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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12631-0.txt b/12631-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6873e51 --- /dev/null +++ b/12631-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2588 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12631 *** + +THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS +WHO LIVE ON THE ROUND BALL THAT FLOATS IN THE AIR + + +BY + +JANE ANDREWS + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LOUISA PARSONS HOPKINS FORMERLY SUPERVISOR IN +BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS + + + + +FOR + +MY THREE LITTLE FRIENDS + +Marnie, Bell, and Geordie + +I HAVE WRITTEN THESE STORIES + + + +CONTENTS. + +MEMORIAL OF MISS JANE ANDREWS +THE BALL ITSELF +THE LITTLE BROWN BABY +AGOONACK, THE ESQUIMAU SISTER +HOW AGOONACK LIVES THROUGH THE LONG SUMMER +GEMILA, THE CHILD OF THE DESERT +THE LITTLE MOUNTAIN MAIDEN +THE STORY OF PEN-SE +THE LITTLE DARK GIRL +LOUISE, THE CHILD OF THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER RHINE +LOUISE, THE CHILD OF THE WESTERN FOREST +THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS + + + +MEMORIAL OF MISS JANE ANDREWS. [Born Dec. 1, 1833. Died July 15, +1887.] + + + +BY LOUISA PARSONS HOPKINS. + + +Perhaps the readers and lovers of this little book will be glad of a +few pages, by way of introduction, which shall show them somewhat of +Miss Andrews herself, and of her way of writing and teaching, as an +old friend and schoolmate may try to tell it; and, to begin with, a +glimpse of the happy day when she called a few of her friends together +to listen to the stories contained in this volume, before they were +offered to a publisher. + +Picture to yourselves a group of young ladies in one of the loveliest +of old-fashioned parlors, looking out on a broad, elm-shaded street +in the old town of Newburyport. The room is long and large, with wide +mahogany seats in the four deep windows, ancient mahogany chairs, and +great bookcases across one side of the room, with dark pier-tables and +centre-table, and large mirror,--all of ancestral New England solidity +and rich simplicity; some saintly portraits on the wall, a modern +easel in the corner accounting for fine bits of coloring on canvas, +crayon drawings about the room, and a gorgeous firescreen of autumn +tints; nasturtium vines in bloom glorifying the south window, and +German ivy decorating the north corner; choice books here and there, +not to look at only, but to be assimilated; with an air of quiet +refinement and the very essence of cultured homeness pervading +all;--this is the meagre outline of a room, which, having once sat +within, you would wish never to see changed, in which many pure and +noble men and women have loved to commune with the lives which have +been so blent with all its suggestions that it almost seems a part of +their organic being. + +But it was twenty-five years ago [This memorial was written in 1887.] +that this circle of congenial and expectant young people were drawn +together in the room to listen to the first reading of the MSS. of +"The Seven Little Sisters." I will not name them all; but one whose +youthful fame and genius were the pride of all, Harriet Prescott (now +Mrs. Spofford), was Jane's friend and neighbor for years, and heard +most of her books in MSS. They were all friends, and in a very +sympathetic and eager attitude of mind, you may well believe; for +in the midst, by the centre-table, sits Jane, who has called them +together; and knowing that she has really written a book, each one +feels almost that she herself has written it in some unconscious way, +because each feels identified with Jane's work, and is ready to be as +proud of it, and as sure of it, as all the world is now of the success +of Miss Jane Andrews's writings for the boys and girls in these little +stories of geography and history which bear her name. + +I can see Jane sitting there, as I wish you could, with her MSS. on +the table at her side. She is very sweet and good and noble-looking, +with soft, heavy braids of light-brown hair carefully arranged on her +fine, shapely head; her forehead is full and broad; her eyes large, +dark blue, and pleasantly commanding, but with very gentle and dreamy +phases interrupting their placid decision of expression; her features +are classic and firm in outline, with pronounced resolution in the +close of the full lips, or of hearty merriment in the open laugh, +illuminated by a dazzle of well-set teeth; her complexion fresh +and pure, and the whole aspect of her face kind, courageous, and +inspiring, as well as thoughtful and impressive. The poise of her head +and rather strongly built figure is unusually good, and suggestive +of health, dignity, and leadership; yet her manners and voice are so +gentle, and her whole demeanor so benevolent, that no one could be +offended at her taking naturally the direction of any work, or the +planning of any scheme, which she would also be foremost in executing. + +But there she sits looking up at her friends, with her papers in hand, +and the pretty businesslike air that so well became her, and bespeaks +the extreme criticism of her hearers upon what she shall read, because +she really wants to know how it affects them, and what mistakes or +faults can be detected; for she must do her work as well as possible, +and is sure they are willing to help. "You see," says Jane, "I have +dedicated the book to the children I told the stories to first, +when the plan was only partly in my mind, and they seemed to grow +by telling, till at last they finished themselves; and the children +seemed to care so much for them, that I thought if they were put into +a book other children might care for them too, and they might possibly +do some good in the world." + +Yes, those were the points that always indicated the essential aim +and method of Jane's writing and teaching, the elements out of which +sprang all her work; viz., the relation of her mind to the actual +individual children she knew and loved, and the natural growth of her +thought through their sympathy, and the accretion of all she read and +discovered while the subject lay within her brooding brain, as well +as the single dominant purpose to do some good in the world. There was +definiteness as well as breadth in her way of working all through her +life. + +I wish I could remember exactly what was said by that critical circle; +for there were some quick and brilliant minds, and some pungent powers +of appreciation, and some keen-witted young women in that group. +Perhaps I might say they had all felt the moulding force of some very +original and potential educators as they had been growing up into +their young womanhood. Some of these were professional educators of +lasting pre-eminence; others were not professed teachers, yet in the +truest and broadest sense teachers of very wide and wise and inspiring +influence; and of these Thomas Wentworth Higginson had come more +intimately and effectually into formative relations with the minds and +characters of those gathered in that sunny room than any other person. +They certainly owed much of the loftiness and breadth of their aim +in life, and their comprehension of the growth and work to be +accomplished in the world, to his kind and steady instigation. I wish +I could remember what they said, and what Jane said; but all that has +passed away. I think somebody objected to the length of the title, +which Jane admitted to be a fault, but said something of wishing to +get the idea of the unity of the world into it as the main idea of the +book. I only recall the enthusiastic delight with which chapter +after chapter was greeted; we declared that it was a fairy tale of +geography, and a work of genius in its whole conception, and in its +absorbing interest of detail and individuality; and that any publisher +would demonstrate himself an idiot who did not want to publish it. I +remember Jane's quick tossing back of the head, and puzzled brow which +broke into a laugh, as she said: "Well, girls, it can't be as good as +you say; there must be some faults in it." But we all exclaimed that +we had done our prettiest at finding fault,--that there wasn't a +ghost of a fault in it. For the incarnate beauty and ideality and +truthfulness of her little stories had melted into our being, and left +us spellbound, till we were one with each other and her; one with the +Seven Little Sisters, too, and they seemed like our very own little +sisters. So they have rested in our imagination and affection as we +have seen them grow into the imagination and affection of generations +of children since, and as they will continue to grow until the +old limitations and barrenness of the study of geography shall be +transfigured, and the earth seem to the children an Eden which love +has girdled, when Gemila, Agoonack, and the others shall have won them +to a knowledge of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. + +I would like to bring before young people who have read her books some +qualities of her mind and character which made her the rare woman, +teacher, and writer that she was. I knew her from early girlhood. We +went to the same schools, in more and more intimate companionship, +from the time we were twelve until we were twenty years of age; and +our lives and hearts were "grappled" to each other "with links of +steel" ever after. She was a precocious child, early matured, and +strong in intellectual and emotional experiences. She had a remarkably +clear mind, orderly and logical in its processes, and loved to take +up hard problems. She studied all her life with great joy and +earnestness, rarely, if ever, baffled in her persistent learning +except by ill-health. She went on at a great pace in mathematics for a +young girl; every step seemed easy to her. She took everything +severe that she could get a chance at, in the course or out of +it,--surveying, navigation, mechanics, mathematical astronomy, and +conic sections, as well as the ordinary course in mathematics; the +calculus she had worked through at sixteen under a very able and exact +teacher, and took her diploma from W.H. Wells, a master who allowed +nothing to go slipshod. She was absorbed in studies of this kind, and +took no especial interest in composition or literature beyond what was +required, and what was the natural outcome of a literary atmosphere +and inherited culture; that is, her mind was passively rather than +actively engaged in such directions, until later. At the normal school +she led a class which has had a proud intellectual record as teachers +and workers. She was the easy victor in every contest; with an +inclusive grasp, an incisive analysis, instant generalization, a very +tenacious and ready memory, and unusual talent for every effort of +study, she took and held the first place as a matter of course until +she graduated, when she gave the valedictory address. This valedictory +was a prophetic note in the line of her future expression; for it +gave a graphic illustration of the art of teaching geography, to the +consideration of which she had been led by Miss Crocker's logical, +suggestive, and masterly presentation of the subject in the school +course. Her ability and steadiness of working power, as well as +singleness of aim, attracted the attention of Horace Mann, who was +about forming the nucleus of Antioch College; and he succeeded in +gaining her as one of his promised New England recruits. She had +attended very little to Latin, and went to work at once to prepare for +the classical requirements of a college examination. This she did with +such phenomenal rapidity that in six weeks she had fitted herself +for what was probably equivalent to a Harvard entrance examination +in Latin. She went to Antioch, and taught, as well as studied for a +while, until her health gave way entirely; and she was prostrate for +years with brain and spine disorders. Of course this put an end to her +college career; and on her recovery she opened her little school in +her own house, which she held together until her final illness, and +to which she devoted her thoughts and energies, her endowments and +attainments, as well as her prodigal devotion and love. + +The success of "The Seven Little Sisters" was a great pleasure to +her, partly because her dear mother and friends were so thoroughly +satisfied with it. Her mother always wished that Jane would give +her time more exclusively to writing, especially as new outlines of +literary work were constantly aroused in her active brain. She wrote +several stories which were careful studies in natural science, and +which appeared in some of the magazines. I am sure they would be well +worth collecting. She had her plan of "Each and All" long in her mind +before elaborating, and it crystallized by actual contact with the +needs and the intellectual instincts of her little classes. In fact +all her books grew, like a plant, from within outwards; they were born +in the nursery of the schoolroom, and nurtured by the suggestions of +the children's interest, thus blooming in the garden of a true and +natural education. The last book she wrote, "Ten Boys Who Lived on the +Road from Long Ago to Now," she had had in her mind for years. This +little book she dedicated to a son of her sister Margaret. I am sure +she gave me an outline of the plan fully ten years before she wrote +it out. The subject of her mental work lay in her mind, growing, +gathering to itself nourishment, and organizing itself consciously +or unconsciously by all the forces of her unresting brain and all +the channels of her study, until it sprung from her pen complete at +a stroke. She wrote good English, of course, and would never +sentimentalize, but went directly at the pith of the matter; and, if +she had few thoughts on a subject, she made but few words. I don't +think she did much by way of revising or recasting after her thought +was once committed to paper. I think she wrote it as she would +have said it, always with an imaginary child before her, to whose +intelligence and sympathy it was addressed. Her habit of mind was to +complete a thought before any attempt to convey it to others. This +made her a very helpful and clear teacher and leader. She seemed +always to have considered carefully anything she talked about, and +gave her opinion with a deliberation and clear conviction which +affected others as a verdict, and made her an oracle to a great +many kinds of people. All her plans were thoroughly shaped before +execution; all her work was true, finished, and conscientious in every +department. She did a great deal of quiet, systematic thinking from +her early school days onward, and was never satisfied until she +completed the act of thought by expression and manifestation in some +way for the advantage of others. The last time I saw her, which was +for less than five minutes accorded me by her nurse during her last +illness, she spoke of a new plan of literary work which she had in +mind, and although she attempted no delineation of it, said she was +thinking it out whenever she felt that it was safe for her to think. +Her active brain never ceased its plans for others, for working toward +the illumination of the mind, the purification of the soul, and the +elevation and broadening of all the ideals of life. I remember her +sitting, absorbed in reflection, at the setting of the sun every +evening while we were at the House Beautiful of the Peabodys [We spent +nearly all our time at West Newton in a little cottage on the hill, +where Miss Elizabeth Peabody, with her saintly mother and father, made +a paradise of love and refinement and ideal culture for us, and where +we often met the Hawthornes and Manns; and we shall never be able to +measure the wealth of intangible mental and spiritual influence which +we received therefrom.] at West Newton; or, when at home, gazing +every night, before retiring, from her own house-top, standing at +her watchtower to commune with the starry heavens, and receive that +exaltation of spirit which is communicated when we yield ourselves to +the "essentially religious." (I use this phrase, because it delighted +her so when I repeated it to her as the saying of a child in looking +at the stars.) + +No one ever felt a twinge of jealousy in Jane's easy supremacy; she +never made a fuss about it, although I think she had no mock +modesty in the matter. She accepted the situation which her uniform +correctness of judgment assured to her, while she always accorded +generous praise and deference to those who excelled her in departments +where she made no pretence of superiority. + +There were some occasions when her idea of duty differed from a +conventional one, perhaps from that of some of her near friends; but +no one ever doubted her strict dealing with herself, or her singleness +of motive. She did not feel the need of turning to any other +conscience than her own for support or enlightenment, and was +inflexible and unwavering in any course she deemed right. She never +apologized for herself in any way, or referred a matter of her own +experience or sole responsibility to another for decision; neither did +she seem to feel the need of expressed sympathy in any private loss +or trial. Her philosophy of life, her faith, or her temperament seemed +equal to every exigency of disappointment or suffering. She generally +kept her personal trials hidden within her own heart, and recovered +from every selfish pain by the elastic vigor of her power for +unselfish devotion to the good of others. She said that happiness was +to have an unselfish work to do, and the power to do it. + +It has been said that Jane's only fault was that she was too good. +I think she carried her unselfishness too often to a short-sighted +excess, breaking down her health, and thus abridging her opportunities +for more permanent advantage to those whom she would have died to +serve; but it was solely on her own responsibility, and in consequence +of her accumulative energy of temperament, that made her unconscious +of the strain until too late. + +Her brain was constitutionally sensitive and almost abnormally active; +and she more than once overtaxed it by too continuous study, or by a +disregard of its laws of health, or by a stupendous multiplicity of +cares, some of which it would have been wiser to leave to others. She +took everybody's burdens to carry herself. She was absorbed in the +affairs of those she loved,--of her home circle, of her sisters' +families, and of many a needy one whom she adopted into her +solicitude. She was thoroughly fond of children and of all that they +say and do, and would work her fingers off for them, or nurse them day +and night. Her sisters' children were as if they had been her own, and +she revelled in all their wonderful manifestations and development. +Her friends' children she always cared deeply for, and was hungry for +their wise and funny remarks, or any hint of their individuality. Many +of these things she remembered longer than the mothers themselves, and +took the most thorough satisfaction in recounting. + +I have often visited her school, and it seemed like a home with a +mother in it. There we took sweet counsel together, as if we had come +to the house of God in company; for our methods were identical, and +a day in her school was a day in mine. We invariably agreed as to the +ends of the work, and how to reach them; for we understood each other +perfectly in that field of art. + +I wish I could show her life with all its constituent factors of +ancestry, home, and surroundings; for they were so inherent in her +thoughts and feelings that you could hardly separate her from them in +your consideration. But that is impossible. Disinterested benevolence +was the native air of the house into which she was born, and she was +an embodiment of that idea. To devote herself to some poor outcast, to +reform a distorted soul, to give all she had to the most abject, to do +all she could for the despised and rejected,--this was her craving and +absorbing desire. I remember some comical instances of the pursuance +of this self-abnegation, where the returns were, to say the least, +disappointing; but she was never discouraged. It would be easy to name +many who received a lifelong stimulus and aid at her hands, either +intellectual or moral. She had much to do with the development of some +remarkable careers, as well as with the regeneration of many poor and +abandoned souls. + +She was in the lives of her dear ones, and they in hers, to a very +unusual degree; and her life-threads are twined inextricably in theirs +forever. She was a complete woman,--brain, will, affections, all, to +the greatest extent, active and unselfish; her character was a harmony +of many strong and diverse elements; her conscience was a great rock +upon which her whole nature rested; her hands were deft and cunning; +her ingenious brain was like a master mechanic at expedients; and +in executive and administrative power, as well as in device and +comprehension, she was a marvel. If she had faults, they are +indistinguishable in the brightness and solidity of her whole +character. She was ready to move into her place in any sphere, and +adjust herself to any work God should give her to do. She must +be happy, and shedding happiness, wherever she is; for that is an +inseparable quality and function of her identity. + +She passed calmly out of this life, and lay at rest in her own home, +in that dear room so full of memories of her presence, with flowers +to deck her bed, and many of her dearest friends around her; while the +verses which her beloved sister Caroline had selected seemed easily to +speak with Jane's own voice, as they read:-- + + Prepare the house, kind friends; drape it and deck it + With leaves and blossoms fair: + Throw open doors and windows, and call hither + The sunshine and soft air. + + Let all the house, from floor to ceiling, look + Its noblest and its best; + For it may chance that soon may come to me + A most imperial guest. + + A prouder visitor than ever yet + Has crossed my threshold o'er, + One wearing royal sceptre and a crown + Shall enter at my door; + + Shall