Chapter II

One day some white people came over the sea in a ship. They were called Pilgrims.

It was cold, and snow was on the ground.

The Pilgrims sent out some men to walk along the shore.

They were looking for a good place to build their log-houses.

They soon came to a pile of sand. They began to dig, and found a basket full of corn. It belonged to the Indians.

The Pilgrims did not know that the Indians could make such large, strong baskets. It took two men to lift the basket of corn from the ground.

The white men had never seen Indian corn.

“How beautiful it is!” they said.

The Pilgrims took some of the corn to plant in the spring. The next summer they paid the Indians for all they had taken.

A kind Indian taught them how to plant the corn. He also taught them how to cook it.

Indian corn is one of the most useful of all the plants that grow.

THE COMING OF THE CORN.

Hiawatha, the young Indian chief, was alone in the woods.

He was thinking what he could do to help his people.

He could not rise from his bed of leaves, as he had not eaten anything for three days.

Then a young man dressed in green and yellow came to him.

“Oh, my Hiawatha!” he said. “I am Mondamin, the friend of man.

“I have come to tell you how you can help your people. Arise from your bed and wrestle with me.”

Hiawatha grew stronger and stronger as he wrestled with Mondamin. Three times Mondamin came and wrestled with Hiawatha.

Then Mondamin said, “The next time we wrestle you will win. Take off my green and yellow clothes. Make a bed for me to lie in where the sun may come and warm me.

“No one but you must watch beside me, until I come again with the sunshine.”

Hiawatha made the bed as Mondamin had told him, and then went home. Every day he watched the place where Mondamin was lying.

At last he saw a small green feather coming up from the earth.

Before the summer was over, the corn with its soft yellow hair stood before him, tall and beautiful.

Then Hiawatha was glad, and cried, “It is Mondamin, the friend of man!”

He called the Indians and showed them the corn. Then he said, “It is a gift for you, my people, and it will always be your food.”

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW’S “Hiawatha” (_Adapted_).

ARABELLA’S PARTY.

“Grandma, Arabella wants a party, and there are no dolls to come to it,” said Ruth.

“Peter has been lying in my room a great many years,” said Grandma. “I think he would like to come to a party.”

Ruth laughed when Grandma gave her the rag baby. He wore such queer clothes.

“Your father played with Peter when he was a little boy,” said Grandma. “He liked Sally Squash, too. Shall we ask her to the party?”

Ruth followed Grandma into the garden. They soon found a long squash.

Grandma cut a face in the small end, and put a white paper dress on the squash. Then Sally was ready for the party.

“I should like to ask Patty Corncob,” said Grandma. “I played with her when I was a little girl.”

Grandma tied a head and arms made of paper on a corncob. Then she made a pink paper dress and cap.

“Oh, how pretty!” said Ruth as she looked at Patty Corncob. “I like her almost as well as Arabella.”

Grandma drew a face in the head of a clothespin, and put on a blue paper dress and hat.

“This is Betty Clothes-pin,” said Grandma. “She came to my parties long ago.”

Ruth could not tell which she liked the better, Patty or Betty.

They all sat down under a tree, and ate the cake that Dinah had baked for the party.

Arabella did not look like the other dolls. She had blue eyes and yellow hair, and wore a beautiful silk dress.

But she smiled and seemed to have almost as good a time as Grandma and Ruth.

THE CATERPILLAR.

Fuzzy little caterpillar,
Crawling, crawling on the ground!
Fuzzy little caterpillar,
Nowhere, nowhere to be found,
Though we’ve looked and looked and hunted
Everywhere around!

When the little caterpillar
Found his fuzzy coat too tight,
Then a snug cocoon he made him,
Spun of silk so soft and light;
Rolled himself away within it,
Slept there day and night.

See how this cocoon is stirring!
Now a little head we spy.
What! Is _this_ our caterpillar
Spreading gorgeous wings to dry?
Soon the free and happy creature
Flutters gaily by.

EMILIE POULSSON.

RUMPEL-STILTS-KIN.

There was once a wicked miller who said to his king, “I have a beautiful daughter who can spin straw into gold.”

The king loved gold more than anything else, so he carried the miller’s daughter away to his castle.

He filled a large room with straw, and said to her, “If you do not spin this straw into gold before morning, you must die.”

Then the king went out and locked the door.

The miller’s daughter sat down and began to cry. She did not know how to spin straw into gold.

Soon a brownie came in, and said, “What will you give me if I spin this straw into gold?”

“My gold chain,” said the miller’s daughter.

The brownie sat down beside the spinning-wheel, and sang,

“Round about, round about,
Lo and behold!
Reel away, reel away,
Straw into gold!”

Around went the wheel, and soon all the straw was spun into gold.

When the king came in the next morning, he was very glad to see so much gold. But he wanted more.

So he locked the miller’s daughter into a larger room filled with straw.