Chapter I: Preface

Boys and girls, I am proud to call a host of you my personal friends, and I dearly love you all. It has been a great pleasure to me to arrange this gift book for you, and I hope you will like the stories and ballads, and spend many happy hours over them. One story, "The Middle Daughter," was originally published in Harper's "Round Table," and is inserted here by consent of Messrs. Harper and Brothers. Two of the ballads, "Horatius," and "The Pied Piper," belong to literature, and you cannot afford not to know them, and some of the fairy stories are like bits of golden coin, worth treasuring up and reading often. Miss Mary Joanna Porter deserves the thanks of the boys for the aid she has given in the making of this volume, and the bright stories she has contributed to its pages.

A merry time to you, boys and girls, and a heart full of love from your steadfast friend,

M.E.S.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
1. The Clover Leaf Club of Bloomdale. By M.E. Sangster 9

2. The Lighthouse Lamp. By M.E. Sangster. 71

3. The Family Mail-bag. By Mary Joanna Porter 73

4. A Day's Fishing. By Mary Joanna Porter 79

5. Why Charlie Didn't Go. By Mary Joanna Porter 85

6. Uncle Giles' Paint Brush. By Mary Joanna Porter 91

7. The Pied Piper of Hamelin. By Robert Browning 95

8. A Girl Graduate. By Cynthia Barnard 104

9. A Christmas Frolic. By M.E. Sangster 116

10. Archie's Vacation. By Mary Joanna Porter 119

11. A Birthday Story. By M.E. Sangster 124

12. A Coquette. By Amy Pierce 130

13. Horatius. Ballad. By T.B. Macaulay 131

14. A Bit of Brightness. By Mary Joanna Porter 151

15. How Sammy Earned the Prize. By M.E. Sangster 157

16. The Glorious Fourth 162

17. The Middle Daughter. By M.E. Sangster 163

18. The Golden Bird. By the Brothers Grimm. 226

19. Harry Pemberton's Text. By Elizabeth Armstrong 239

20. Our Cats 246

21. Outovplace 252

22. The Boy Who Dared to be a Daniel. By S. Jennie Smith 254

23. Little Red Cap. By the Brothers Grimm. 259

24. New Zealand Children 266

25. The Breeze from the Peak 271

26. The Bremen Town Musicians. By the Brothers Grimm 276

27. A Very Queer Steed and Some Strange Adventures.
Told after Ariosto, by Elizabeth Armstrong 282

28. Freedom's Silent Host. By M.E. Sangster 292

29. Presence of Mind. By M.E. Sangster 294

30. The Boy Who Went from the Sheepfold to the Throne.
By M.E. Sangster 312

Holiday Stories for Young People

The Clover Leaf Club of Bloomdale

BY MARGARET E. SANGSTER.