deign, perchance, sit at my board an hour, + And break with me my bread; + Suffer, perchance, this night my honored roof + Shelter his kingly head. + + And if, ere comes the sun again, he bid me + Arise without delay, + And follow him a journey to his kingdom + Unknown and far away; + + And in the gray light of the dawning morn + We pass from out my door, + My guest and I, silent, without farewell, + And to return no more,-- + + Weep not, kind friends, I pray; not with vain tears + Let your glad eyes grow dim; + Remember that my house was all prepared, + And that I welcomed him. + + + + +THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS. + + + +THE BALL ITSELF. + + +Dear children, I have heard of a wonderful ball, which floats in the +sweet blue air, and has little soft white clouds about it, as it swims +along. + +There are many charming and astonishing things to be told of this +ball, and some of them you shall hear. + +In the first place, you must know that it is a very big ball; far +bigger than the great soft ball, of bright colors, that little Charley +plays with on the floor,--yes, indeed; and bigger than cousin Frank's +largest football, that he brought home from college in the spring; +bigger, too, than that fine round globe in the schoolroom, that Emma +turns about so carefully, while she twists her bright face all into +wrinkles as she searches for Afghanistan or the Bosphorus Straits. +Long names, indeed; they sound quite grand from her little mouth, but +they mean nothing to you and me now. + +Let me tell you about _my_ ball. It is so large that trees can grow on +it; so large that cattle can graze, and wild beasts roam, upon it; so +large that men and women can live on it, and little children too,--as +you already know, if you have read the title-page of this book. In +some places it is soft and green, like the long meadow between the +hills, where the grass was so high last summer that we almost lost +Marnie when she lay down to roll in it; in some parts it is covered +with tall and thick forests, where you might wander like the "babes +in the wood," nor ever find your way out; then, again, it is steep and +rough, covered with great hills, much higher than that high one behind +the schoolhouse,--so high that when you look up ever so far you can't +see the tops of them; but in some parts there are no hills at all, and +quiet little ponds of blue water, where the white water-lilies grow, +and silvery fishes play among their long stems. Bell knows, for she +has been among the lilies in a boat with papa. + +Now, if we look on another side of the ball, we shall see no ponds, +but something very dreary. I am afraid you won't like it. A great +plain of sand,--sand like that on the seashore, only here there is no +sea,--and the sand stretches away farther than you can see, on every +side; there are no trees, and the sunshine beats down, almost burning +whatever is beneath it. + +Perhaps you think this would be a grand place to build sand-houses. +One of the little sisters lives here; and, when you read of her, you +will know what she thinks about it. Always the one who has tried it +knows best. + +Look at one more side of my ball, as it turns around. Jack Frost must +have spent all his longest winter nights here, for see what a palace +of ice he has built for himself. Brave men have gone to those lonely +places, to come back and tell us about them; and, alas! some heroes +have not returned, but have lain down there to perish of cold and +hunger. Doesn't it look cold, the clear blue ice, almost as blue as +the air? And look at the snow, drifts upon drifts, and the air filled +with feathery flakes even now. + +We won't look at this side longer, but we shall come back again to see +Agoonack in her little sledge. Don't turn over yet to find the story; +we shall come to it all in good time. + +Now, what do you think of my ball, so white and cold, so soft and +green, so quiet and blue, so dreary and rough, as it floats along in +the sweet blue air, with the flocks of white clouds about it? + +I will tell you one thing more. The wise men have said that this earth +on which we live is nothing more nor less than just such a ball. Of +this we shall know when we are older and wiser; but here is the little +brown baby waiting for us. + + + +THE LITTLE BROWN BABY. + + +Far away in the warm country lives a little brown baby; she has a +brown face, little brown hands and fingers, brown body, arms, and +legs, and even her little toes are also brown. + +And this baby wears no little frock nor apron, no little petticoat, +nor even stockings and shoes,--nothing at all but a string of beads +around her neck, as you wear your coral; for the sun shines very +warmly there, and she needs no clothes to keep her from the cold. + +Her hair is straight and black, hanging softly down each side of her +small brown face; nothing at all like Bell's golden curls, or Marnie's +sunny brown ones. + +Would you like to know how she lives among the flowers and the birds? + +She rolls in the long soft grass, where the gold-colored snakes are at +play; she watches the young monkeys chattering and swinging among the +trees, hung by the tail; she chases the splendid green parrots that +fly among the trees; and she drinks the sweet milk of the cocoanut +from a round cup made of its shell. + +When night comes, the mother takes her baby and tosses her up into the +little swinging bed in the tree, which her father made for her from +the twisting vine that climbs among the branches. And the wind blows +and rocks the little bed; and the mother sits at the foot of the tree +singing a mild sweet song, and this brown baby falls asleep. Then the +stars come out and peep through the leaves at her. The birds, too, are +all asleep in the tree; the mother-bird spreading her wings over the +young ones in the nest, and the father-bird sitting on a twig close +by with his head under his wing. Even the chattering monkey has curled +himself up for the night. + +Soon the large round moon comes up. She, too, must look into the +swinging bed, and shine upon the closed eyes of the little brown baby. +She is very gentle, and sends her soft light among the branches and +thick green leaves, kissing tenderly the small brown feet, and the +crest on the head of the mother-bird, who opens one eye and looks +quickly about to see if any harm is coming to the young ones. The +bright little stars, too, twinkle down through the shadows to bless +the sleeping child. All this while the wind blows and rocks the little +bed, singing also a low song through the trees; for the brown mother +has fallen asleep herself, and left the night-wind to take care of her +baby. + +So the night moves on, until, all at once, the rosy dawn breaks over +the earth; the birds lift up their heads, and sing and sing; the great +round sun springs up, and, shining into the tree, lifts the shut lids +of the brown baby's eyes. She rolls over and falls into her mother's +arms, who dips her into the pretty running brook for a bath, and rolls +her in the grass to dry, and then she may play among the birds and +flowers all day long; for they are like merry brothers and sisters +to the happy child, and she plays with them on the bosom of the round +earth, which seems to love them all like a mother. + +This is the little brown baby. Do you love her? Do you think you would +know her if you should meet her some day? + +A funny little brown sister. Are all of them brown? + +We will see, for here comes Agoonack and her sledge. + + + +AGOONACK, THE ESQUIMAU SISTER. + + +What is this odd-looking mound of stone? It looks like the great brick +oven that used to be in our old kitchen, where, when I was a little +girl, I saw the fine large loaves of bread and the pies and puddings +pushed carefully in with a long, flat shovel, or drawn out with the +same when the heat had browned them nicely. + +Is this an oven standing out here alone in the snow? + +You will laugh when I tell you that it is not an oven, but a house; +and here lives little Agoonack. + +Do you see that low opening, close to the ground? That is the door; +but one must creep on hands and knees to enter. There is another +smaller hole above the door: it is the window. It has no glass, as +ours do; only a thin covering of something which Agoonack's father +took from the inside of a seal, and her mother stretched over the +window-hole, to keep out the cold and to let in a little light. + +Here lives our little girl; not as the brown baby does, among the +trees and the flowers, but far up in the cold countries amid snow and +ice. + +If we look off now, over the ice, we shall see a funny little clumsy +thing, running along as fast as its short, stout legs will permit, +trying to keep up with its mother. You will hardly know it to be a +little girl, but might rather call it a white bear's cub, it is so +oddly dressed in the white, shaggy coat of the bear which its father +killed last month. But this is really Agoonack; you can see her round, +fat, greasy little face, if you throw back the white jumper-hood which +covers her head. Shall I tell you what clothes she wears? + +Not at all like yours, you will say; but, when one lives in cold +countries, one must dress accordingly. + +First, she has socks, soft and warm, but not knit of the white yarn +with which mamma knits yours. Her mamma has sewed them from the skins +of birds, with the soft down upon them to keep the small brown feet +very warm. Over these come her moccasins of sealskin. + +If you have been on the seashore, perhaps you know the seals that +are sometimes seen swimming in the sea, holding up their brown heads, +which look much like dogs' heads, wet and dripping. + +The seals love best to live in the seas of the cold countries: here +they are, huddled together on the sloping rocky shores, or swimming +about under the ice, thousands and thousands of silver-gray coated +creatures, gentle seal-mothers and brave fathers with all their pretty +seal-babies. And here the Esquimaux (for that is the name by which +we call these people of the cold countries) hunt them, eat them for +dinner, and make warm clothes of their skins. So, as I told you, +Agoonack has sealskin boots. + +Next she wears leggings, or trousers, of white bear-skin, very rough +and shaggy, and a little jacket or frock, called a jumper, of the +same. This jumper has a hood, made like the little red riding-hoods +which I dare say you have all seen. Pull the hood up over the short, +black hair, letting it almost hide the fat, round face, and you have +Agoonack dressed. + +Is this her best dress, do you think? + +Certainly it is her best, because she has no other, and when she goes +into the house--but I think I won't tell you that yet, for there is +something more to be seen outside. + +Agoonack and her mother are coming home to dinner, but there is no sun +shining on the snow to make it sparkle. It is dark like night, and +the stars shine clear and steady like silver lamps in the sky, but far +off, between the great icy peaks, strange lights are dancing, shooting +long rosy flames far into the sky, or marching in troops as if each +light had a life of its own, and all were marching together along the +dark, quiet sky. Now they move slowly and solemnly, with no noise, +and in regular, steady file; then they rush all together, flame into +golden and rosy streamers, and mount far above the cold, icy mountain +peaks that glitter in their light; we hear a sharp sound like Dsah! +Dsah! and the ice glows with the warm color, and the splendor shines +on the little white-hooded girl as she trots beside her mother. + +It is far more beautiful than the fireworks on Fourth of July. +Sometimes we see a little of it here, and we say there are northern +lights, and we sit at the window watching all the evening to see them +march and turn and flash; but in the cold countries they are far more +brilliant than any we have seen. + +[Illustration] + +It is Agoonack's birthday, and there is a present for her before the +door of the house. I will make you a picture of it. "It is a sled," +you exclaim. Yes, a sled; but quite unlike yours. In the faraway cold +countries no trees grow; so her father had no wood, and he took the +bones of the walrus and the whale, bound them together with strips of +sealskin, and he has built this pretty sled for his little daughter's +birthday. + +It has a back to lean against and hold by, for the child will go over +some very rough places, and might easily fall from it. And then, you +see, if she fell, it would be no easy matter to jump up again and +climb back to her seat, for the little sled would have run away from +her before she should have time to pick herself up. How could it run? +Yes, that is the wonderful thing about it. When her father made the +sled he said to himself, "By the time this is finished, the two little +brown dogs will be old enough to draw it, and Agoonack shall have +them; for she is a princess, the daughter of a great chief." + +Now you can see that, with two such brisk little dogs as the brown +puppies harnessed to the sled, Agoonack must keep her seat firmly, +that she may not roll over into the snow and let the dogs run away +with it. + +You can imagine what gay frolics she has with her brother who runs at +her side, or how she laughs and shouts to see him drive his bone ball +with his bone bat or hockey, skimming it over the crusty snow. + +Now we will creep into the low house with the child and her mother, +and see how they live. + +Outside it is very cold, colder than you have ever known it to be in +the coldest winter's day; but inside it is warm, even very hot. +And the first thing Agoonack and her mother do is to take off their +clothes, for here it is as warm as the place where the brown baby +lives, who needs no clothes. + +It isn't the sunshine that makes it warm, for you remember I told you +it was as dark as night. There is no furnace in the cellar; indeed, +there is no cellar, neither is there a stove. But all this heat comes +from a sort of lamp, with long wicks of moss and plenty of walrus fat +to burn. It warms the small house, which has but one room, and over it +the mother hangs a shallow dish in which she cooks soup; but most of +the meat is eaten raw, cut into long strips, and eaten much as one +might eat a stick of candy. + +They have no bread, no crackers, no apples nor potatoes; nothing but +meat, and sometimes the milk of the reindeer, for there are no cows in +the far, cold northern countries. But the reindeer gives them a great +deal: he is their horse as well as their cow; his skin and his flesh, +his bones and horns, are useful when he is dead, and while he lives he +is their kind, gentle, and patient friend. + +There is some one else in the hut when Agoonack comes home,--a little +dark ball, rolled up on one corner of the stone platform which is +built all around three sides of the house, serving for seats, beds, +and table. This rolled-up ball unrolls itself, tumbles off the seat, +and runs to meet them. It is Sipsu, the baby brother of Agoonack,--a +round little boy, who rides sometimes, when the weather is not too +cold, in the hood of his mother's jumper, hanging at her back, and +peering out from his warm nestling-place over the long icy plain to +watch for his father's return from the bear-hunt. + +When the men come home dragging the great Nannook, as they call the +bear, there is a merry feast. They crowd together in the hut, bringing +in a great block of snow, which they put over the lamp-fire to melt +into water; and then they cut long strips of bear's meat, and laugh +and eat and sing, as they tell the long story of the hunt of Nannook, +and the seals they have seen, and the foot-tracks of the reindeer they +have met in the long valley. + +Perhaps the day will come when pale, tired travellers will come to +their sheltering home, and tell them wonderful stories, and share +their warmth for a while, till they can gain strength to go on their +journey again. + +Perhaps while they are so merry there all together, a very great +snowstorm will come and cover the little house, so that they cannot +get out for several days. When the storm ends, they dig out the low +doorway, and creep again into the starlight, and Agoonack slips into +her warm clothes and runs out for Jack Frost to kiss her cheeks, and +leave roses wherever his lips touch. If it is very cold indeed, she +must stay in, or Jack Frost will give her no roses, but a cold, frosty +bite. + +This is the way Agoonack lives through the long darkness. But I have +to tell you more of her in another chapter, and you will find it is +not always dark in the cold northern countries. + + + +HOW AGOONACK LIVES THROUGH THE LONG SUMMER. + + +It is almost noon one day when Agoonack's mother wraps the little girl +in her shaggy clothes and climbs with her a high hill, promising a +pleasant sight when they shall have reached the top. + +It is the sun, the beautiful, bright, round sun, which shines and +smiles at them for a minute, and then slips away again below the far, +frozen water. + +They haven't seen him for many months, and now they rejoice, for the +next day he comes again and stays longer, and the next, and the next, +and every day longer and longer, until at last he moves above them in +one great, bright circle, and does not even go away at all at night. +His warm rays melt the snow and awaken the few little hardy flowers +that can grow in this short summer. The icy coat breaks away from the +clear running water, and great flocks of birds with soft white plumage +come, like a snowstorm of great feathery flakes, and settle among the +black rocks along the seashore. Here they lay their eggs in the many +safe little corners and shelves of the rock; and here they circle +about in the sunshine, while the Esquimau boys make ready their +long-handled nets and creep and climb out upon the ledges of rock, +and, holding up the net as the birds fly by, catch a netful to carry +home for supper. + +The sun shines all day long, and all night long, too; and yet he +can't melt all the highest snowdrifts, where the boys are playing +bat-and-ball,--long bones for sticks, and an odd little round one for +a ball. + +It is a merry life they all live while the sunshine stays, for they +know the long, dark winter is coming, when they can no longer climb +among the birds, nor play ball among the drifts. + +The seals swim by in the clear water, and the walrus and her young one +are at play; and, best of all, the good reindeer has come, for the sun +has uncovered the crisp moss upon which he feeds, and he is roaming +through the valleys where it grows among the rocks. + +The old men sit on the rocks in the sunshine, and laugh and sing, and +tell long stories of the whale and the seal, and the great white +whale that, many years ago, when Agoonack's father was a child, came +swimming down from the far north, where they look for the northern +lights, swimming and diving through the broken ice; and they watched +her in wonder, and no one would throw a harpoon at this white lady of +the Greenland seas, for her visit was a good omen, promising a mild +winter. + +Little Agoonack comes from her play to crouch among the rocky ledges +and listen to the stories. She has no books; and, if she had, she +couldn't read them. Neither could her father or mother read to her: +their stories are told and sung, but never written. But she is +a cheerful and contented little girl, and tries to help her dear +friends; and sometimes she wonders a great while by herself about what +the pale stranger told them. + +And now, day by day, the sun is slipping away from them; gone for a +few minutes to-day, to-morrow it will stay away a few more, until +at last there are many hours of rosy twilight, and few, very few, of +clear sunshine. + +But the children are happy: they do not dread the winter, but they +hope the tired travellers have reached their homes; and Agoonack +wants, oh, so much! to see them and help them once more. The father +will hunt again, and the mother will tend the lamp and keep the house +warm; and, although they will have no sun, the moon and stars are +bright, and they will see again the streamers of the great northern +light. + +Would you like to live in the cold countries, with their long darkness +and long sunshine? + +It is very cold, to be sure, but there are happy children there, and +kind fathers and mothers, and the merriest sliding on the very best of +ice and snow. + + + +GEMILA, THE CHILD OF THE DESERT. + + +It is almost sunset; and Abdel Hassan has come out to the door of +his tent to enjoy the breeze, which is growing cooler after the day's +terrible heat. The round, red sun hangs low over the sand; it will be +gone in five minutes more. The tent-door is turned away from the sun, +and Abdel Hassan sees only the rosy glow of its light on the hills in +the distance which looked so purple all day. He sits very still, and +his earnest eyes are fixed on those distant hills. He does not move or +speak when the tent-door is again pushed aside, and his two children, +Alee and Gemila, come out with their little mats and seat themselves +also on the sand. You can see little Gemila in the picture. How glad +they are of the long, cool shadows, and the tall, feathery palms! how +pleasant to hear the camels drink, and to drink themselves at the deep +well, when they have carried some fresh water in a cup to their silent +father! He only sends up blue circles of smoke from his long pipe as +he sits there, cross-legged, on a mat of rich carpet. He never sat in +a chair, and, indeed, never saw one in his life. His chairs are mats; +and his house is, as you have heard, a tent. + +Do you know what a tent is? + +I always liked tents, and thought I should enjoy living in one; and +when I was a little girl, on many a stormy day when we couldn't go to +school, I played with my sisters at living in tents. We would take a +small clothes-horse and tip it down upon its sides, half open; then, +covering it with shawls, we crept in, and were happy enough for the +rest of the afternoon. I tell you this, that you may also play tents +some day, if you haven't already. + +The tent of Gemila's father is, however, quite different from ours. +Two or three long