a Lapland boy skims along faster than any of you can skate.
But think of it—he never tasted a peach or a strawberry in his life. In his cold home only a few small trees and bushes grow. There are no fruits or vegetables, and the only food is the flesh of the reindeer, and fish.
The houses are round huts, with a hole at the top to let the smoke out.
The Laplander’s fortune is in his reindeer, and his only business, the care of large herds of them. A little Lapland baby lies in a cradle made of wood hollowed out and filled with white moss. Pieces of leather are laced across the top, and the mother fastens the cradle to her back when she travels.
Lazy little people who don’t like school, should go to Lapland, for there, if a boy knows his A, B, C, he is thought very learned.
ANNA’S BOUQUET.
“What shall we do to-morrow, Charlie?”
“Suppose we go to the grove and gather flowers.”
“Yes, we’ll get some for mamma, and then she will tell us fairy tales about them.”
The next morning Charlie and Anna spent in the woods. Charlie pulled the flowers that Anna could not reach, and she carried home a big bunch, which her mamma put in a vase. There were dandelions, cowslips, jonquils, and woodbine.
“Does dandelion mean that the lion is a dandy, mamma?” asked Anna.
“No, dear, that comes from a French word—_dent-de-lion_—lion’s teeth. Another flower from the French is the pansy, which means _pensée_, thought, and the emblem is, Think of me.”
“Can you tell us anything about the jonquil?” asked Charlie.
“That flower belongs to the Narcissus family. There is a pretty story about it. Once there lived a beautiful boy named Narcissus. While hunting one day, he sat down by a stream to rest, and seeing his face in the water, fell in love with it. Because he couldn’t get his picture, he pined away, and the fairies changed him into a flower.”
“He was a silly fellow,” said Charlie.
“But if he hadn’t been so,” replied Anna, “there wouldn’t be any nice story. I love flowers with stories to them.”
THE CORK BOAT.
My boy Charlie has made a cork boat, and is blowing it about to try and make it sink, but it is like a life-boat, and will not go over. Did you ever see a life-boat? and do you know what makes it different from other boats? or why it is so called? Perhaps you don’t know, so I will tell you, for all knowledge is pleasant and useful.
A life-boat is so called because it is useful in saving life. When a ship is in distress, a life-boat can put off from the shore and reach the ship, and then come back again laden with the poor people it has saved from drowning, because it can live in a sea where any other boat would sink and be lost.
“Why is this?” you ask. That is just what I am going to explain. So, stop blowing, Charlie, and come and listen to me.
A life-boat is lined with cork; in other words, it has a compartment or inside casing filled in with cork, or sometimes with large thin metal air-tight tubes; this is done to make it buoyant, that is, able to keep bounding along the stormy sea instead of sinking to the bottom. For cork will not sink. Stick a sail to it, and blow as Charlie has done, but you will not blow it over easily.
The brave men who man the life-boat must be made safe, too; so they wear cork jackets, and life-belts filled with cork, and take life-buoys with them. A life-buoy is a large round casing filled with cork, with a hole in the middle large enough to slip over a man’s head and shoulders, and it will keep him from sinking to have one on.
OLD MOLLY HARE.
“Don’t be afraid, little girl—it is only Old Molly Hare. I won’t hurt you.”
“Oh, Molly, my heart is going pit-a-pat. I was playing that I was in a jungle, and when you popped your head up, I thought you were a lion. Where did you come from?”
“I was sitting behind the fence, and a bad boy threw a stone at me, so I took to my heels through the wheat. My little ones are waiting for me in the hollow tree yonder.”
“Tell me about them. Have they got pretty eyes, and long brown ears like you, Molly? I never saw a baby hare.”
“Their eyes are not as pretty as yours, little girl, but they can see behind and before at once, and their long ears can hear a pin fall.”
“How nice! I wish I was a hare, Molly.”
“Better be a little girl. You have a warm house, but we live under the rocks and fences—and when the snow is on the ground, if we even poke our noses out, the men and dogs are after us.”
“Well, I’m going to tell my papa that he mustn’t shoot you. But, Molly, don’t you get mad sometimes? I heard my grandpapa tell a man that he was as ‘mad as a March hare.’”
“That’s only an old saying, my dear. Hark! I hear a gun. Good-bye.”
THE FIRST RIDE.
Nurse and George were standing by the garden gate one fine summer afternoon. George had been playing in the hay field, making nests in the sweet hay for himself and nurse.
And they had tossed the hay about, and thrown it at each other, and had had a good game of play.
And now nurse and George were both tired, and they were going into the house to have some tea.
Just then, Tom, the carter, passed by, leading one of the horses, and he said—
“Will you have a ride, Master Georgey?”
“I think not,” said nurse. “He has never been on a horse.”
“He will be quite safe,” said Tom; “Dapple is very steady, and if Master Georgey will hold tight by the halter, there is no fear of his tumbling off.”
“Oh, do let me go!” said George.
When nurse saw how quiet Dapple was, she let Tom lift Georgey on his back. Tom stroked the horse’s nose, and said—
“You will be glad of a rest in the stable, and of your supper.”
“What does he have for supper, Tom?” asked Georgey.
“Hay, and some oats,” said Tom.
“And what does he drink?”
“Fresh clear water,” said Tom; “horses like to have clean water to drink.”
“When I am big,” said George, “I will have a horse of my own, and I will ride on him every day.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed. 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.