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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11877 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 11877-h.htm or 11877-h.zip:
+      (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/8/7/11877/11877-h/11877-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/8/7/11877/11877-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+MONKEY JACK AND OTHER STORIES
+
+Edited by Palmer Cox
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MONKEY JACK.
+
+
+  A lit-tle maid weeps pit-e-ous-ly,
+    In dire dis-tress de-mand-ing aid;
+  Her pre-cious ball is up a tree,
+    And ev-ery boy shrinks back a-fraid.
+
+  It hangs a-loft, a shin-ing thing,
+    Caught by the ve-ry top-most spray,
+  Where slen-der branch-es ta-per-ing
+    'Neath the light bur-den move and sway.
+
+  Hur-rah! he comes whom all ad-mire,
+    Whose nim-ble legs, and lis-som back,
+  And read-y pluck, that naught can tire,
+    Win him the name of "Mon-key Jack."
+
+  See how he leaps from bough to bough
+    To gain that most be-lov'd of balls!
+  His out-stretch'd hand has caught it now;
+    The branch gives way--the he-ro falls!
+
+  The fright-en'd chil-dren ut-ter cries,
+    But e-ven yet he does his best;
+  His vic-tor hand re-tains the prize,
+    And clasps it to his faith-ful breast.
+
+  Laid on his bed, com-pos'd, though sad,
+    With bro-ken leg and in-jured back,
+  We find a lit-tle pa-tient lad,
+    A-las, no long-er "Mon-key Jack!"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  With books and toys, what-e'er is best,
+    His com-rades seek him, one and all,
+  And shy-ly peep-ing through the rest,
+    Poor lit-tle Ro-sa brings her ball.
+
+  Placed at the win-dow, day by day,
+    While pil-lows raise his wea-ry head,
+  His wist-ful eyes be-hold the play
+    Which once with joy-ous heart he led.
+
+  And in his hand the ball is laid,
+    And if to fling it is his whim,
+  The sig-nal is at once obey'd,
+    With ea-ger feet they run to him.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  But more than this they glad-ly do--
+    Each coin they get they save with care,
+  And Ro-sa brings her six-pence, too,
+    To swell the splen-did treas-ure there.
+
+  Mon-ey can pur-chase any-thing.
+    The hap-py chil-dren send to town,
+  And to the crip-ple's bed they bring
+    A sur-geon of the first re-nown.
+
+  Oh, beau-ti-ful tri-um-phant day!
+    When light of heart and free from pain,
+  The pa-tient lad has slipped away,
+    And "Mon-key Jack" climbs trees again!
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Here are a num-ber of lit-tle tots, and what do you think they are
+do-ing? I think the lit-tle girl on her knees is pay-ing for-feits.
+
+
+
+
+A PAIR OF FRIENDS.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Tab-by and Rover are very good friends, so that she is not at all a-fraid
+to eat out of his dish when-ev-er she has not din-ner e-nough of her own.
+
+
+
+
+A RAIN-Y DAY.
+
+
+Rain, rain, rain! How it did rain! The great drops ran down the glass in
+streams. Tom, Jack, and lit-tle Meg watched it for a long time. "O dear!"
+they said at last, "do you think it will nev-er clear? We want to go out
+and play."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Why do you not go up to the gar-ret, and play?" asked their mam-ma.
+
+That struck them as a fine plan; and off they trooped, pound-ing up
+the bare stairs with their nois-y feet. They found three old brooms,
+and be-gan to play soldier,--Tom first, then Jack, with Meg last of
+all. The gar-ret was ver-y large; and their mam-ma could hear them
+as they tramped a-long, and could hear Tom's com-mand to right a-bout
+face when they had reached the farth-er end.
+
+By and by they tired of play-ing sol-dier; and then they pulled down
+some old dress-es and hats that hung on a peg, and put them on, and
+made be-lieve that they were grown peo-ple. Then, out of an old box,
+they dragged a scrap-book full of pic-tures, and sat them down to
+look them o-ver.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mean-time their friend Rose had come, all wrapped up, through the
+rain, to make them a call. She brought a bas-ket, in which were her
+two kit-tens.
+
+"The chil-dren are in the gar-ret," said their mam-ma.
+
+So Rose ran up to find them. She did find them; but what do you
+think?--they were fast a-sleep.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Sweet is the voice that calls
+  From bab-bling wa-ter-falls
+    In mead-ows where the down-y
+      seeds are fly-ing,
+  And soft the breez-es blow,
+  And ed-dy-ing come and go,
+    In fad-ed gar-dens where the
+      rose is dy-ing
+
+
+
+
+THE QUARREL.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Grace and Bell have had a quar-rel. Bell was most at fault, but now she
+is ver-y sor-ry for what she has done. So she kiss-es her sis-ter, and
+the trou-ble is all o-ver.