poles hold it up, and over them hangs a cloth made +of goats'-hair, or sometimes sheepskins, which are thick enough to +keep out either heat or cold. The ends of the cloth are fastened down +by pegs driven into the sand, or the strong wind coming might blow +the tent away. The tent-cloth pushes back like a curtain for the door. +Inside, a white cloth stretched across divides this strange house into +two rooms; one is for the men, the other for the women and children. +In the tent there is no furniture like ours; nothing but mats, and low +cushions called divans; not even a table from which to eat, nor a +bed to sleep upon. But the mats and the shawls are very gorgeous and +costly, and we are very proud when we can buy any like them for our +parlors. And, by the way, I must tell you that these people have been +asleep all through the heat of the day,--the time when you would have +been coming home from school, eating your dinner, and going back to +school again. They closed the tent-door to keep out the terrible blaze +of the sun, stretched themselves on the mats, and slept until just +now, when the night-wind began to come. + +Now they can sit outside the tent and enjoy the evening, and the +mother brings out dates and little hard cakes of bread, with plenty of +butter made from goats' milk. The tall, dark servant-woman, with loose +blue cotton dress and bare feet, milks a camel, and they all take +their supper, or dinner perhaps I had better call it. They have no +plates, nor do they sit together to eat. The father eats by himself: +when he has finished, the mother and children take the dates and bread +which he leaves. We could teach them better manners, we think; but +they could teach us to be hospitable and courteous, and more polite to +strangers than we are. + +When all is finished, you see there are no dishes to be washed and put +away. + +The stars have come out, and from the great arch of the sky they look +down on the broad sands, the lonely rocks, the palm-trees, and the +tents. Oh, they are so bright, so steady, and so silent, in that +great, lonely place, where no noise is heard! no sounds of people or +of birds or animals, excepting the sleepy groaning of a camel, or the +low song that little Alee is singing to his sister as they lie upon +their backs on the sand, and watch the slow, grand movement of the +stars that are always journeying towards the west. + +Night is very beautiful in the desert; for this is the desert, where +Abdel Hassan the Arab lives. His country is that part of our round +ball where the yellow sands stretch farther than eye can see, and +there are no wide rivers, no thick forests, and no snow-covered hills. +The day is too bright and too hot, but the night he loves; it is his +friend. + +He falls asleep at last out under the stars, and, since he has been +sleeping so long in the daytime, can well afford to be awake very +early in the morning: so, while the stars still shine, and there is +only one little yellow line of light in the east, he calls his +wife, children, and servants, and in a few minutes all is bustle and +preparation; for to-day they must take down the tent, and move, with +all the camels and goats, many miles away. For the summer heat has +nearly dried up the water of their little spring under the palm-trees, +and the grass that grew there is also entirely gone; and one cannot +live without water to drink, particularly in the desert, nor can the +goats and camels live without grass. + +Now, it would be a very bad thing for us, if some day all the water +in our wells and springs and ponds should dry up, and all the grass on +our pleasant pastures and hills should wither away. + +What should we do? Should we have to pack all our clothes, our books, +our furniture and food, and move away to some other place where there +were both water and grass, and then build new houses? Oh, how much +trouble it would give us! No doubt the children would think it great +fun; but as they grew older they would have no pleasant home to +remember, with all that makes "sweet home" so dear. + +And now you will see how much better it is for Gemila's father than if +he lived in a house. In a very few minutes the tent is taken down, the +tent-poles are tied together, the covering is rolled up with the pegs +and strings which fastened it, and it is all ready to put up again +whenever they choose to stop. As there is no furniture to carry, the +mats and cushions only are to be rolled together and tied; and now +Achmet, the old servant, brings a tall yellow camel. + +Did you ever see a camel? I hope you have some time seen a living one +in a menagerie; but, if you haven't, perhaps you have seen a picture +of the awkward-looking animal with a great hump upon his back, a long +neck, and head thrust forward. A boy told me the other day, that, when +the camel had been long without food, he ate his hump: he meant that +the flesh and fat of the hump helped to nourish him when he had no +food. + +Achmet speaks to the camel, and he immediately kneels upon the sand, +while the man loads him with the tent-poles and covering; after which +he gets up, moves on a little way, to make room for another to come +up, kneel, and be loaded with mats, cushions, and bags of dates. + +Then comes a third; and while he kneels, another servant comes from +the spring, bringing a great bag made of camels'-skin, and filled with +water. Two of these bags are hung upon the camel, one on each side. +This is the water for all these people to drink for four days, while +they travel through a sandy, rocky country, where there are no springs +or wells. I am afraid the water will not taste very fresh after it has +been kept so long in leather bags; but they have nothing else to carry +it in, and, besides, they are used to it, and don't mind the taste. + +Here are smaller bags, made of goats'-skin, and filled with milk; and +when all these things are arranged, which is soon done, they are ready +to start, although it is still long before sunrise. The camels have +been drinking at the spring, and have left only a little muddy water, +like that in our street-gutters; but the goats must have this, or none +at all. + +And now Abdel Hassan springs upon his beautiful black horse, that has +such slender legs and swift feet, and places himself at the head of +this long troop of men and women, camels and goats. The women are +riding upon the camels, and so are the children; while the servants +and camel-drivers walk barefooted over the yellow sand. + +It would seem very strange to you to be perched up so high on a +camel's back, but Gemila is quite accustomed to it. When she was very +little, her mother often hung a basket beside her on the camel, and +carried her baby in it; but now she is a great girl, full six years +old, and when the camel kneels, and her mother takes her place, the +child can spring on in front, with one hand upon the camel's rough +hump, and ride safely and pleasantly hour after hour. Good, patient +camels! God has fitted them exactly to be of the utmost help to the +people in that desert country. Gemila for this often blesses and +thanks Him whom she calls Allah. + +All this morning they ride,--first in the bright starlight; but soon +the stars become faint and dim in the stronger rosy light that is +spreading over the whole sky, and suddenly the little girl sees +stretching far before her the long shadow of the camels, and she knows +that the sun is up, for we never see shadows when the sun is not up, +unless it is by candlelight or moonlight. The shadows stretch out very +far before them, for the sun is behind. When you are out walking very +early in the morning, with the sun behind you, see how the shadow of +even such a little girl as you will reach across the whole street; and +you can imagine that such great creatures as camels would make even +much longer shadows. + +Gemila watches them, and sees, too, how the white patches of sand +flush in the morning light; and she looks back where far behind are +the tops of their palm-trees, like great tufted fans, standing dark +against the yellow sky. + +She is not sorry to leave that old home. She has had many homes +already, young as she is, and will have many more as long as she +lives. The whole desert is her home; it is very wide and large, and +sometimes she lives in one part, sometimes in another. + +As the sun gets higher, it begins to grow very hot. The father +arranges the folds of his great white turban, a shawl with many folds, +twisted round his head to keep off the oppressive heat. The servants +put on their white fringed handkerchiefs, falling over the head and +down upon the neck, and held in place by a little cord tied, round the +head. It is not like a bonnet or hat, but one of the very best things +to protect the desert travellers from the sun. The children, too, +cover their heads in the same way, and Gemila no longer looks out to +see what is passing: the sun is too bright; it would hurt her eyes and +make her head ache. She shuts her eyes and falls half asleep, sitting +there high upon the camel's back. But, if she could look out, there +would be nothing to see but what she has seen many and many times +before,--great plains of sand or pebbles, and sometimes high, bare +rocks,--not a tree to be seen, and far off against the sky, the low +purple hills. They move on in the heat, and are all silent. It is +almost noon now, and Abdel Hassan stops, leaps from his horse, and +strikes his spear into the ground. The camel-drivers stop, the +camels stop and kneel, Gemila and Alee and their mother dismount. The +servants build up again the tent which they took down in the morning; +and, after drinking water from the leathern bags, the family are soon +under its shelter, asleep on their mats, while the camels and servants +have crept into the shadow of some rocks and lain down in the sand. +The beautiful black horse is in the tent with his master; he is +treated like a child, petted and fed by all the family, caressed and +kissed by the children. Here they rest until the heat of the day is +past; but before sunset they have eaten their dates and bread, loaded +again the camels, and are moving, with the beautiful black horse and +his rider at the head. + +They ride until the stars are out, and after, but stop for a few +hours' rest in the night, to begin the next day as they began this. +Gemila still rides upon the camel, and I can easily understand that +she prays to Allah with a full heart under the shining stars so clear +and far, and that at the call to prayer in the early dawn her pretty +little veiled head is bent in true love and worship. But I must tell +you what she sees soon after sunrise on this second morning. Across +the sand, a long way before them, something with very long legs is +running, almost flying. She knows well what it is, for she has often +seen them before, and she calls to one of the servants, "See, there is +the ostrich!" and she claps her hands with delight. + +The ostrich is a great bird, with very long legs and small wings; and +as legs are to run with, and wings to fly with, of course he can run +better than he can fly. But he spreads his short wings while running, +and they are like little sails, and help him along quite wonderfully, +so that he runs much faster than any horse can. + +Although he runs so swiftly, he is sometimes caught in a very odd way. +I will tell you how. + +He is a large bird, but he is a very silly one, and, when he is tired +of running, he will hide his head in the sand, thinking that because +he can see no one he can't be seen himself. Then the swift-footed Arab +horses can overtake him, and the men can get his beautiful feathers, +which you must have often seen, for ladies wear them in their bonnets. + +All this about the ostrich. Don't forget it, my little girl: some time +you may see one, and will be glad that you know what kind of a fellow +he is. + +The ostrich which Gemila sees is too far away to be caught; besides, +it will not be best to turn aside from the track which is leading +them to a new spring. But one of the men trots forward on his camel, +looking to this side and to that as he rides; and at last our little +girl, who is watching, sees his camel kneel, and sees him jump off +and stoop in the sand. When they reach the place, they find a sort of +great nest, hollowed a little in the sand, and in it are great eggs, +almost as big as your head. The mother ostrich has left them there. +She is not like other mother-birds, that sit upon the eggs to keep +them warm; but she leaves them in the hot sand, and the sun keeps them +warm, and by and by the little ostriches will begin to chip the shell, +and creep out into the great world. + +The ostrich eggs are good to eat. You eat your one egg for breakfast, +but one of these big eggs will make breakfast for the whole family. +And that is why Gemila clapped her hands when she saw the ostrich: she +thought the men would find the nest, and have fresh eggs for a day or +two. + +This day passes like the last: they meet no one, not a single man or +woman, and they move steadily on towards the sunset. In the morning +again they are up and away under the starlight; and this day is a +happy one for the children, and, indeed, for all. + +The morning star is yet shining, low, large, and bright, when our +watchful little girl's dark eyes can see a row of black dots on the +sand,--so small you might think them nothing but flies; but Gemila +knows better. They only look small because they are far away; they are +really men and camels, and horses too, as she will soon see when +they come nearer. A whole troop of them; as many as a hundred camels, +loaded with great packages of cloths and shawls for turbans, carpets +and rich spices, and the beautiful red and green morocco, of which, +when I was a little girl, we sometimes had shoes made, but we see it +oftener now on the covers of books. + +All these things belong to the Sheik Hassein. He has been to the great +cities to buy them, and now he is carrying them across the desert +to sell again. He himself rides at the head of his company on a +magnificent brown horse, and his dress is so grand and gay that it +shines in the morning light quite splendidly. A great shawl with +golden fringes is twisted about his head for a turban, and he wears, +instead of a coat, a tunic broadly striped with crimson and yellow, +while a loose-flowing scarlet robe falls from his shoulders. His face +is dark, and his eyes keen and bright; only a little of his straight +black hair hangs below the fringes of his turban, but his beard is +long and dark, and he really looks very magnificent sitting upon his +fine horse, in the full morning sunlight. + +Abdel Hassan rides forward to meet him, and the children from behind +watch with great delight. + +Abdel Hassan takes the hand of the sheik, presses it to his lips and +forehead, and says, "Peace be with you." + +Do you see how different this is from the hand-shakings and +"How-do-you-do's" of the gentlemen whom we know? Many grand +compliments are offered from one to another, and they are very polite +and respectful. Our manners would seem very poor beside theirs. + +Then follows a long talk, and the smoking of pipes, while the servants +make coffee, and serve it in little cups. + +Hassein tells Abdel Hassan of the wells of fresh water which he left +but one day's journey behind him, and he tells of the rich cities he +has visited. Abdel Hassan gives him dates and salt in exchange for +cloth for a turban, and a brown cotton dress for his little daughter. + +It is not often that one meets men in the desert, and this day will +long be remembered by the children. + +The next night, before sunset, they can see the green feathery tops of +the palm-trees before them. The palms have no branches, but only great +clusters of fern-like leaves at the top of the tree, under which grow +the sweet dates. + +Near those palm-trees will be Gemila's home for a little while, for +here they will find grass and a spring. The camels smell the water, +and begin to trot fast; the goats leap along over the sand, and the +barefooted men hasten to keep up with them. + +In an hour more the tent is pitched under the palm-trees, and all have +refreshed themselves with the cool, clear water. + +And now I must tell you that the camels have had nothing to drink +since they left the old home. The camel has a deep bag below his +throat, which he fills with water enough to last four or five days; +so he can travel in the desert as long as that, and sometimes longer, +without drinking again. Yet I believe the camels are as glad as the +children to come to the fresh spring. + +Gemila thinks so at night, as she stands under the starlight, patting +her good camel Simel, and kissing his great lips. + +The black goats, with long silky ears, are already cropping the grass. +The father sits again at the tent-door, and smokes his long pipe; the +children bury their bare feet in the sand, and heap it into little +mounds about them; while the mother is bringing out the dates and the +bread and butter. + +It is an easy thing for them to move: they are already at home again. +But although they have so few cares, we do not wish ourselves in their +place, for we love the home of our childhood, "be it ever so humble," +better than roaming like an exile. + +But all the time I haven't told you how Gemila looks, nor what clothes +she wears. Her face is dark; she has a little straight nose, full +lips, and dark, earnest eyes; her dark hair will be braided when it +is long enough. On her arms and her ankles are gilded bracelets and +anklets, and she wears a brown cotton dress loosely hanging halfway to +the bare, slender ankles. On her head the white fringed handkerchief, +of which I told you, hangs like a little veil. Her face is pleasant, +and when she smiles her white teeth shine between her parted lips. + +She is the child of the desert, and she loves her desert home. + +I think she would hardly be happy to live in a house, eat from a +table, and sleep in a little bed like yours. She would grow restless +and weary if she should live so long and so quietly in one place. + + + +THE LITTLE MOUNTAIN MAIDEN. + +[Illustration] + +I want you to look at the picture on this page. It is a little deer: +its name is the chamois. Do you see what delicate horns it has, and +what slender legs, and how it seems to stand on that bit of rock and +lift its head to watch for the hunters. + +Last summer I saw a little chamois like that, and just as small: it +was not alive, but cut or carved of wood,--such a graceful pretty +little plaything as one does not meet every day. + +Would you like to know who made it, and where it came from? + +It was made in the mountain country, by the brother of my good +Jeannette, the little Swiss maiden. + +Here among the high mountains she lives with her father, mother, and +brothers; and far up among those high snowy peaks, which are seen +behind the house, the chamois live, many of them together, eating +the tender grass and little pink-colored flowers, and leaping and +springing away over the ice and snow when they see the men coming up +to hunt them. + +I will tell you by and by how it happened that Jeannette's tall +brother Joseph carved this tiny chamois from wood. But first you must +know about this small house upon the great hills, and how they live up +there so near the blue sky. + +One would think it might be easier for a child to be good and pure so +far up among the quiet hills, and that there God would seem to come +close to the spirit, even of a little girl or boy. + +On the sides of the mountains tall trees are growing,--pine and fir +trees, which are green in winter as well as in summer. If you go into +the woods in winter, you will find that almost all the trees have +dropped their pretty green leaves upon the ground, and are standing +cold and naked in the winter wind; but the pines and the firs keep on +their warm green clothes all the year round. + +It was many years ago, before Jeannette was born, that her father +came to the mountains with his sharp axe and cut down some of the +fir-trees. Other men helped him, and they cut the great trees into +strong logs and boards, and built of them the house of which I have +told you. Now he will have a good home of his own for as long as he +likes to live there, and to it will come his wife and children as God +shall send them, to nestle among the hills. + +Then he went down to the little town at the foot of the mountain, and +when he came back, he was leading a brown, long-eared donkey, and upon +that donkey sat a rosy-cheeked young woman, with smiling brown eyes, +and long braids of brown hair hanging below a little green hat set on +one side of her head, while beautiful rose-colored carnations peeped +from beneath it on the other side. Who was this? It wasn't Jeannette: +you know I told you this was before she was born. Can you guess, or +must I tell you that it was the little girl's mother? She had come up +the mountain for the first time to her new home,--the house built of +the fir and the pine,--where after awhile were born Jeannette's two +tall brothers, and at last Jeannette herself. + +It was a good place to be born in. When she was a baby she used to lie +on the short, sweet grass before the doorstep, and watch the cows +and the goats feeding, and clap her little hands to see how rosy the +sunset made the snow that shone on the tops of those high peaks. And +the next summer, when she could run alone, she picked the blue-eyed +gentians, thrusting her small fingers between their fringed eyelids, +and begging them to open and look at little Jean; and she stained her +wee hands among the strawberries, and pricked them with the thorns +of the long raspberry-vines, when she went with her mother in the +afternoon to pick the sweet fruit for supper. Ah, she was a happy +little thing! Many a fall she got over the stones or among the brown +moss, and many a time the clean frock that she wore was dyed red with +the crushed berries; but, oh, how pleasant it was to find them in +great patches on the mountain-side, where the kind sun had warmed them +into such delicious life! I have seen the children run out of school +to pick such sweet wild strawberries, all