Chapter XVII: A Counterplot (3)

"Never mind, Toddle; just put your head under the clothes, where they can't get at you."

Toddletums did so, but in a little while he peered from under the clothing. A firefly happening along at the moment set him yelling:

"It's no use, papa. I hid under the clothes, and now they've gone off and got lanterns to find me with."

* * * * *

WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY IN THE SCHOOL-ROOM.

"EF GEORGE HAD BEEN A GIRL, AND HAD DRESSED IN FEMALE CLO'ES,
WOULD HE HAVE BEEN THE MOTHER OF HER COUNTRY, DO YOU S'POSE?"

* * * * *

THE BULL-FROG DANCE.

It is lovely when the moonlight is a-shining on the bog,
To watch the lively antics of the agile-legged frog;
When the moonfay boys are playing on their long and limpid flutes,
It sends a thrill of pleasure down our spinals to our boots.
On a mushroom seat,
With the grasses at our feet,
And the lightning-bugs a-flashing here and there beneath the trees,
'Tis a very pretty sight,
In the pale moonlight,
With an undertone of humming and a-thrumming of the bees.
You can talk about the pleasure that you mortals find on earth,
You can crack your funny jokelets, we don't envy you your mirth;
For you've never had the laughter
That we moonfay boys get after
We have watched for forty minutes three long-legged bull-frogs dance!

* * * * *

A WONDERFUL SEA-TALE.

A lad was found begging in Plymouth, England, some years ago, who told a most wonderful tale of woe. According to his statement, given with a straight face and an apparently clear conscience, he had been a cabin-boy upon an American steamship. For some misbehavior, as a temporary punishment he was headed up in an empty water-cask, and left to reflect upon his wickedness, with only the bunghole of the cask to breathe through. On the following night a terrible storm came up, and the vessel went down with all on board, excepting himself, the cask having rolled over into the sea at the first lurch of the sinking ship. Fortunately for its unhappy occupant, the cask floated with the bunghole free from the water, and in the course of a day or so was cast upon the coast, where the lad, after making numerous vain attempts to release himself, settled back to die. Some cows, however, he said, came strolling along the beach, and one of them, while switching its tail about, accidentally let the end of it into the bunghole of the cask. The boy immediately seized upon it; the cow, electrified, jumped, stood still, and jumped again, and then rushed bellowing down the beach, the boy hanging on like grim death, and the cask, consequently, bumping the hind legs of the frightened bovine as she fled. Finally, as the boy had hoped, the hoops of the cask were loosened, and striking upon a rock, the whole thing was shattered, and the boy, letting go of the cow's tail, found himself free once more. After wandering about for several days he hailed a vessel, and was carried to Plymouth, where his wonderful experience first became common talk.

* * * * *

A LITTLE TOMMYTHOUGHT.

The coal-man on the wagon sits,
And shivers in the storm.
I don't see why that load of coal
Won't keep the driver warm.

* * * * *

HEREDITY.

FREDDY. "I think papa takes more after my little baby brother than he does after me."

MAMMA. "Why, Freddy?"

FREDDY. "Because all his hair is at the back and sides of his head, and it won't come to the front."

* * * * *

THE FINEST KIND.

"I tell you, mamma," said little Herbert, when his mother gave him a chocolate éclair for the first time the other day, "this is the finest kind of a banana I ever tasted!"

End of Project Gutenberg's Harper's Round Table, February 11, 1896, by Various