+
+
+
+
+OLD WINTER.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  Old Win-ter is com-ing; a-lack, a-lack!
+    How i-cy and cold is he!
+  He's wrapped to the heels in a snow-y white sack;
+  The trees he has lad-en till read-y to crack;
+  He whis-tles his trills with a won-der-ful knack,
+    For he comes from a cold coun-tree.
+
+  A fun-ny old fel-low is Win-ter, I trow,
+    A mer-ry old fel-low for glee:
+  He paints all the no-ses a beau-ti-ful hue,
+  He counts all our fin-gers, and pinch-es them too;
+  Our toes he gets hold of through stock-ing and shoe;
+    For a fun-ny old fel-low is he.
+
+  Old Win-ter is blow-ing his gusts a-long,
+    And mer-ri-ly shak-ing the tree:
+  From morn-ing to night he will sing us his song,
+  Now moan-ing and short, now bold-ly and long;
+  His voice it is loud, for his lungs are so strong,
+    And a mer-ry old fel-low is he.
+
+  Old Win-ter's a rough old chap to some,
+    As rough as ev-er you'll see.
+  "I with-er the flow-ers when-ev-er I come,
+  I qui-et the brook that went laugh-ing a-long,
+  I drive all the birds off to find a new home
+    I'm as rough as rough can be."
+
+  A cun-ning old fel-low is Winter, they say,--
+    A cun-ning old fel-low is he:
+  He peeps in the crev-i-ces day by day,
+  To see how we're pass-ing our time a-way,
+  And mark all our do-ing from so-ber to gay;
+    I'm a-fraid he is peep-ing at me!
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE HARD LESSON.
+
+
+"I can nev-er, nev-er learn it," said Bell; and she burst in-to tears.
+
+"Car-rie has learned it," said Miss Gray; "and I am sure you can. Try,
+try a-gain."
+
+"Yes, Bell," said Car-rie; "and then per-haps we can have a romp in
+the hay-field. You will have to hur-ry, for the men are cart-ing it
+in-to the barn."
+
+Thus urged, Bell made a fresh ef-fort; and soon the les-son was learned
+and re-cit-ed.
+
+Off scam-pered the two girls to the hay-field. Soon Miss Gray fol-lowed,
+but there was noth-ing to be seen of them. She looked all a-bout, and at
+last walked up to the man who was load-ing the hay on the cart.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Can you see an-y thing of two lit-tle girls from where you are?" she
+asked.
+
+"I don't see them," he an-swered, stand-ing up and look-ing a-round.
+
+Miss Gray turned a-way, when all at once she heard a laugh be-hind her.
+She looked back, and there were the laugh-ing fa-ces of Bell and Car-rie.
+They had been on the cart, all hid-den un-der the hay in or-der to play
+a lit-tle joke on Miss Gray. Then they scram-bled down, and came run-ning
+to her.
+
+The man on the cart smiled to see their fun. Then he said sadly, "Dear me,
+I wish my lit-tle lass could run a-bout like that."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Is she ill?" asked Car-rie.
+
+"Yes," said the man; "but she is get-ting bet-ter now."
+
+"We'll ask mam-ma to take us to see her," said Bell.
+
+The ver-y next day their mam-ma did take them. They found Ruth sit-ting
+pil-lowed up in a chair, ver-y pale and white. Bell had picked her a
+bunch of flow-ers, which she seemed ver-y glad to get; and the three
+girls soon be-came good friends. Car-ree found a lit-tle gray kitten
+with which she played.
+
+The vis-it seemed to do Ruth a great deal of good; for a pink flush came
+in her cheeks, and she e-ven laughed, which her moth-er said she had not
+done before for weeks.
+
+They came a-gain the ver-y next day. Miss Gray was with them, and car-ried
+a bas-ket on her arm in which were some dain-ties to tempt the sick girl's
+ap-pe-tite. She was glad to see them, and told them they should have the
+kit-ten for their ver-y own. So pus-sy went back in the bas-ket which had
+brought the dain-ties.
+
+Near-ly ev-er-y day af-ter this the chil-dren went to see Ruth, for at
+least a week. By that time she was well e-nough to be out, and some-times
+came to see them.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+What is it that these lit-tle tots are all so anx-ious to see? It must
+be a Christ-mas-tree.
+
+
+
+
+ROB JACKSON'S DOG.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Rob Jack-son's dog jumped off the lit-tle bridge in-to the mill pond to
+fetch a stick that Hal Jones threw for him. The wheel was in full mo-tion,
+and Jack, for that was the dog's name, was drawn in toward it. Rob was
+a-fraid that Jack was go-ing to be drowned and was just a-bout to jump
+in af-ter him, when one of the mill hands held him fast. "Wait a bit,"
+said the man, and he held out a long pole to Jack who clutched it with
+his teeth and was drawn safely to land.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE WIVES OF BRIXHAM.