the recess-time, up in the +fields of Maine; and how happy they were with their little stained +fingers as they came back at the call of the bell! + +In the black bog-mud grew the Alpen roses, and her mother said, "Do +not go there, my little daughter, it is too muddy for you." But at +night, when her brother came home from the chamois hunt, he took off +his tall, pointed hat, and showed his little sister the long spray of +roses twisted round it, which he had brought for her. He could go in +the mud with his thick boots, you know, and never mind it. + +Here they live alone upon the mountain; there are no near neighbors. +At evening they can see the blue smoke curling from the chimney of one +house that stands behind that sunny green slope, a hundred yards from +their door, and they can always look down upon the many houses of the +town below, where the mother lived when she was young. + +Many times has Jeannette wondered how the people lived down there,--so +many together; and where their cows could feed, and whether there were +any little girls like herself, and if they picked berries, and had +such a dear old black nanny-goat as hers, that gave milk for her +supper, and now had two little black kids, its babies. She didn't know +about those little children in Maine, and that they have little +kids and goats, as well as sweet red berries, to make the days pass +happily. + +She wanted to go down and see, some day, and her father promised that, +when she was a great girl, she should go down with him on market-days, +to sell the goats'-milk cheeses and the sweet butter that her mother +made. + +When the cows and goats have eaten all the grass near the house, her +father drives them before him up farther among the mountains, where +more grass is growing, and there he stays with them many weeks: he +does not even come home at night, but sleeps in a small hut among the +rocks, where, too, he keeps the large clean milk-pails, and the little +one-legged stool upon which he sits at morning and night to milk the +cows and goats. + +When the pails are full, the butter is to be made, and the cheese; and +he works while the animals feed. The cows have little bells tied to +their necks, that he may hear and find them should they stray too far. + +Many times, when he is away, does his little daughter at home listen, +listen, while she sits before the door, to hear the distant tinkling +of the cow-bells. She is a loving little daughter, and she thinks of +her father so far away alone, and wishes he was coming home to eat +some of the sweet strawberries and cream for supper. + +Last summer some travellers came to the house. They stopped at the +door and asked for milk; the mother brought them brimming bowlsful, +and the shy little girl crept up behind her mother with her birch-bark +baskets of berries. The gentlemen took them and thanked her, and one +told of his own little Mary at home, far away over the great sea. +Jeannette often thinks of her, and wonders whether her papa has gone +home to her. + +While the gentlemen talked, Jeannette's brother Joseph sat upon the +broad stone doorstep and listened. Presently one gentleman, turning +to him, asked if he would come with them over the mountain to lead the +way, for there are many wild places and high, steep rocks, and they +feared to get lost. + +Joseph sprang up from his low seat and said he would go, brought his +tall hat and his mountain-staff, like a long, strong cane, with a +sharp iron at the end, which he can stick into the snow or ice if +there is danger of slipping; and they went merrily on their way, over +the green grass, over the rocks, far up among the snow and ice, and +the frozen streams and rivers that pour down the mountain-sides. + +Joseph was brave and gay; he led the way, singing aloud until the +echoes answered from every hillside. It makes one happy to sing, and +when we are busy and happy we sing without thinking of it, as the +birds do. When everything is bright and beautiful in nature around +us, we feel like singing aloud and praising God, who made the earth so +beautiful; then the earth also seems to sing of God who made it, +and the echo seems like its answer of praise. Did you ever hear the +echo,--the voice that seems to come from a hill or a house far away, +repeating whatever you may say? Among the mountains the echoes answer +each other again and again. Jeannette has often heard them. + +That night, while the mother and her little girl were eating their +supper, the gentlemen came back again, bringing Joseph with them. He +could not walk now, nor spring from rock to rock with his Alpen staff; +he had fallen and broken his leg, and he must lie still for many days. +But he could keep a cheerful face, and still sing his merry songs; and +as he grew better, and could sit out again on the broad bench beside +the door, he took his knife and pieces of fine wood, and carved +beautiful things,--first a spoon for his little sister, with gentians +on the handle; then a nice bowl, with a pretty strawberry-vine carved +all about the edge. And from this bowl, and with this spoon, she ate +her supper every night,--sweet milk, with the dry cakes of rye bread +broken into it, and sometimes the red strawberries. I know his little +sister loved him dearly, and thanked him in her heart every time she +used the pretty things. How dearly a sister and brother can love each +other! + +Then he made other things,--knives, forks, and plates; and at last +one day he sharpened his knife very sharp, chose a very nice, delicate +piece of wood, and carved this beautiful chamois, just like a living +one, only so small. My cousin, who was travelling there, bought it and +brought it home. + +When the summer had passed, the father came down from the high +pastures; the butter and cheese making was over, and the autumn work +was now to be done. Do you want to know what the autumn work was, and +how Jeannette could help about it? I will tell you. You must know that +a little way down the mountain-side is a grove of chestnut-trees. Did +you ever see the chestnut-trees? They grow in our woods, and on +the shores of some ponds. In the spring they are covered with long, +yellowish blossoms, and all through the hot summer those blossoms are +at work, turning into sweet chestnuts, wrapped safely in round, thorny +balls, which will prick your fingers sadly if you don't take care. But +when the frost of the autumn nights comes, it cracks open the prickly +ball and shows a shining brown nut inside; then, if we are careful, +we may pull off the covering and take out the nut. Sometimes, indeed, +there are two, three, or four nuts in one shell; I have found them so +myself. + +Now the autumn work, which I said I would tell you about, is to gather +these chestnuts and store them away,--some to be eaten, boiled or +roasted, by the bright fire in the cold winter days that are coming; +and some to be nicely packed in great bags, and carried on the donkey +down to the town to be sold. The boys of New England, too, know what +good fun it is to gather nuts in the fall, and spread them over the +garret floor to dry, and at last to crack and eat them by the winter +hearth. So when the father says one night at supper-time, "It is +growing cold; I think there will be a frost to-night," Jeannette knows +very well what to do; and she dances away right early in the evening +to her little bed, which is made in a wooden box built up against the +side of the wall, and falls asleep to dream about the chestnut woods, +and the squirrels, and the little brook that leaps and springs from +rock to rock down under the tall, dark trees. + +She has gone to bed early, that she may wake with the first daylight, +and she is out of bed in a minute when she hears her father's cheerful +call in the morning, "Come, children, it is time to be off." + +Their dinner is packed in a large basket. The donkey stands ready +before the door, with great empty bags hanging at each side, and they +go merrily over the crisp white frost to the chestnut-trees. How the +frost has opened the burrs! He has done more than half their work for +them already. How they laugh and sing and shout to each other as they +gather the smooth brown nuts, filling their baskets, and running to +pour them into the great bags! It is merry autumn work. The sun looks +down upon them through the yellow leaves, and the rocks give them +mossy seats; while here and there comes a bird or a squirrel to see +what these strange people are doing in their woods. + +Jeannette declares that the chestnut days are the best in the year. +Perhaps she is right. I am sure I should enjoy them, shouldn't you? +She really helps, although she is but a little girl, and her father +says at night that his little Jean is a dear, good child. It makes +her very happy. She thinks of what he has said while she undresses at +night, unbraiding her hair and unlacing her little blue bodice with +its great white sleeves, and she goes peacefully to sleep, to dream +again of the merry autumn days. And while she dreams good angels must +be near her, for she said her sweet and reverent prayer on her knees, +with a full and thankful heart to the All-Father who gave her so many +blessings. + +She is our little mountain sister. The mountain life is a fresh and +happy one. I should like to stay with this little sister a long, long +time. + + + +THE STORY OF PEN-SE. + + +Dear children, have you ever watched the sun set? If you live in the +country, I am almost sure you have many times delighted yourselves +with the gold and rosy clouds. But those of you who live in the city +do not often have the opportunity, the high houses and narrow streets +shut out so much of the sky. + +I am so happy as to live in the country; and let me tell you where I +go to see the sun set. + +The house in which I live has some dark, narrow garret stairs leading +from the third story into a small garret under the roof, and many +and many a time do I go up these narrow stairs, and again up to the +scuttle-window in the roof, open it, and seat myself on the top step +or on the roof itself. Here I can look over the house-tops, and even +over the tree-tops, seeing many things of which I may perhaps tell you +at some time; but to-night we are to look at the sunset. + +Can you play that you are up here with me, looking past the houses, +past the elm-trees and the low hills that seem so far away, to where +the sun hangs low, like a great red ball, so bright that we can hardly +look at it? Watch it with me. Now a little part has disappeared; now +it is half gone, and in a minute more we see nothing but the train of +bright clouds it has left behind. + +Where did it go? + +It seemed to slip down over the edge of the world. To-morrow morning, +if you are up early, you will see it come back again on the other +side. As it goes away from us to-night, it is coming to somebody who +lives far away, round the other side of the world. While we had the +sunshine, she had night; and now, when night is coming to us, it is +morning for her. + +I think men have always felt like following the sun to the unknown +West, beyond its golden gate of setting day, and perhaps that has led +many a wanderer on his path of discovery. Let us follow the sun over +the rolling earth. + +The sun has gone; shall we go, too, and take a peep round there to see +who is having morning now? + +The long, bright sunbeams are sliding over the tossing ocean, and +sparkling on the blue water of a river upon which are hundreds of +boats. The boats are not like those which we see here, with white +sails or long oars. They are clumsy, square-looking things, without +sails, and they have little sheds or houses built upon them. We will +look into one, and see what is to be seen. + +There is something like a little yard built all around this boat; +in it are ducks,--more ducks than you can well count. This is their +bedroom, where they sleep at night; but now it is morning, and they +are all stirring,--waddling about as well as they can in the crowd, +and quacking with most noisy voices. They are waking up Kang-hy, their +master, who lives in the middle of the boat; and out he comes from the +door of his odd house, and out comes little Pen-se, his daughter, who +likes to see the ducks go for their breakfast. + +The father opens a gate or door in the basket-work fence of the ducks' +house, and they all crowd and hurry to reach the water again, after +staying all night shut up in this cage. There they go, tumbling and +diving. Each must have a thorough bath first of all; then the old +drake leads the way, and they swim off in the bright water along the +shore for a hundred yards, and then among the marshes, where they will +feed all day, and come back at night when they hear the shrill whistle +of Kang-hy calling them to come home and go to bed. + +Pen-se and her father will go in to breakfast now, under the bamboo +roof which slides over the middle part of the boat, or can be pushed +back if they desire. As Kang-hy turns to go in, and takes off his +bamboo hat, the sun shines on his bare, shaved head, where only one +lock of hair is left; that is braided into a long, thick tail, and +hangs far down his back. He is very proud of it, and nothing would +induce him to have it cut off. Now it hangs down over his loose blue +nankeen jacket, but when he goes to work he will twist it round upon +the crown of his head, and tuck the end under the coil to keep it out +of the way. Isn't this a funny way for a man to wear his hair? Pen-se +has hers still in little soft curls, but by and by it will be braided, +and at last fastened up into a high knot on the top of her head, as +her mother's is. Her little brother Lin already has his head shaved +almost bare, and waits impatiently for the time when his single lock +of hair will be long enough to braid. + +When I was a child it was a very rare thing to see people such as +these in our own land, but now we are quite familiar with these odd +ways of dressing, and our streets have many of these funny names on +their signs. + +Shall we look in to see them at breakfast? Tea for the children as +well as for the father and mother. They have no milk, and do not like +to drink water, so they take many cups of tea every day. And here, +too, are their bowls of rice upon the table, but no spoons or forks +with which to eat it. Pen-se, however, does not need spoon or fork; +she takes two small, smooth sticks, and, lifting the bowl to her +mouth, uses the sticks like a little shovel. You would spill the rice +and soil your dress if you should try to do so, but these children +know no other way, and they have learned to do it quite carefully. + +The sticks are called chopsticks; and up in the great house on the +hill, where Pen-se went to carry fish, lives a little lady who has +beautiful pearl chopsticks, and wears roses in her hair. Pen-se often +thinks of her, and wishes she might go again to carry the fish, and +see some of the beautiful things in that garden with the high walls. +Perhaps you have in your own house, or in your schoolroom, pictures of +some of the pretty things that may have been there,--little children +and ladies dressed in flowery gowns, with fans in their hands; +tea-tables and pretty dishes, and a great many lovely flowers and +beautiful birds. + +But now she must not stop to think. Breakfast is over, and the father +must go on shore to his work,--carrying tea-boxes to the store of a +great merchant. Lin, too, goes to his work, of which I will by and by +tell you; and even Pen-se and her little sister, young as they are, +must go with their mother, who has a tanka-boat in which she carries +fresh fruit and vegetables, to the big ships which are lying off +shore. The two little girls can help at the oars, while the mother +steers to guide the boat. + +I wish I could tell you how pleasant it is out on the river this +bright morning. A hundred boats are moving; the ducks and geese +have all gone up the stream; the people who live in the boats have +breakfasted, and the fishermen have come out to their work. This +is Lin's work. He works with his uncle Chow, and already his blue +trousers are stripped above his knees, and he stands on the wet +fishing-raft watching some brown birds. Suddenly one of them plunges +into the water and brings up a fish in its yellow bill. Lin takes it +out and sends the bird for another; and such industrious fishermen +are the brown cormorants that they keep Lin and his uncle busy all the +morning, until the two large baskets are filled with fish, and then +the cormorants may catch for themselves. Lin brings his bamboo pole, +rests it across his shoulders, hangs one basket on each end, and goes +up into the town to sell his fish. Here it was that Pen-se went on +that happy day when she saw the little lady in the house on the hill, +and she has not forgotten the wonders of that day in the streets. + +The gay sign-posts in front of the shops, with colors flying; the busy +workmen,--tinkers mending or making their wares; blacksmiths with all +their tools set up at the corners of the streets; barbers with +grave faces, intently braiding the long hair of their customers; +water-carriers with deep water-buckets hung from a bamboo pole like +Lin's fish-baskets; the soldiers in their paper helmets, wadded gowns, +and quilted petticoats, with long, clumsy guns over their shoulders; +and learned scholars in brown gowns, blue bordered, and golden birds +on their caps. The high officers, cousins to the emperor, have the +sacred yellow girdle round their waists, and very long braided tails +hanging below their small caps. Here and there you may see a high, +narrow box, resting on poles, carried by two men. It is the only kind +of carriage which you will see in these streets, and in it is a lady +going out to take the air; although I am sadly afraid she gets but +little, shut up there in her box. I would rather be like Pen-se, a +poor, hardworking little girl, with a fresh life on the river, and a +hard mat spread for her bed in the boat at night. How would you like +to live in a boat on a pleasant river with the ducks and geese? I +think you would have a very jolly time, rocked to sleep by the tide, +and watched over by the dancing boat-lights. But this poor lady +couldn't walk, or enjoy much, if she were allowed. Shall I tell you +why? When she was a very little girl, smaller than you are, smaller +than Pen-se is now, her soft baby feet were bound up tightly, the toes +turned and pressed under, and the poor little foot cramped so that +she could scarcely stand. This was done that her feet might never +grow large, for in this country on the other side of the world one is +considered very beautiful who has small feet; and now that she is a +grown lady, as old perhaps as your mamma, she wears such little shoes +you would think them too small for yourself. It is true they are very +pretty shoes, made of bright-colored satin, and worked all over +with gold and silver thread, and they have beautiful white soles of +rice-paper; and the poor lady looks down at them and says to herself +proudly, "Only three inches long." And forgetting how much the +bandages pained her, and not thinking how sad it is only to be able +to hobble about a little, instead of running and leaping as children +should, she binds up the feet of Lou, her dear little daughter, in the +great house on the hill, and makes her a poor, helpless child; not +so happy, with all her flower-gardens, gold and silver fish, and +beautiful gold-feathered birds, as Pen-se with her broad, bare feet, +and comfortable, fat little toes, as she stands in the wet tanka-boat, +helping her mother wash it with river-water, while the leather shoes +of both of them lie high and dry on the edge of the wharf, until the +wet work is done. + +But we are forgetting Lin, who has carried his fish up into the town +to sell. Here is a whole street where nothing is sold but food. I +should call it Market Street, and I dare say they do the same in a way +of their own. + +What will all these busy people have for dinner to-day? Fat +bears'-paws, brought from the dark forest fifty miles away,--these +will do for that comfortable-looking mandarin with the red ball on +the top of his cap. I think he has eaten something of the same kind +before. A birds'-nest soup for my lady in the great house on the hill; +birds' nests brought from the rocks where the waves dash, and the +birds feel themselves very safe. But "Such a delicious soup!" said +Madam Faw-Choo, and Yang-lo, her son, sent the fisherman again to the +black rocks for more. + +What will the soldiers have,--the officer who wears thick satin boots, +and doesn't look much like fighting in his gay silk dress? A stew of +fat puppies for him, and only boiled rats for the porter who carries +the heavy tea-boxes. But there is tea for all, and rice, too, as much +as they desire; and, although I shouldn't care to be invited to dine +with any of them, I don't doubt they enjoy the food very much. + +In the midst of all this buying and selling Lin sells his fish, some +to the English gentleman, and some to the grave-faced man in the blue +gown; and he goes happily home to his own dinner in the boat. Rice +again, and fried mice, and the merry face and small, slanting black +eyes of his little sister to greet him. After dinner his father has +a pipe to smoke, before he goes again to his work. After all, why not +eat puppies and mice as well as calves and turtles and oysters? And as +for birds'-nest soup, I should think it quite as good as chicken pie. +It is only custom that makes any difference. + +So pass the days of our child Pen-se, who lives on the great river +which men call the child of the ocean. But it was not always so. +She was born among the hills where the tea grows with its glossy, +myrtle-like leaves, and white, fragrant blossoms. When the tea-plants +were in bloom, Pen-se first saw the light; and when she was hardly +more than a baby she trotted behind her father, while he gathered the +leaves, dried and rolled them, and then packed them in square boxes to +come in ships across the ocean for your papa and mine to drink. + +Here, too, grew the mulberry-trees, with their purple fruit and white; +and Pen-se learned to know and