+
+
+  The merry boats of Brixham
+  Go out to search the seas;
+  A staunch and sturdy fleet are they,
+  Who love a swinging breeze;
+  And before the woods of Devon,
+  And the silver cliffs of Wales,
+  You may see, when summers evenings fall,
+  The light upon their sails.
+
+  But when the year grows darker,
+  And gray winds hunt the foam,
+  They go back to Little Brixham,
+  And ply their toil at home.
+  And thus it chanced one winter's night,
+  When a storm began to roar,
+  That all the men were out at sea,
+  And all the wives on shore.
+
+  Then as the wind grew fiercer,
+  The women's cheeks grew white,
+  It was fiercer in the twilight.
+  And fiercest in the night.
+  The strong clouds set themselves like ice,
+  Without a star to melt,
+  The blackness of the darkness
+  Was darkness to be felt.
+
+  The storm like an assassin
+  Went on its wicked way,
+  And struck a hundred boats adrift,
+  To reel about the bay.
+  They meet, they crash--God keep the men!
+  God give a moment's light!
+  There is nothing but the tumult,
+  And the tempest and the night.
+
+  The men on shore were anxious,
+  They dreaded what they knew;
+  What do you think the women did?
+  Love taught them what to do!
+  Out spake a wife, "We've beds at home,
+  We'll burn them for a light:
+  Give us the men and the bare ground!
+  We want no more to-night."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  They took the grandame's blanket,
+  Who shivered and bade them go;
+  They took the baby's pillow,
+  Who could not say them no;
+  And they heaped a great fire on the pier,
+  And knew not all the while
+  If they were heaping a bonfire,
+  Or only a funeral pile.
+
+  And fed with precious food, the flame
+  Shone bravely on the black,
+  Till a cry rang through the people,
+  "A boat is coming back!"
+  Staggering dimly through the fog,
+  Come shapes of fear and doubt,
+  But when the first prow strikes the pier,
+  Cannot you hear them shout?
+
+  Then all along the breadth of flame
+  Dark figures shrieked and ran,
+  With "Child, here comes your father!"
+  Or, "Wife, is this your man?"
+  And faint feet touch the welcome stone,
+  And wait a little while;
+  And kisses drop from frozen lips,
+  Too tired to speak or smile.
+
+  So, one by one they struggled in,
+  All that the sea would spare;
+  We will not reckon through our tears
+  The names that were not there;
+  But some went home without a bed,
+  When all the tale was told,
+  Who were too cold with sorrow
+  To know the night was cold.
+
+                Author of poem written for a child.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+AGRIPPA.
+
+
+This is the picture of a kit-ten who lived once at a farm-house. He was
+such a pret-ty lit-tle cat as to be made a great pet and used to trot
+a-bout af-ter the peo-ple like a lit-tle dog. His name was A-grip-pa
+and he knew it quite well.
+
+To this farm-house came a boy and girl named Ned and Lau-ra, to spend the
+sum-mer. Both were fond of pets and both played so much with A-grip-pa
+that he grew rath-er la-zy and did not try to catch ma-ny mice.
+
+Ned and Lau-ra were ver-y good friends, but it happened now and then that
+both want-ed the same thing and then, sad to say, some loud words might
+be heard. Ned would say, "Give me Grip-pa," and Lau-ra would an-swer,
+"You shan't have Grip-pa!" and Ned would say a-gain, "I will have Grip-pa,"
+and so it would go on till some-times poor Grip-pa would run a-way. But
+they al-ways made up and were friends a-gain.
+
+Grip-pa grew up a large, fine cat, and lived some years. But he was at
+length taken ill. He came no more to the house, but stayed in the barn
+and grew ver-y weak, till he could hard-ly walk. At last, one day he
+came walk-ing fee-bly to the house. He went in-to the kitch-en, then
+to the pan-try, then to the din-ing room. In-to all the rooms went
+Grip-pa, and in each room sat down and looked a-round, as if tak-ing
+a last fare-well; then slow-ly walked out of doors. It was in-deed his
+last vis-it. Next morn-ing poor Grip-pa was found dead.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+FRANK'S BOY.
+
+
+Frank More had been out skat-ing near-ly the whole af-ter-noon, for there
+was no school this week, and the ice was in fine or-der. It was al-most
+dark, and he was go-ing home, skates in hand, when a poor boy a-bout as
+large as him-self came up and be-gan to beg from him.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Go home with me," said Frank, "and you shall have some sup-per."
+
+The boy went glad-ly, and on the way Frank asked him ma-ny ques-tions.