to love the little worms that eat the +mulberry-leaves, and then spin for themselves a silken shell, and fall +into a long sleep inside of it. She watched her mother spin off the +fine silk and make it into neat skeins, and once she rode on her +mother's back to market to sell it. You could gather mulberry-leaves, +and set up these little silkworm boxes on the windowsill of your +schoolroom. I have seen silk and flax and cotton all growing in a +pleasant schoolroom, to show the scholars of what linen and silk and +cotton are made. + +Now those days are all past. She can hardly remember them, she was so +little then; and she has learned to be happy in her new home on the +river, where they came when the fire burned their house, and the +tea-plants and the mulberry-trees were taken by other men. + +Sometimes at night, after the day's work is over, the ducks have +come home, and the stars have come out, she sits at the door of the +boat-house, and watches the great bright fireflies over the marshes, +and thinks of the blue lake Syhoo, covered with lilies, where gilded +boats are sailing, and the people seem so happy. + +Up in the high-walled garden of the great house on the hill, the +night-moths have spread their broad, soft wings, and are flitting +among the flowers, and the little girl with the small feet lies on her +silken bed, half asleep. She, too, thinks of the lake and the lilies, +but she knows nothing about Pen-se, who lives down upon the river. + +See, the sun has gone from them. It must be morning for us now. + + + +THE LITTLE DARK GIRL. + + +In this part of the world, Manenko would certainly be considered +a very wild little girl. I wonder how you would enjoy her for a +playmate. She has never been to school, although she is more than +seven years old, and doesn't know how to read, or even to tell her +letters; she has never seen a book but once, and she has never learned +to sew or to knit. + +If you should try to play at paper dolls with her, she would make very +funny work with the dresses, I assure you. Since she never wore a gown +or bonnet or shoes herself, how should she know how to put them on to +the doll? But, if she had a doll like herself, I am sure she would +be as fond of it as you are of yours; and it would be a very cunning +little dolly, I should think. Perhaps you have one that looks somewhat +like this little girl in the picture. + +Now I will tell you of some things which she can do. + +She can paddle the small canoe on the river; she can help to hoe the +young corn, and can find the wild bees' honey in the woods, gather the +scarlet fruit when it is fully ripe and falls from the trees, and help +her mother to pound the corn in the great wooden mortar. All this, and +much more, as you will see, Manenko can do; for every little girl on +the round world can help her mother, and do many useful things. + +Would you like to know more of her,--how she looks, and where she +lives, and what she does all day and all night? + +Here is a little round house, with low doorways, most like those of a +dog's house; you see we should have to stoop in going in. Look at the +round, pointed roof, made of the long rushes that grow by the river, +and braided together firmly with strips of mimosa-bark; fine, soft +grass is spread all over this roof to keep out the rain. + +If you look on the roof of the house across the street you will see +that it is covered with strips of wood called shingles, which are laid +one over the edge of the other; and when it is a rainy day you can see +how the rain slips and slides off from these shingles, and runs and +drips away from the spout. + +Now, on this little house where Manenko lives there are no shingles, +but the smooth, slippery grass is almost as good; and the rain slides +over it and drips away, hardly ever coming in to wet the people +inside, or the hard beds made of rushes, like the roof, and spread +upon the floor of earth. + +In this house lives Manenko, with Maunka her mother, Sekomi her +father, and Zungo and Shobo her two brothers. + +They are all very dark, darker than the brown baby. I believe you +would call them black, but they are not really quite so. Their lips +are thick, their noses broad, and instead of hair, their heads are +covered with wool, such as you might see on a black sheep. This wool +is braided and twisted into little knots and strings all over their +heads, and bound with bits of red string, or any gay-looking thread. +They think it looks beautiful, but I am afraid we should not agree +with them. + +Now we will see what clothes they wear. + +You remember Agoonack, who wore the white bear's-skin, because she +lived in the very cold country; and the little brown baby, who wore +nothing but a string of beads, because she lived in the warm country. +Manenko, too, lives in a warm country, and wears no clothes; but on +her arms and ankles are bracelets and anklets, with little bits of +copper and iron hanging to them, which tinkle as she walks; and she +also, like the brown baby, has beads for her neck. + +Her father and mother, and Zungo her brother, have aprons and mantles +of antelope skins; and they, too, wear bracelets and anklets like +hers. + +Little Shobo is quite a baby and runs in the sunshine, like his little +sister, without clothes. Dear little Shobo! how funny and happy he +must look, and how fond he must be of his little sister, and our +little sister, Manenko! We have all seen such little dark brothers +and sisters. His short, soft wool is not yet braided or twisted, but +crisps in little close curls all over his head. + +In the morning they must be up early, for the father is going to hunt, +and Zungo will go with him. The mother prepares the breakfast, small +cakes of bread made from the pounded corn, scarlet beans, eaten with +honey, and plenty of milk from the brown cow. She brings it in a deep +jug, and they dip in their hands for spoons. + +All the meat is eaten, and to-day the men must go out over the broad, +grassy fields for more. They will find the beautiful young antelope, +so timid and gentle as to be far more afraid of you than you would be +of them. They are somewhat like small deer, striped and spotted, and +they have large, dark eyes, so soft and earnest you cannot help loving +them. Here, too, are the buffalo, like large cows and oxen with strong +horns, and the great elephants with long trunks and tusks. Sometimes +even a lion is to be met, roused from his sleep by the noise of the +hunters; for the lion sleeps in the daytime and generally walks abroad +only at night. When you are older you can read the stories of famous +lion and elephant hunters, and of strange and thrilling adventures in +the "Dark Continent." + +It would be a wonderful thing to you and me to see all these strange +or beautiful animals, but Zungo and his father have seen them so many +times that they are thinking only of the meat they will bring home, +and, taking their long spears and the basket of ground nuts and meal +which the mother has made ready, they are off with other hunters +before the sun is up. + +Now the mother takes her hoe, and, calling her little girl to help, +hoes the young corn which is growing on the round hill behind the +house. I must tell you something about the little hill. It looks like +any other hill, you would think, and could hardly believe that there +is anything very wonderful to tell about it. But listen to me. + +A great many years ago there was no hill there at all, and the ground +was covered with small white ants. You have seen the little ant-houses +many a time on the garden-path, and all the ants at work, carrying +grains of sand in their mouths, and running this way and that, as if +they were busy in the most important work. Oh, the little ants are +very wise! They seem to know how to contrive great things and are +never idle. "Go to the ant; consider her ways, and be wise," said one +of the world's wisest men. + +Well, on the spot where this hill now stands the white ants began to +work. They were not satisfied with small houses like those which we +have seen, but they worked day after day, week after week, and even +years, until they had built this hill higher than the house in which +I live, and inside it is full of chambers and halls, and wonderful +arched passages. They built this great house, but they do not live +there now. I don't know why they moved,--perhaps because they didn't +like the idea of having such near neighbors when Sekomi began to +build his hut before their door. But, however it was, they went, and, +patient little creatures that they are, built another just like it a +mile or so away; and Sekomi said: "The hill is a fine place to plant +my early corn." + +There is but little hoeing to do this morning, and, while the work +goes on, Shobo, the baby, rolls in the grass, sucking a piece of +sugar-cane, as I have seen children suck a stick of candy. Haven't +you? + +The mother has baskets to make. On the floor of the hut is a heap of +fine, twisting tree-roots which she brought from the forest yesterday, +and under the shadow of her grassy roof she sits before the door +weaving them into strong, neat baskets, like the one in which the men +carried their dinner when they went to hunt. While she works other +women come too with their work, sit beside her in the shade, and +chatter away in a very queer-sounding language. We couldn't understand +it at all; but we should hear them always call Manenko's mother +Ma-Zungo, meaning Zungo's mother, instead of saying Maunka, which you +remember I told you is her name. Zungo is her oldest boy, you +know, and ever since he was born she has been called nothing but +Ma-Zungo,--just as if, when a lady comes into your school, the teacher +should say: "This is Joe's mother," or "This is Teddy's mamma," so +that the children should all know her. + +So the mother works on the baskets and talks with the women; but +Manenko has heard the call of the honey-bird, the brisk little chirp +of "Chiken, chiken, chik, churr, churr," and she is away to the wood +to follow his call, and bring home the honey. + +She runs beneath the tall trees, looking up for the small brown bird; +then she stops and listens to hear him again, when close beside her +comes the call, "Chiken, chiken, chik, churr, churr," and there sits +the brown bird above a hole in the tree, where the bees are flying in +and out, their legs yellow with honey-dust. It is too high for Manenko +to reach, but she marks the place and says to herself: "I will tell +Ra when he comes home." Who is Ra? Why, that is her name for "father." +She turns to go home, but stops to listen to the wild shouts and songs +of the women who have left the huts and are coming down towards the +river to welcome their chief with lulliloo, praising him by such +strange names as "Great lion," "Great buffalo." + +The chief comes from a long journey with the young men up the river +in canoes, to hunt the elephant, and bring home the ivory tusks, +from which we have many beautiful things made. The canoes are full of +tusks, and, while the men unload them, the women are shouting: "Sleep, +my lord, my great chief." Manenko listens while she stands under the +trees,--listens for only a minute, and then runs to join her mother +and add her little voice to the general noise. + +The chief is very proud and happy to bring home such a load; before +sunset it will all be carried up to the huts, the men will dress in +their very best, and walk in a gay procession. Indeed, they can't +dress much; no coats or hats or nicely polished boots have they to put +on, but some will have the white ends of oxen's tails in their hair, +some a plume of black ostrich feathers, and the chief himself has a +very grand cap made from the yellow mane of an old lion. The drum will +beat, the women will shout, while the men gather round a fire, and +roast and eat great slices of ox-meat, and tell the story of their +famous elephant-hunt. How they came to the bushes with fine, silvery +leaves and sweet bark, which the elephant eats, and there hiding, +watched and waited many hours, until the ground shook, with the heavy +tread of a great mother-elephant and her two calves, coming up from +the river, where they had been to drink. Their trunks were full +of water, and they tossed them up, spouting the water like a fine +shower-bath over their hot heads and backs, and now, cooled and +refreshed, began to eat the silvery leaves of the bushes. Then the +hunters threw their spears thick and fast; after two hours, the great +creature lay still upon the ground,--she was dead. + +So day after day they had hunted, loading the canoes with ivory, and +sailing far up the river; far up where the tall rushes wave, twisted +together by the twining morning-glory vines; far up where the +alligators make great nests in the river-bank, and lay their eggs, +and stretch themselves in the sunshine, half asleep inside their scaly +armor; far up where the hippopotamus is standing in his drowsy dream +on the bottom of the river, with the water covering him, head and all. +He is a great, sleepy fellow, not unlike a very large, dark-brown pig, +with a thick skin and no hair. Here he lives under the water all day, +only once in a while poking up his nose for a breath of fresh air. And +here is the mother-hippopotamus, with her baby standing upon her neck, +that he may be nearer the top of the water. Think how funny he must +look. + +All day long they stand here under the water, half asleep, sometimes +giving a loud grunt or snore, and sometimes, I am sorry to say, +tipping over a canoe which happens to float over their heads. But at +night, when men are asleep, the great beasts come up out of the river +and eat the short, sweet grass upon the shore, and look about to see +the world a little. Oh, what mighty beasts! Men are so small and weak +beside them. And yet, because the mind of man is so much above theirs, +he can rule them; for God made man to be king of the whole earth, and +greater than all. + +All these wonderful things the men have seen, and Manenko listens to +their stories until the moon is high and the stars have almost faded +in her light. Then her father and Zungo come home, bringing the +antelope and buffalo meat, too tired to tell their story until the +next day. So, after eating supper, they are all soon asleep upon the +mats which form their beds. It is a hard kind of bed, but a good one, +if you don't have too many mice for bedfellows. A little bright-eyed +mouse is a pretty creature, but one doesn't care to sleep with him. + +These are simple, happy people; they live out of doors most of the +time, and they love the sunshine, the rain, and the wind. They have +plenty to eat,--the pounded corn, milk and honey, and scarlet beans, +and the hunters bring meat, and soon it will be time for the wild +water-birds to come flocking down the river,--white pelicans and brown +ducks, and hundreds of smaller birds that chase the skimming flies +over the water. + +If Manenko could read, she would be sorry that she has no books; +and if she knew what dolls are, she might be longing every day for a +beautiful wax doll, with curling hair, and eyes to open and shut. But +these are things of which she knows nothing at all, and she is happy +enough in watching the hornets building their hanging nests on the +branches of the trees, cutting the small sticks of sugar-cane, or +following the honey-bird's call. + +If the children who have books would oftener leave them, and study +the wonders of the things about them,--of the birds, the plants, the +curious creatures that live and work on the land and in the air and +water,--it would be better for them. Try it, dear children; open your +eyes and look into the ways and forms of life in the midst of which +God has placed you, and get acquainted with them, till you feel that +they, too, are your brothers and sisters, and God your Father and +theirs. + + + +LOUISE, THE CHILD OF THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER RHINE. + + +Have you heard of the beautiful River Rhine--how at first it hides, a +little brook among the mountains and dark forests, and then steals out +into the sunshine, and leaps down the mountain-side, and hurries +away to the sea, growing larger and stronger as it runs, curling and +eddying among the rocks, and sweeping between the high hills where the +grape-vines grow and the solemn old castles stand? + +How people come from far and near to see and to sail upon the +beautiful river! And the children who are so blessed as to be born +near it, and to play on its shores through all the happy young years +of their lives, although they may go far away from it in the after +years, never, never forget the dear and beautiful River Rhine. + +It is only a few miles away from the Rhine--perhaps too far for you to +walk, but not too far for me--that we shall find a fine large house, +a house with pleasant gardens about it, broad gravel walks, and soft, +green grass-plats to play upon, and gay flowering trees and bushes, +while the rose-vines are climbing over the piazza, and opening +rose-buds are peeping in at the chamber windows. + +Isn't this a pleasant house? I wish we could all live in as charming +a home, by as blue and lovely a river, and with as large and sweet +a garden, or, if we might have such a place for our school, how +delightful it would be! + +Here lives Louise, my blue-eyed, sunny-haired little friend, and here +in the garden she plays with Fritz and sturdy little Gretchen. And +here, too, at evening the father and mother come to sit on the +piazza among the roses, and the children leave their games, to nestle +together on the steps while the dear brother Christian plays softly +and sweetly on his flute. + +Louise is a motherly child, already eight years old, and always +willing and glad to take care of the younger ones; indeed, she calls +Gretchen _her_ baby, and the little one loves dearly her child-mamma. + +They live in this great house, and they have plenty of toys and books, +and plenty of good food, and comfortable little beds to sleep in at +night, although, like Jeannette's, they are only neat little boxes +built against the side of the wall. + +But near them, in the valley, live the poor people, in small, low +houses. They eat black bread, wear coarse clothes, and even the +children must work all day that they may have food for to-morrow. + +The mother of Louise is a gentle, loving woman; she says to her +children: "Dear children, to-day we are rich, we can have all that +we want, but we will not forget the poor. You may some day be poor +yourselves, and, if you learn now what poverty is, you will be more +ready to meet it when it comes." So, day after day, the great stove +in the kitchen is covered with stew-pans and kettles, in which are +cooking dinners for the sick and the poor, and day after day, as the +dinner-hour draws near, Louise will come, and Fritz, and even little +Gretchen, saying: "Mother, may I go?" "May I go?" and the mother +answers: "Dear children, you shall all go together"; and she fills the +bowls and baskets, and sends her sunny-hearted children down into the +valley to old Hans the gardener, who has been lame with rheumatism so +many years; and to young Marie, the pale, thin girl, who was so merry +and rosy-cheeked in the vineyard a year ago; and to the old, old woman +with the brown, wrinkled face and bowed head, who sits always in the +sunshine before the door, and tries to knit; but the needles drop from +the poor trembling hands, and the stitches slip off, and she cannot +see to pick them up. She is too deaf to hear the children as they come +down the road, and she is nodding her poor old head, and feeling about +in her lap for the lost needle, when Louise, with her bright eyes, +spies it, picks it up, and before the old woman knows she has come, +a soft little hand is laid in the brown, wrinkled one, and the little +girl is shouting in her ear that she has brought some dinner from +mamma. It makes a smile shine in the old half-blind eyes. It is always +the happiest part of the day to her when the dear little lady comes +with her dinner. And it made Louise happy too, for nothing repays us +so well as what we do unselfishly for others. + +These summer days are full of delight for the children. It is not all +play for them, to be sure; but then, work is often even more charming +than play, as I think some little girls know when they have been +helping their mothers,--running of errands, dusting the furniture, +and sewing little squares of patchwork that the baby may have a +cradle-quilt made entirely by her little sister. + +Louise can knit, and, indeed, every child and woman in that country +knits. You would almost laugh to see how gravely the little girl takes +out her stocking, for she has really begun her first stocking, and +sits on the piazza-steps for an hour every morning at work. Then the +little garden, which she calls her own, must be weeded. The gardener +would gladly do it, but Louise has a hoe of her own, which her father +bought in the spring, and, bringing it to his little daughter, said: +"Let me see how well my little girl can take care of her own garden." +And the child has tried very hard; sometimes, it is true, she would +let the weeds grow pretty high before they were pulled up, but, on the +whole, the garden promises well, and there are buds on her moss-rose +bush. It is good to take care of a garden, for, besides the pleasure +the flowers can bring us, we learn how watchful we must be to root out +the weeds, and how much trimming and care the plants need; so we learn +how to watch over our own hearts. + +She has books, too, and studies a little each day,--studies at home +with her mother, for there is no school near enough for her to go to +it, and while she and Fritz are so young, their mother teaches them, +while Christian, who is already more than twelve years old, has gone +to the school upon that beautiful hill which can be seen from Louise's +chamber window,--the school where a hundred boys and girls are +studying music. For, ever since he was a baby, Christian has loved +music; he has sung the very sweetest little songs to Louise, while she +was yet so young as to lie in her cradle, and he has whistled until +the birds among the bushes would answer him again, and now, when he +comes home from school to spend some long summer Sunday, he always +brings the flute, and plays, as I told you in the beginning of the +story. + +When the summer days are over, what comes next? You do not surely +forget the autumn, when the leaves of the maples turn crimson and +yellow, and the oaks are red and brown, and you scuff your feet along +the path ankle-deep in fallen leaves! + +On the banks of the Rhine the autumn is not quite like ours. You shall +see how our children of the great house will spend an autumn day. + +Their father and mother have promised to go with them to the vineyards +as soon as the grapes are ripe enough for gathering, and on this sunny +September morning the time has really come. + +In the great covered baskets are slices of bread and German sausage, +bottles of milk and of beer, and plenty of fresh and delicious prunes, +for the prune orchards are loaded with ripe fruit. This is their +dinner, for they will not be home until night. + +Oh, what a charming day for the children! Little Gretchen is rolling +in the grass with delight, while Louise runs to bring her own little +basket, in which to gather grapes. + +They must ride in the broad old family carriage, for the little ones +cannot walk so far; but, when they reach the river, they will take a +boat with white sails, and go down to where the steep steps and path +lead up on the other side, up the sunny green bank to the vineyard, +where already the peasant girls have been at work ever since sunrise. +Here the grapes are hanging in heavy, purple clusters; the sun has +warmed them through and through, and made them sweet to the very +heart. Oh, how delicious they are, and how beautiful they look, heaped +up in the tall baskets, which the girls and women are carrying on +their heads! How the children watch these peasant-girls, all dressed +in neat little jackets, and many short skirts one above another, red +and blue, white and green. On their heads are the baskets of grapes, +and they never drop nor spill them, but carry them steadily down the +steep, narrow path to the great vats, where the young men stand on +short ladders to reach the top, and pour in the purple fruit. Then +the grapes are crushed till the purple juice runs out, and that is +wine,--such wine as even the children may drink in their little silver +cups, for it is even better than milk. You may be sure that they have +some at dinner-time, when they cluster round the flat rock below the +dark stone castle, with the warm noonday sun streaming across their +mossy table, and the mother opens the basket and gives to every one a +share. + +Below them is the river, with its boats and beautiful shining water; +behind them are the vine-covered walls of that old castle where two +hundred years ago lived armed knights and stately ladies; and all +about them is the rich September air, full of the sweet fragrance +of the grapes, and echoing with the songs and laughter of the +grape-gatherers. On their rocky table are purple bunches of fruit, in +their cups the new wine-juice, and in their hearts all the joy of the +merry grape season. + +There are many days like this in the autumn, but the frost will come +at last, and the snow too. This is winter, but winter brings the best +pleasure of all. + +When two weeks of the winter had nearly passed, the children, as you +may suppose, began to think of Christmas, and, indeed, their best +and most loving friend had been preparing for them the sweetest of +Christmas presents. Ten days before Christmas it came, however. Can +you guess what it was? Something for all of them,--something which +Christian will like just as well as little Gretchen will, and the +father and mother will perhaps be more pleased than any one else. + +Do you know what it is? What do you think of a little baby brother,--a +little round, sweet, blue-eyed baby brother as a Christmas present for +them all? + +When Christmas Eve came, the mother said: "The children must have +their Christmas-tree in my room, for baby is one of the presents, and +I don't think I can let him be carried out and put upon the table in +the hall, where we had it last year." + +So all day long the children are kept away from their mother's room. +Their father comes home with his great coat-pockets very full of +something, but, of course, the children don't know what. He comes and +goes, up stairs and down, and, while they are all at play in the snow, +a fine young fir-tree is brought in and carried up. Louise knows it, +for she picked up a fallen branch upon the stairs, but she doesn't +tell Fritz and Gretchen. + +How they all wait and long for the night to come! They sit at the +windows, watching the red sunset light upon the snow, and cannot think +of playing or eating their supper. The parlor door is open, and all +are waiting and listening. A little bell rings, and in an instant +there is a scampering up the broad stairs to the door of mother's +room; again the little bell rings, and the door is opened wide by +their father, who stands hidden behind it. + +At the foot of their mother's white-curtained bed stands the little +fir-tree; tiny candles are burning all over it like little stars, and +glittering golden fruits are hanging among the dark-green branches. +On the white-covered table are laid Fritz's sword and Gretchen's big +doll, they being too heavy for the tree to hold. Under the branches +Louise finds charming things; such a little work-box as it is a +delight to see, with a lock and key, and inside, thimble and scissors, +and neat little spools of silk and thread. Then there are the fairy +stories of the old Black Forest, and that most charming of all little +books, "The White Cat," and an ivory cup and ball for Fritz. Do you +remember where the ivory comes from? And, lest Baby Hans should think +himself forgotten, there is an ivory rattle for him. + +There he lies in the nurse's arms, his blue eyes wide open with +wonder, and in a minute the children, with arms full of presents, have +gathered round the old woman's arm-chair,--gathered round the best and +sweetest little Christmas present of all. And the happy mother, who +sits up among the pillows, taking her supper, while she watches her +children, forgets to eat, and leaves the gruel to grow cold, but her +heart is warm enough. + +Why is not Christian here to-night? In the school of music, away on +the hill, he is singing a grand Christmas hymn, with a hundred young +voices to join him. It is very grand and sweet, full of thanks and of +love. It makes the little boy feel nearer to all his loved ones, and +in his heart he is thanking the dear Father who has given them that +best little Christmas present,--the baby. + + + +LOUISE, THE CHILD OF THE WESTERN FOREST. + + +There are many things happening in this world, dear children,--things +that happen to you yourselves day after day, which you are too young +to understand at the time. By and by, when you grow to be as old as I +am, you will remember and wonder about them all. + +Now, it was just one of these wonderful things, too great for the +young children to understand, that happened to our little Louise and +her brothers and sister when the Christmas time had come around again, +and the baby was more than a year old. + +It was a cold, stormy night; there were great drifts of snow, and +the wind was driving it against the windows. In the beautiful great +parlor, beside the bright fire, sat the sweet, gentle mother, and +in her lap lay the stout little Hans. The children had their little +chairs before the fire, and watched the red and yellow flames, while +Louise had already taken out her knitting-work. + +They were all very still, for their father seemed sad and troubled, +and the children were wondering what could be the matter. Their mother +looked at them and smiled, but, after all, it was only a sad smile. I +think it is hardest for the father, when he can no longer give to wife +and children their pleasant home; but, if they can be courageous and +happy when they have to give it up, it makes his heart easier and +brighter. + +"I must tell the children' to-night," said the father, looking at his +wife, and she answered quite cheerfully: "Yes, tell them; they will +not be sad about it I know." + +So the father told to his wondering little ones that he had lost all +his money; the beautiful great house and gardens were no longer his, +and they must all leave their pleasant home near the Rhine, and cross +the great, tossing ocean, to find a new home among the forests or the +prairies. + +As you may suppose, the children didn't fully understand this. I +don't think you would yourself. You would be quite delighted with the +packing and moving, and the pleasant journey in the cars, and the new +and strange things you would see on board the ship, and it would be +quite a long time before you could really know what it was to lose +your own dear home. + +So the children were not sad; you know their mother said they would +not be. But when they were safely tucked up in their little beds, and +tenderly kissed by the most loving lips, Louise could not go to sleep +for thinking of this strange moving, and wondering what they should +carry, and how long they should stay. For she had herself once been on +a visit to her uncle in the city, carrying her clothes in a new little +square trunk, and riding fifty miles in the cars, and she thought it +would be quite a fine thing that they should all pack up trunks full +of clothing, and go together on even a longer journey. + +A letter had been written to tell Christian, and the next day he came +home from the school. His uncles in the city begged him to stay with +them, but the boy said earnestly: "If my father must cross the sea, I +too must go with him." + +They waited only for the winter's cold to pass away, and when the +first robins began to sing among the naked trees, they had left the +fine large house,--left the beautiful gardens where the children +used to play, left the great, comfortable arm-chairs and sofas, the +bookcases and tables, and the little beds beside the wall. Besides +their clothes, they had taken nothing with them but two great wooden +chests full of beautiful linen sheets and table-cloths. These had been +given to the mother by her mother long ago, before any of the children +were born, and they must be carried to the new home. You will see, by +and by, how glad the family all were to have them. + +Did you ever go on board a ship? It is almost like a great house upon +the water, but the rooms in it are very small, and so are the windows. +Then there is the long deck, where we may walk in the fresh air and +watch the water and the sea-birds, or the sailors at work upon the +high masts among the ropes, and the white sails that spread out like a +white bird's wings, and sweep the ship along over the water. + +It was in such a ship that our children found themselves, with +their father and mother, when the snow was gone and young grass +was beginning to spring up on the land. But of this they could see +nothing, for in a day they had flown on the white wings far out over +the water, and as Louise clung to her father's hand and stood upon the +deck at sunset, she saw only water and sky all about on every side, +and the red clouds of the sunset. It was a little sad, and quite +strange to her, but her younger brothers and sisters were already +asleep in the small beds of the ship, which, as perhaps you know, are +built up against the wall, just as their beds were at home. Louise +kissed her father and went down, too, to bed, for you must know that +on board ship you go _down_ stairs to bed instead of _up_ stairs. + +After all, if father, mother, brother, and sister can still cling to +each other and love each other, it makes little difference where they +are, for love is the best thing in the universe, and nothing is good +without it. + +They lived for many days in the ship, and the children, after a little +time, were not afraid to run about the deck and talk with the sailors, +who were always very kind to them. And Louise felt quite at home +sitting in her little chair beside the great mast, while she knit upon +her stocking,--a little stocking now, one for the baby. + +Christian had brought his flute, and at night he played to them as he +used at home, and, indeed, they were all so loving and happy together +that it was not much sorrow to lose the home while they kept each +other. + +Sometimes a hard day would come, when the clouds swept over them, and +the rain and the great waves tossed the ship, making them all sick, +and sad too, for a time; but the sun was sure to come out at last, as +I can assure you it always will, and, on the whole, it was a pleasant +journey for them all. + +It was a fine, sunny May day when they reached the land again. No +time, though, for them to go Maying, for only see how much is to +be done! Here are all the trunks and the linen-chests, and all the +children, too, to be disposed of, and they are to stop but two days in +this city. Then they must be ready for a long journey in the cars and +steamboats, up rivers and across lakes, and sometimes for miles and +miles through woods, where they see no houses nor people, excepting +here and there a single log cabin with two or three ragged children at +play outside, or a baby creeping over the doorstep, while farther on +among the trees stands a man with his axe, cutting, with heavy blows, +some tall trees into such logs as those of which the house is built. + +These are new and strange sights to the children of the River Rhine. +They wonder, and often ask their parents if they, too, shall live in a +little log house like that. + +How fresh and fragrant the new logs are for the dwelling, and how +sweet the pine and spruce boughs for a bed! A good new log house in +the green woods is the best home in the world. + +Oh, how heartily tired they all are when at last they stop! They have +been riding by day and by night. The children have fallen asleep with +heads curled down upon their arms upon the seats of the car, and the +mother has had very hard work to keep little Hans contented and happy. +But here at last they have stopped. Here is the new home. + +They have left the cars at a very small town. It has ten or twelve +houses and one store, and they have taken here a great wagon with +three horses to carry them yet a few miles farther to a lonely, though +beautiful place. It is on the edge of a forest. The trees are very +tall, their trunks moss-covered; and when you look far in among them +it is so dark that no sunlight seems to fall on the brown earth. But +outside is sunshine, and the young spring grass and wild flowers, +different from those which grow on the Rhine banks. + +But where is their house? + +Here is indeed something new for them. It is almost night; no house is +near, and they have no sleeping-place but the great wagon. But their +cheerful mother packs them all away in the back part of the wagon, +on some straw, covering them with shawls as well as she can, and bids +them good-night, saying, "You can see the stars whenever you open your +eyes." + +It is a new bed and a hard one. However, the children are tired enough +to sleep well; but they woke very early, as you or I certainly should +if we slept in the great concert-hall of the birds. Oh, how those +birds of the woods did begin to sing, long before sunrise! And +Christian was out from his part of the bed in a minute, and off four +miles to the store, to buy some bread for breakfast. + +An hour after sunrise he was back again, and Louise had gathered +sticks, of which her father made a bright fire. And now the mother is +teaching her little daughter how to make tea, and Fritz and Gretchen +are poking long sticks into the ashes to find the potatoes which were +hidden there to roast. + +To them it is a beautiful picnic, like those happy days in the grape +season; but Louise can see that her mother is a little grieved at +having them sleep in the wagon with no house to cover them. And when +breakfast is over she says to the father that the children must be +taken back to the village to stay until the house is built. He, too, +had thought so; and the mother and children go back to the little +town. + +Christian alone stays with his father, working with his small axe as +his father does with the large one; but to both it is very hard work +to cut trees; because it is something they have never done before. +They do their best, and when he is not too tired, Christian whistles +to cheer himself. + +After the first day a man is hired to help, and it is not a great +while before the little house is built--built of great, rough logs, +still covered with brown bark and moss. All the cracks are stuffed +with moss to keep out the rain and cold, and there is one window and a +door. + +It is a poor little house to come to after leaving the grand old one +by the Rhine, but the children are delighted when their father comes +with the great wagon to take them to their new home. + +And into this house one summer night they come--without beds, tables, +or chairs; really with nothing but the trunks and linen-chests. The +dear old linen-chests, see only how very useful they have become! What +shall be the supper-table for this first meal in the new house? What +but the largest of the linen-chests, round which they all gather, some +sitting on blocks of wood, and the little ones standing! And after +supper what shall they have for beds? What but the good old chests +again! For many and many a day and night they are used, and the mother +is, over and over again, thankful that she brought them. + +As the summer days go by, the children pick berries in the woods and +meadows, and Fritz is feeling himself a great boy when his father +expects him to take care of the old horse, blind of one eye, bought to +drag the loads of wood to market. + +Louise is learning to love the grand old trees where the birds and +squirrels live. She sits for hours with her work on some mossy cushion +under the great waving boughs, and she is so silent and gentle that +the squirrels learn to come very near her, turning their heads every +minute to see if she is watching, and almost laughing at her with +their sharp, bright eyes, while they are cramming their cheeks full of +nuts--not to eat now, you know, but to carry home to the storehouses +in some comfortable hollow trees, to be saved for winter use. When the +snow comes, you see, they will not be able to find any nuts. + +One day Louise watched them until she suddenly thought, "Why don't we, +too, save nuts for the winter?" and the next day she brought a +basket and the younger children, instead of her knitting-work. They +frightened away the squirrels, to be sure, but they carried home a +fine large basketful of nuts. + +Oh, how much might be seen in those woods on a summer day!--birds and +flowers, and such beautiful moss! I have seen it myself, so soft and +thick, better than the softest cushion to sit on, and then so lovely +to look at, with its long, bright feathers of green. + +Sometimes Louise has seen the quails going out for a walk; the mother +with her seven babies all tripping primly along behind her, the wee, +brown birds; and all running, helter-skelter, in a minute, if they +hear a noise among the bushes, and hiding, each one, his head under a +broad leaf, thinking, poor little foolish things, that no one can see +them. + +Christian whistles to the quails a long, low call; they will look this +way and that and listen, and at last really run towards him without +fear. + +Before winter comes the log house is made more comfortable; beds and +chairs are bought, and a great fire burns in the fireplace. But do the +best they can the rain will beat in between the logs, and after the +first snowstorm one night, a white pointed drift is found on the +breakfast-table. They laugh at it, and call it ice-cream, but they +almost feel more like crying, with cold blue fingers, and toes that +even the warm knit stockings can't keep comfortable. Never mind, the +swift snowshoes will make them skim over the snow-crust like birds +flying, and the merry sled-rides that brother Christian will give them +will make up for all the trouble. They will soon love the winter in +the snowy woods. + +Their clothes, too, are all wearing out. Fritz comes to his mother +with great holes in his jacket-sleeves, and poor Christian's knees are +blue and frost-bitten through the torn trousers. What shall be done? + +Louise brings out two old coats of her father's. Christian is wrapped +in one from head to foot, and Fritz looks like the oddest little man +with his great coat muffled around him, crossed in front and buttoned +around behind, while the long sleeves can be turned back almost to his +shoulders. Funny enough he looks, but it makes him quite warm; and in +this biting wind who would think of the looks? So our little friend +is to drive poor old Major to town with a sled-load of wood every day, +while his father and brother are cutting trees in the forest. + +Should you laugh to see a boy so dressed coming up the street with a +load of wood? Perhaps you wouldn't if you knew how cold he would be +without this coat, and how much he hopes to get the half-dollar for +his wood, and bring home bread and meat for supper. + +How wise the children grow in this hard work and hard life! Fritz +feels himself a little man, and Louise, I am sure, is as useful as +many a woman, for she is learning to cook and tend the fire, while +even Gretchen has some garters to knit, and takes quite good care of +the baby. + +Little Hans will never remember the great house by the Rhine; he was +too little when they came away; but by and by he will like to hear +stories about it, which, you may be sure, Louise will often tell her +little brother. + +The winter is the hardest time. When Christmas comes there is not even +a tree, for there are no candles to light one and no presents to give. +But there is one beautiful gift which they may and do all give to each +other,--it makes them happier than many toys or books,--it is love. It +makes even this cold dreary Christmas bright and beautiful to them. + +Next winter will not be so hard, for in the