+When they ar-rived, Frank took him to the kitch-en, where Jane the cook
+gave him a warm seat and plen-ty of sup-per, for his thin face made her
+feel sor-ry.
+
+When Frank had seen him com-fort-a-bly set-tled, he went up stairs to
+tell his fa-ther and moth-er a-bout the lad.
+
+"Don't you think, fa-ther," he said, "that grand-pa would like such a
+boy? He says he will be glad to work, and if moth-er will let me give
+him my old suit, I can take him to see grand-pa in the morning."
+
+"Well, Frank, you may try," said his fa-ther. So poor Sam had a good
+bed to sleep in that night, and next morn-ing the two boys went to see
+a-bout work for him. Dressed in the warm clothes Frank's moth-er gave
+him, he looked like quite a dif-fer-ent boy, and was ve-ry grate-ful
+for her kind-ness.
+
+It was soon set-tled that Sam should live at old Mr. More's. He had a
+good ma-ny things to do: to help take care of the chick-ens, the sheep
+and lambs, the cows and horses; and be-sides all this, he went to school,
+and with all the other boys, had great fun at coast-ing and skat-ing when
+school was out. But he worked as well as he played, and proved so trust-y,
+that grand-ma said: "Frank's boy was a boy worth hav-ing."
+
+So Sam found a good home and Frank had the pleas-ure of know-ing that he
+had helped one boy to be both use-ful and hap-py.
+
+
+
+
+JOEY'S EXPLOIT.
+
+
+Jo-ey Hart was a boy who was sent by his fath-er to spend the sum-mer
+with an un-cle in the coun-try. Jo-ey had been ill, and the doc-tor
+said that there was noth-ing like coun-try air to make him well a-gain.
+
+So he set off one bright morn-ing, and be-fore night was safe at his
+un-cle's farm. His pa-pa had thought that Jo-ey might go to school
+dur-ing the sum-mer, but when the doc-tor heard of it he said no.
+"Let the boy run wild for three months. He will learn twice as fast
+next win-ter."
+
+He was wild with joy when he was at last at his un-cle's. He was so
+hun-gry, and the bread and but-ter and milk tast-ed so nice-ly, that
+he thought he should nev-er have e-nough. Each day he was up with the
+sun, and by night had played so hard that al-most be-fore it was dark
+he was read-y to go to bed.
+
+It was great fun to watch the men in the fields at work. Some-times his
+un-cle let him ride the mow-ing ma-chine, and at such times he was ve-ry
+proud. Then it was ve-ry ex-cit-ing to ride on the top of a great sway-ing
+load of hay, right in on to the barn floor.
+
+La-ter on, when the hay was all gath-ered, the wheat be-gan to rip-en,
+and the men were bu-sy cut-ting it and gath-er-ing it in-to sheaves. The
+birds act-ed as if they thought it was cut for them on-ly, for they came
+in such swarms that it looked as if they would eat it all and leave none
+for the farm-er.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Some-times his aunt would ask him to take their lunch-eon to the men
+at work in the fields, for dur-ing hay-ing and har-vest when the work
+is heav-i-est the men al-ways have a lunch at ten in the morn-ing.
+
+Now on one day when Jo-ey took his bas-ket and left the house for the
+fields, he got him-self in-to trou-ble, and this was the way. Close by
+his un-cle's house on the main street lived a gen-tle-man who had a
+fine gar-den. All a-round it was a high fence and a no-tice was post-ed
+up, "Tres-pas-sers will be pros-e-cu-ted." That no-tice was be-cause
+the school house was not far a-way, and the boys some-times helped
+them-selves to the old gen-tle-man's ap-ples.
+
+Jo-ey had to pass di-rect-ly by the gar-den wall, and it so hap-pened
+that his bas-ket was heav-y and he set it down to rest.
+
+What took place you can see in the pic-ture on the next page bet-ter
+than I can tell you. Jo-ey got the ap-ples but a bad fall, and when
+he went to get up he found that he could not stand and that one an-kle
+hurt him se-vere-ly.
+
+How long he would have staid there I can not tell, had not the men in
+the field grown hun-gry and sent one of their num-ber to see what had
+be-come of their lunch.
+
+The mes-sen-ger found Jo-ey, and picked him up and car-ried him home.
+Then, com-ing back, he took the bas-ket and all the ap-ples that lay
+a-bout, and went back to the field and the men ate them all for lunch-eon.
+
+And so Jo-ey not on-ly got no ap-ples but had to lie in bed for a week
+be-fore his an-kle got well e-nough for him to run a-bout a-gain.
+
+[Illustration: "Oh, I say! and pippins too!!"
+    "I'll help myself to some of these, see if I don't Mister Notice."
+        Joey helps himself to more than he intended.]
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11877 ***