spring corn will be +planted, and plenty of potatoes and turnips and cabbages; and they +will have enough to eat and something to sell for money. + +But I must not stay to tell you more now of the backwoods life of +Louise and her brothers and sister. If you travel some day to the +West, perhaps you will see her yourself, gathering her nuts under the +trees, or sitting in the sun on the doorstep with her knitting. Then +you will know her for the little sister who has perhaps come +closest to your heart, and you will clasp each other's hands in true +affection. + + + + +THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS. + + +Here, dear children, are your seven little sisters. Let us count them +over. First came the brown baby, then Agoonack, Gemila, Jeannette, +Pen-se, Manenko, and Louise. Seven little sisters I have called them, +but Marnie exclaims: "How can they be sisters when some are black, +some brown, and some white; when one lives in the warm country and +another in the cold, and Louise upon the shores of the Rhine? Sallie +and I are sisters, because we have the same father and live here +together in the same house by the seaside; but as for those seven +children, I can't believe them to be sisters at all." + +Now let us suppose, my dear little girl, that your sister Sallie +should go away,--far away in a ship across the ocean to the warm +countries, and the sun should burn her face and hands and make them +so brown that you would hardly know her,--wouldn't she still be your +sister Sallie? + +And suppose even that she should stay away in the warm countries and +never come back again, wouldn't she still be your dear sister? and +wouldn't you write her letters and tell her about home and all that +you love there? + +I know you would. + +And now, just think if you yourself should take a great journey +through ice and snow and go to the cold countries, up among the white +bears and the sledges and dogs; suppose even that you should have an +odd little dress of white bear-skin, like Agoonack, wouldn't you think +it very strange if Sallie shouldn't call you her little sister just +because you were living up there among the ice? + +And what if Minnie, too, should take it into her head to sail across +the seas and live in a boat on a Chinese river, like Pen-se, and drive +the ducks, eat rice with chopsticks, and have fried mice for dinner; +why, you might not want to dine with her, but she would be your sweet, +loving sister all the same, wouldn't she? + +I can hear you say "Yes" to all this, but then you will add: "Father +is our father the same all the time, and he isn't Pen-se's father, nor +Manenko's." + +Let us see what makes you think he is your father. Because he loves +you so much and gives you everything that you have--clothes to wear, +and food to eat, and fire to warm you? + +Did he give you this new little gingham frock? Shall we see what it +is made of? If you ravel out one end of the cloth, you can find the +little threads of cotton which are woven together to make your frock. +Where did the cotton come from? + +It grew in the hot fields of the South, where the sun shines very +warmly. Your father didn't make it grow, neither did any man. It is +true a man, a poor black man, and a very sad man he was too, put the +little seeds into the ground, but they would never have grown if the +sun hadn't shone, the soft earth nourished, and the rain moistened +them. And who made the earth, and sent the sun and the rain? + +That must be somebody very kind and thoughtful, to take so much care +of the little cotton-seeds. I think that must be a father. + +Now, what did you have for breakfast this morning? + +A sweet Indian cake with your egg and mug of milk? I thought so. Who +made this breakfast? Did Bridget make the cake in the kitchen? Yes, +she mixed the meal with milk and salt and sugar. But where did she get +the meal? The miller ground the yellow corn to make it. But who made +the corn? + +The seeds were planted as the cottonseeds were, and the same kind care +supplied sun and rain and earth for them. Wasn't that a father? Not +your father who sits at the head of the table and helps you at dinner, +who takes you to walk and tells you stories, but another Father; your +Father, too, he must be, for he is certainly taking care of you. + +And doesn't he make the corn grow, also, on that ant-hill behind +Manenko's house? He seems to take the same care of her as of you. + +Then the milk and the egg. They come from the hen and the cow; but who +made the hen and the cow? + +It was the same kind Father again who made them for you, and made +the camels and goats for Gemila and Jeannette; who made also the wild +bees, and taught them to store their honey in the trees, for Manenko; +who made the white rice grow and ripen for little Pen-se, and the +sea-birds and the seals for Agoonack. To every one good food to +eat--and more than that; for must it not be a very loving father who +has made for us all the beautiful sky, and the stars at night, and the +blue sea; who sent the soft wind to rock the brown baby to sleep +and sing her a song, and the grand march of the Northern Lights for +Agoonack--grander and more beautiful than any of the fireworks you +know; the red strawberries for little Jeannette to gather, and the +beautiful chestnut woods on the mountain-side? Do you remember all +these things in the stories? + +And wasn't it the same tender love that made the sparkling water and +sunshine for Pen-se, and the shining brown ducks for her too; the +springs in the desert and the palm-trees for Gemila, as well as the +warm sunshine for Manenko, and the beautiful River Rhine for Louise? + +It must be a very dear father who gives his children not only all +they need for food and clothing, but so many, many beautiful things to +enjoy. + +Don't you see that they must all be his children, and so all sisters, +and that he is your Father, too, who makes the mayflowers bloom, and +the violets cover the hills, and turns the white blossoms into black, +sweet berries in the autumn? It is your dear and kind Father who does +all this for his children. He has very many children; some of them +live in houses and some in tents, some in little huts and some under +the trees, in the warm countries and in the cold. And he loves them +all; they are his children, and they are brothers and sisters. Shall +they not love each other? + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on +the Round Ball That Floats in the Air, by Jane Andrews + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12631 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc21833 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12631 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12631) diff --git a/old/12631.txt b/old/12631.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..500136c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12631.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2979 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the +Round Ball That Floats in the Air, by Jane Andrews + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball + That Floats in the Air + +Author: Jane Andrews + +Release Date: June 15, 2004 [EBook #12631] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS *** + + + + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Melissa Er-Raqabi and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + + +THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS +WHO LIVE ON THE ROUND BALL THAT FLOATS IN THE AIR + + +BY + +JANE ANDREWS + +WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LOUISA PARSONS HOPKINS FORMERLY SUPERVISOR IN +BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS + + + + +FOR + +MY THREE LITTLE FRIENDS + +Marnie, Bell, and Geordie + +I HAVE WRITTEN THESE STORIES + + + +CONTENTS. + +MEMORIAL OF MISS JANE ANDREWS +THE BALL ITSELF +THE LITTLE BROWN BABY +AGOONACK, THE ESQUIMAU SISTER +HOW AGOONACK LIVES THROUGH THE LONG SUMMER +GEMILA, THE CHILD OF THE DESERT +THE LITTLE MOUNTAIN MAIDEN +THE STORY OF PEN-SE +THE LITTLE DARK GIRL +LOUISE, THE CHILD OF THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER RHINE +LOUISE, THE CHILD OF THE WESTERN FOREST +THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS + + + +MEMORIAL OF MISS JANE ANDREWS. [Born Dec. 1, 1833. Died July 15, +1887.] + + + +BY LOUISA PARSONS HOPKINS. + + +Perhaps the readers and lovers of this little book will be glad of a +few pages, by way of introduction, which shall show them somewhat of +Miss Andrews herself, and of her way of writing and teaching, as an +old friend and schoolmate may try to tell it; and, to begin with, a +glimpse of the happy day when she called a few of her friends together +to listen to the stories contained in this volume, before they were +offered to a publisher. + +Picture to yourselves a group of young ladies in one of the loveliest +of old-fashioned parlors, looking out on a broad, elm-shaded street +in the old town of Newburyport. The room is long and large, with wide +mahogany seats in the four deep windows, ancient mahogany chairs, and +great bookcases across one side of the room, with dark pier-tables and +centre-table, and large mirror,--all of ancestral New England solidity +and rich simplicity; some saintly portraits on the wall, a modern +easel in the corner accounting for fine bits of coloring on canvas, +crayon drawings about the room, and a gorgeous firescreen of autumn +tints; nasturtium vines in bloom glorifying the south window, and +German ivy decorating the north corner; choice books here and there, +not to look at only, but to be assimilated; with an air of quiet +refinement and the very essence of cultured homeness pervading +all;--this is the meagre outline of a room, which, having once sat +within, you would wish never to see changed, in which many pure and +noble men and women have loved to commune with the lives which have +been so blent with all its suggestions that it almost seems a part of +their organic being. + +But it was twenty-five years ago [This memorial was written in 1887.] +that this circle of congenial and expectant young people were drawn +together in the room to listen to the first reading of the MSS. of +"The Seven Little Sisters." I will not name them all; but one whose +youthful fame and genius were the pride of all, Harriet Prescott (now +Mrs. Spofford), was Jane's friend and neighbor for years, and heard +most of her books in MSS. They were all friends, and in a very +sympathetic and eager attitude of mind, you may well believe; for +in the midst, by the centre-table, sits Jane, who has called them +together; and knowing that she has really written a book, each one +feels almost that she herself has written it in some unconscious way, +because each feels identified with Jane's work, and is ready to be as +proud of it, and as sure of it, as all the world is now of the success +of Miss Jane Andrews's writings for the boys and girls in these little +stories of geography and history which bear her name. + +I can see Jane sitting there, as I wish you could, with her MSS. on +the table at her side. She is very sweet and good and noble-looking, +with soft, heavy braids of light-brown hair carefully arranged on her +fine, shapely head; her forehead is full and broad; her eyes large, +dark blue, and pleasantly commanding, but with very gentle and dreamy +phases interrupting their placid decision of expression; her features +are classic and firm in outline, with pronounced resolution in the +close of the full lips, or of hearty merriment in the open laugh, +illuminated by a dazzle of well-set teeth; her complexion fresh +and pure, and the whole aspect of her face kind, courageous, and +inspiring, as well as thoughtful and impressive. The poise of her head +and rather strongly built figure is unusually good, and suggestive +of health, dignity, and leadership; yet her manners and voice are so +gentle, and her whole demeanor so benevolent, that no one could be +offended at her taking naturally the direction of any work, or the +planning of any scheme, which she would also be foremost in executing. + +But there she sits looking up at her friends, with her papers in hand, +and the pretty businesslike air that so well became her, and bespeaks +the extreme criticism of her hearers upon what she shall read, because +she really wants to know how it affects them, and what mistakes or +faults can be detected; for she must do her work as well as possible, +and is sure they are willing to help. "You see," says Jane, "I have +dedicated the book to the children I told the stories to first, +when the plan was only partly in my mind, and they seemed to grow +by telling, till at last they finished themselves; and the children +seemed to care so much for them, that I thought if they were put into +a book other children might care for them too, and they might possibly +do some good in the world." + +Yes, those were the points that always indicated the essential aim +and method of Jane's writing and teaching, the elements out of which +sprang all her work; viz., the relation of her mind to the actual +individual children she knew and loved, and the natural growth of her +thought through their sympathy, and the accretion of all she read and +discovered while the subject lay within her brooding brain, as well +as the single dominant purpose to do some good in the world. There was +definiteness as well as breadth in her way of working all through her +life. + +I wish I could remember exactly what was said by that critical circle; +for there were some quick and brilliant minds, and some pungent powers +of appreciation, and some keen-witted young women in that group. +Perhaps I might say they had all felt the moulding force of some very +original and potential educators as they had been growing up into +their young womanhood. Some of these were professional educators of +lasting pre-eminence; others were not professed teachers, yet in the +truest and broadest sense teachers of very wide and wise and inspiring +influence; and of these Thomas Wentworth Higginson had come more +intimately and effectually into formative relations with the minds and +characters of those gathered in that sunny room than any other person. +They certainly owed much of the loftiness and breadth of their aim +in life, and their comprehension of the growth and work to be +accomplished in the world, to his kind and steady instigation. I wish +I could remember what they said, and what Jane said; but all that has +passed away. I think somebody objected to the length of the title, +which Jane admitted to be a fault, but said something of wishing to +get the idea of the unity of the world into it as the main idea of the +book. I only recall the enthusiastic delight with which chapter +after chapter was greeted; we declared that it was a fairy tale of +geography, and a work of genius in its whole conception, and in its +absorbing interest of detail and individuality; and that any publisher +would demonstrate himself an idiot who did not want to publish it. I +remember Jane's quick tossing back of the head, and puzzled brow which +broke into a laugh, as she said: "Well, girls, it can't be as good as +you say; there must be some faults in it." But we all exclaimed that +we had done our prettiest at finding fault,--that there wasn't a +ghost of a fault in it. For the incarnate beauty and ideality and +truthfulness of her little stories had melted into our being, and left +us spellbound, till we were one with each other and her; one with the +Seven Little Sisters, too, and they seemed like our very own little +sisters. So they have rested in our imagination and affection as we +have seen them grow into the imagination and affection of generations +of children since, and as they will continue to grow until the +old limitations and barrenness of the study of geography shall be +transfigured, and the earth seem to the children an Eden which love +has girdled, when Gemila, Agoonack, and the others shall have won them +to a knowledge of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. + +I would like to bring before young people who have read her books some +qualities of her mind and character which made her the rare woman, +teacher, and writer that she was. I knew her from early girlhood. We +went to the same schools, in more and more intimate companionship, +from the time we were twelve until we were twenty years of age; and +our lives and hearts were "grappled" to each other "with links of +steel" ever after. She was a precocious child, early matured, and +strong in intellectual and emotional experiences. She had a remarkably +clear mind, orderly and logical in its processes, and loved to take +up hard problems. She studied all her life with great joy and +earnestness, rarely, if ever, baffled in her persistent learning +except by ill-health. She went on at a great pace in mathematics for a +young girl; every step seemed easy to her. She took everything +severe that she could get a chance at, in the course or out of +it,--surveying, navigation, mechanics, mathematical astronomy, and +conic sections, as well as the ordinary course in mathematics; the +calculus she had worked through at sixteen under a very able and exact +teacher, and took her diploma from W.H. Wells, a master who allowed +nothing to go slipshod. She was absorbed in studies of this kind, and +took no especial interest in composition or literature beyond what was +required, and what was the natural outcome of a literary atmosphere +and inherited culture; that is, her mind was passively rather than +actively engaged in such directions, until later. At the normal school +she led a class which has had a proud intellectual record as teachers +and workers. She was the easy victor in every contest; with an +inclusive grasp, an incisive analysis, instant generalization, a very +tenacious and ready memory, and unusual talent for every effort of +study, she took and held the first place as a matter of course until +she graduated, when she gave the valedictory address. This valedictory +was a prophetic note in the line of her future expression; for it +gave a graphic illustration of the art of teaching geography, to the +consideration of which she had been led by Miss Crocker's logical, +suggestive, and masterly presentation of the subject in the school +course. Her ability and steadiness of working power, as well as +singleness of aim, attracted the attention of Horace Mann, who was +about forming the nucleus of Antioch College; and he succeeded in +gaining her as one of his promised New England recruits. She had +attended very little to Latin, and went to work at once to prepare for +the classical requirements of a college examination. This she did with +such phenomenal rapidity that in six weeks she had fitted herself +for what was probably equivalent to a Harvard entrance examination +in Latin. She went to Antioch, and taught, as well as studied for a +while, until her health gave way entirely; and she was prostrate for +years with brain and spine disorders. Of course this put an end to her +college career; and on her recovery she opened her little school in +her own house, which she held together until her final illness, and +to which she devoted her thoughts and energies, her endowments and +attainments, as well as her prodigal devotion and love. + +The success of "The Seven Little Sisters" was a great pleasure to +her, partly because her dear mother and friends were so thoroughly +satisfied with it. Her mother always wished that Jane would give +her time more exclusively to writing, especially as new outlines of +literary work were constantly aroused in her active brain. She wrote +several stories which were careful studies in natural science, and +which appeared in some of the magazines. I am sure they would be well +worth collecting. She had her plan of "Each and All" long in her mind +before elaborating, and it crystallized by actual contact with the +needs and the intellectual instincts of her little classes. In fact +all her books grew, like a plant, from within outwards; they were born +in the nursery of the schoolroom, and nurtured by the suggestions of +the children's interest, thus blooming in the garden of a true and +natural education. The last book she wrote, "Ten Boys Who Lived on the +Road from Long Ago to Now," she had had in her mind for years. This +little book she dedicated to a son of her sister Margaret. I am sure +she gave me an outline of the plan fully ten years before she wrote +it out. The subject of her mental work lay in her mind, growing, +gathering to itself nourishment, and organizing itself consciously +or unconsciously by all the forces of her unresting brain and all +the channels of her study, until it sprung from her pen complete at +a stroke. She wrote good English, of course, and would never +sentimentalize, but went directly at the pith of the matter; and, if +she had few thoughts on a subject, she made but few words. I don't +think she did much by way of revising or recasting after her thought +was once committed to paper. I think she wrote it as she would +have said it, always with an imaginary child before her, to whose +intelligence and sympathy it was addressed. Her habit of mind was to +complete a thought before any attempt to convey it to others. This +made her a very helpful and clear teacher and leader. She seemed +always to have considered carefully anything she talked about, and +gave her opinion with a deliberation and clear conviction which +affected others as a verdict, and made her an oracle to a great +many kinds of people. All her plans were thoroughly shaped before +execution; all her work was true, finished, and conscientious in every +department. She did a great deal of quiet, systematic thinking from +her early school days onward, and was never satisfied until she +completed the act of thought by expression and manifestation in some +way for the advantage of others. The last time I saw her, which was +for less than five minutes accorded me by her nurse during her last +illness, she spoke of a new plan of literary work which she had in +mind, and although she attempted no delineation of it, said she was +thinking it out whenever she felt that it was safe for her to think. +Her active brain never ceased its plans for others, for working toward +the illumination of the mind, the purification of the soul, and the +elevation and broadening of all the ideals of life. I remember her +sitting, absorbed in reflection, at the setting of the sun every +evening while we were at the House Beautiful of the Peabodys [We spent +nearly all our time at West Newton in a little cottage on the hill, +where Miss Elizabeth Peabody, with her saintly mother and father, made +a paradise of love and refinement and ideal culture for us, and where +we often met the Hawthornes and Manns; and we shall never be able to +measure the wealth of intangible mental and spiritual influence which +we received therefrom.] at West Newton; or, when at home, gazing +every night, before retiring, from her own house-top, standing at +her watchtower to commune with the starry heavens, and receive that +exaltation of spirit which is communicated when we yield ourselves to +the "essentially religious." (I use this phrase, because it delighted +her so when I repeated it to her as the saying of a child in looking +at the stars.) + +No one ever felt a twinge of jealousy in Jane's easy supremacy; she +never made a fuss about it, although I think she had no mock +modesty in the matter. She accepted the situation which her uniform +correctness of judgment assured to her, while she always accorded +generous praise and deference to those who excelled her in departments +where she made no pretence of superiority. + +There were some occasions when her idea of duty differed from a +conventional one, perhaps from that of some of her near friends; but +no one ever doubted her strict dealing with herself, or her singleness +of motive. She did not feel the need of turning to any other +conscience than her own for support or enlightenment, and was +inflexible and unwavering in any course she deemed right. She never +apologized for herself in any way, or referred a matter of her own +experience or sole responsibility to another for decision; neither did +she seem to feel the need of expressed sympathy in any private loss +or trial. Her philosophy of life, her faith, or her temperament seemed +equal to every exigency of disappointment or suffering. She generally +kept her personal trials hidden within her own heart, and recovered +from every selfish pain by the elastic vigor of her power for +unselfish devotion to the good of others. She said that happiness was +to have an unselfish work to do, and the power to do it. + +It has been said that Jane's only fault was that she was too good. +I think she carried her unselfishness too often to a short-sighted +excess, breaking down her health, and thus abridging her opportunities +for more permanent advantage to those whom she would have died to +serve; but it was solely on her own responsibility, and in consequence +of her accumulative energy of temperament, that made her unconscious +of the strain until too late. + +Her brain was constitutionally sensitive and almost abnormally active; +and she more than once overtaxed it by too continuous study, or by a +disregard of its laws of health, or by a stupendous multiplicity of +cares, some of which it would have been wiser to leave to others. She +took everybody's burdens to carry herself. She was absorbed in the +affairs of those she loved,--of her home circle, of her sisters' +families, and of many a needy one whom she adopted into her +solicitude. She was thoroughly fond of children and of all that they +say and do, and would work her fingers off for them, or nurse them day +and night. Her sisters' children were as if they had been her own, and +she revelled in all their wonderful manifestations and development. +Her friends' children she always cared deeply for, and was hungry for +their wise and funny remarks, or any hint of their individuality. Many +of these things she remembered longer than the mothers themselves, and +took the most thorough satisfaction in recounting. + +I have often visited her school, and it seemed like a home with a +mother in it. There we took sweet counsel together, as if we had come +to the house of God in company; for our methods were identical, and +a day in her school was a day in mine. We invariably agreed as to the +ends of the work, and how to reach them; for we understood each other +perfectly in that field of art. + +I wish I could show her life with all its constituent factors of +ancestry, home, and surroundings; for they were so inherent in her +thoughts and feelings that you could hardly separate her from them in +your consideration. But that is impossible. Disinterested benevolence +was the native air of the house into which she was born, and she was +an embodiment of that idea. To devote herself to some poor outcast, to +reform a distorted soul, to give all she had to the most abject, to do +all she could for the despised and rejected,--this was her craving and +absorbing desire. I remember some comical instances of the pursuance +of this self-abnegation, where the returns were, to say the least, +disappointing; but she was never discouraged. It would be easy to name +many who received a lifelong stimulus and aid at her hands, either +intellectual or moral. She had much to do with the development of some +remarkable careers, as well as with the regeneration of many poor and +abandoned souls. + +She was in the lives of her dear ones, and they in hers, to a very +unusual degree; and her life-threads are twined inextricably in theirs +forever. She was a complete woman,--brain, will, affections, all, to +the greatest extent, active and unselfish; her character was a harmony +of many strong and diverse elements; her conscience was a great rock +upon which her whole nature rested; her hands were deft and cunning; +her ingenious brain was like a master mechanic at expedients; and +in executive and administrative power, as well as in device and +comprehension, she was a marvel. If she had faults, they are +indistinguishable in the brightness and solidity of her whole +character. She was ready to move into her place in any sphere, and +adjust herself to any work God should give her to do. She must +be happy, and shedding happiness, wherever she is; for that is an +inseparable quality and function of her identity. + +She passed calmly out of this life, and lay at rest in her own home, +in that dear room so full of memories of her presence, with flowers +to deck her bed, and many of her dearest friends around her; while the +verses which her beloved sister Caroline had selected seemed easily to +speak with Jane's own voice, as they read:-- + + Prepare the house, kind friends; drape it and deck it + With leaves and blossoms fair: + Throw open doors and windows, and call hither + The sunshine and soft air. + + Let all the house, from floor to ceiling, look + Its noblest and its best; + For it may chance that soon may come to me + A most imperial guest. + + A prouder visitor than ever yet + Has crossed my threshold o'er, + One wearing royal sceptre and a crown + Shall enter at my door; + + Shall deign, perchance, sit at my board an hour, + And break with me my bread; + Suffer, perchance, this night my honored roof + Shelter his kingly head. + + And if, ere comes the sun again, he bid me + Arise without delay, + And follow him a journey to his kingdom + Unknown and far away; + + And in the gray light of the dawning morn + We pass from out my door, + My guest and I, silent, without farewell, + And to return no more,-- + + Weep not, kind friends, I pray; not with vain tears + Let your glad eyes grow dim; + Remember that my house was all prepared, + And that I welcomed him. + + + + +THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS. + + + +THE BALL ITSELF. + + +Dear children, I have heard of a wonderful ball, which floats in the +sweet blue air, and has little soft white clouds about it, as it swims +along. + +There are many charming and astonishing things to be told of this +ball, and some of them you shall hear. + +In the first place, you must know that it is a very big ball; far +bigger than the great soft ball, of bright colors, that little Charley +plays with on the floor,--yes, indeed; and bigger than cousin Frank's +largest football, that he brought home from college in the spring; +bigger, too, than that fine round globe in the schoolroom, that Emma +turns about so carefully, while she twists her bright face all into +wrinkles as she searches for Afghanistan or the Bosphorus Straits. +Long names, indeed; they sound quite grand from her little mouth, but +they mean nothing to you and me now. + +Let me tell you about _my_ ball. It is so large that trees can grow on +it; so large that cattle can graze, and wild beasts roam, upon it; so +large that men and women can live on it, and little children too,--as +you already know, if you have read the title-page of this book. In +some places it is soft and green, like the long meadow between the +hills, where the grass was so high last summer that we almost lost +Marnie when she lay down to roll in it; in some parts it is covered +with tall and thick forests, where you might wander like the "babes +in the wood," nor ever find your way out; then, again, it is steep and +rough, covered with great hills, much higher than that high one behind +the schoolhouse,--so high that when you look up ever so far you can't +see the tops of them; but in some parts there are no hills at all, and +quiet little ponds of blue water, where the white water-lilies grow, +and silvery fishes play among their long stems. Bell knows, for she +has been among the lilies in a boat with papa. + +Now, if we look on another side of the ball, we shall see no ponds, +but something very dreary. I am afraid you won't like it. A great +plain of sand,--sand like that on the seashore, only here there is no +sea,--and the sand stretches away farther than you can see, on every +side; there are no trees, and the sunshine beats down, almost burning +whatever is beneath it. + +Perhaps you think this would be a grand place to build sand-houses. +One of the little sisters lives here; and, when you read of her, you +will know what she thinks about it. Always the one who has tried it +knows best. + +Look at one more side of my ball, as it turns around. Jack Frost must +have spent all his longest winter nights here, for see what a palace +of ice he has built for himself. Brave men have gone to those lonely +places, to come back and tell us about them; and, alas! some heroes +have not returned, but have lain down there to perish of cold and +hunger. Doesn't it look cold, the clear blue ice, almost as blue as +the air? And look at the snow, drifts upon drifts, and the air filled +with feathery flakes even now. + +We won't look at this side longer, but we shall come back again to see +Agoonack in her little sledge. Don't turn over yet to find the story; +we shall come to it all in good time. + +Now, what do you think of my ball, so white and cold, so soft and +green, so quiet and blue, so dreary and rough, as it floats along in +the sweet blue air, with the flocks of white clouds about it? + +I will tell you one thing more. The wise men have said that this earth +on which we live is nothing more nor less than just such a ball. Of +this we shall know when we are older and wiser; but here is the little +brown baby waiting for us. + + + +THE LITTLE BROWN BABY. + + +Far away in the warm country lives a little brown baby; she has a +brown face, little brown hands and fingers, brown body, arms, and +legs, and even her little toes are also brown. + +And this baby wears no little frock nor apron, no little petticoat, +nor even stockings and shoes,--nothing at all but a string of beads +around her neck, as you wear your coral; for the sun shines very +warmly there, and she needs no clothes to keep her from the cold. + +Her hair is straight and black, hanging softly down each side of her +small brown face; nothing at all like Bell's golden curls, or Marnie's +sunny brown ones. + +Would you like to know how she lives among the flowers and the birds? + +She rolls in the long soft grass, where the gold-colored snakes are at +play; she watches the young monkeys chattering and swinging among the +trees, hung by the tail; she chases the splendid green parrots that +fly among the trees; and she drinks the sweet milk of the cocoanut +from a round cup made of its shell. + +When night comes, the mother takes her baby and tosses her up into the +little swinging bed in the tree, which her father made for her from +the twisting vine that climbs among the branches. And the wind blows +and rocks the little bed; and the mother sits at the foot of the tree +singing a mild sweet song, and this brown baby falls asleep. Then the +stars come out and peep through the leaves at her. The birds, too, are +all asleep in the tree; the mother-bird spreading her wings over the +young ones in the nest, and the father-bird sitting on a twig close +by with his head under his wing. Even the chattering monkey has curled +himself up for the night. + +Soon the large round moon comes up. She, too, must look into the +swinging bed, and shine upon the closed eyes of the little brown baby. +She is very gentle, and sends her soft light among the branches and +thick green leaves, kissing tenderly the small brown feet, and the +crest on the head of the mother-bird, who opens one eye and looks +quickly about to see if any harm is coming to the young ones. The +bright little stars, too, twinkle down through the shadows to bless +the sleeping child. All this while the wind blows and rocks the little +bed, singing also a low song through the trees; for the brown mother +has fallen asleep herself, and left the night-wind to take care of her +baby. + +So the night moves on, until, all at once, the rosy dawn breaks over +the earth; the birds lift up their heads, and sing and sing; the great +round sun springs up, and, shining into the tree, lifts the shut lids +of the brown baby's eyes. She rolls over and falls into her mother's +arms, who dips her into the pretty running brook for a bath, and rolls +her in the grass to dry, and then she may play among the birds and +flowers all day long; for they are like merry brothers and sisters +to the happy child, and she plays with them on the bosom of the round +earth, which seems to love them all like a mother. + +This is the little brown baby. Do you love her? Do you think you would +know her if you should meet her some day? + +A funny little brown sister. Are all of them brown? + +We will see, for here comes Agoonack and her sledge. + + + +AGOONACK, THE ESQUIMAU SISTER. + + +What is this odd-looking mound of stone? It looks like the great brick +oven that used to be in our old kitchen, where, when I was a little +girl, I saw the fine large loaves of bread and the pies and puddings +pushed carefully in with a long, flat shovel, or drawn out with the +same when the heat had browned them nicely. + +Is this an oven standing out here alone in the snow? + +You will laugh when I tell you that it is not an oven, but a house; +and here lives little Agoonack. + +Do you see that low opening, close to the ground? That is the door; +but one must creep on hands and knees to enter. There is another +smaller hole above the door: it is the window. It has no glass, as +ours do; only a thin covering of something which Agoonack's father +took from the inside of a seal, and her mother stretched over the +window-hole, to keep out the cold and to let in a little light. + +Here lives our little girl; not as the brown baby does, among the +trees and the flowers, but far up in the cold countries amid snow and +ice. + +If we look off now, over the ice, we shall see a funny little clumsy +thing, running along as fast as its short, stout legs will permit, +trying to keep up with its mother. You will hardly know it to be a +little girl, but might rather call it a white bear's cub, it is so +oddly dressed in the white, shaggy coat of the bear which its father +killed last month. But this is really Agoonack; you can see her round, +fat, greasy little face, if you throw back the white jumper-hood which +covers her head. Shall I tell you what clothes she wears? + +Not at all like yours, you will say; but, when one lives in cold +countries, one must dress accordingly. + +First, she has socks, soft and warm, but not knit of the white yarn +with which mamma knits yours. Her mamma has sewed them from the skins +of birds, with the soft down upon them to keep the small brown feet +very warm. Over these come her moccasins of sealskin. + +If you have been on the seashore, perhaps you know the seals that +are sometimes seen swimming in the sea, holding up their brown heads, +which look much like dogs' heads, wet and dripping. + +The seals love best to live in the seas of the cold countries: here +they are, huddled together on the sloping rocky shores, or swimming +about under the ice, thousands and thousands of silver-gray coated +creatures, gentle seal-mothers and brave fathers with all their pretty +seal-babies. And here the Esquimaux (for that is the name by which +we call these people of the cold countries) hunt them, eat them for +dinner, and make warm clothes of their skins. So, as I told you, +Agoonack has sealskin boots. + +Next she wears leggings, or trousers, of white bear-skin, very rough +and shaggy, and a little jacket or frock, called a jumper, of the +same. This jumper has a hood, made like the little red riding-hoods +which I dare say you have all seen. Pull the hood up over the short, +black hair, letting it almost hide the fat, round face, and you have +Agoonack dressed. + +Is this her best dress, do you think? + +Certainly it is her best, because she has no other, and when she goes +into the house--but I think I won't tell you that yet, for there is +something more to be seen outside. + +Agoonack and her mother are coming home to dinner, but there is no sun +shining on the snow to make it sparkle. It is dark like night, and +the stars shine clear and steady like silver lamps in the sky, but far +off, between the great icy peaks, strange lights are dancing, shooting +long rosy flames far into the sky, or marching in troops as if each +light had a life of its own, and all were marching together along the +dark, quiet sky. Now they move slowly and solemnly, with no noise, +and in regular, steady file; then they rush all together, flame into +golden and rosy streamers, and mount far above the cold, icy mountain +peaks that glitter in their light; we hear a sharp sound like Dsah! +Dsah! and the ice glows with the warm color, and the splendor shines +on the little white-hooded girl as she trots beside her mother. + +It is far more beautiful than the fireworks on Fourth of July. +Sometimes we see a little of it here, and we say there are northern +lights, and we sit at the window watching all the evening to see them +march and turn and flash; but in the cold countries they are far more +brilliant than any we have seen. + +[Illustration] + +It is Agoonack's birthday, and there is a present for her before the +door of the house. I will make you a picture of it. "It is a sled," +you exclaim. Yes, a sled; but quite unlike yours. In the faraway cold +countries no trees grow; so her father had no wood, and he took the +bones of the walrus and the whale, bound them together with strips of +sealskin, and he has built this pretty sled for his little daughter's +birthday. + +It has a back to lean against and hold by, for the child will go over +some very rough places, and might easily fall from it. And then, you +see, if she fell, it would be no easy matter to jump up again and +climb back to her seat, for the little sled would have run away from +her before she should have time to pick herself up. How could it run? +Yes, that is the wonderful thing about it. When her father made the +sled he said to himself, "By the time this is finished, the two little +brown dogs will be old enough to draw it, and Agoonack shall have +them; for she is a princess, the daughter of a great chief." + +Now you can see that, with two such brisk little dogs as the brown +puppies harnessed to the sled, Agoonack must keep her seat firmly, +that she may not roll over into the snow and let the dogs run away +with it. + +You can imagine what gay frolics she has with her brother who runs at +her side, or how she laughs and shouts to see him drive his bone ball +with his bone bat or hockey, skimming it over the crusty snow. + +Now we will creep into the low house with the child and her mother, +and see how they live. + +Outside it is very cold, colder than you have ever known it to be in +the coldest winter's day; but inside it is warm, even very hot. +And the first thing Agoonack and her mother do is to take off their +clothes, for here it is as warm as the place where the brown baby +lives, who needs no clothes. + +It isn't the sunshine that makes it warm, for you remember I told you +it was as dark as night. There is no furnace in the cellar; indeed, +there is no cellar, neither is there a stove. But all this heat comes +from a sort of lamp, with long wicks of moss and plenty of walrus fat +to burn. It warms the small house, which has but one room, and over it +the mother hangs a shallow dish in which she cooks soup; but most of +the meat is eaten raw, cut into long strips, and eaten much as one +might eat a stick of candy. + +They have no bread, no crackers, no apples nor potatoes; nothing but +meat, and sometimes the milk of the reindeer, for there are no cows in +the far, cold northern countries. But the reindeer gives them a great +deal: he is their horse as well as their cow; his skin and his flesh, +his bones and horns, are useful when he is dead, and while he lives he +is their kind, gentle, and patient friend. + +There is some one else in the hut when Agoonack comes home,--a little +dark ball, rolled up on one corner of the stone platform which is +built all around three sides of the house, serving for seats, beds, +and table. This rolled-up ball unrolls itself, tumbles off the seat, +and runs to meet them. It is Sipsu, the baby brother of Agoonack,--a +round little boy, who rides sometimes, when the weather is not too +cold, in the hood of his mother's jumper, hanging at her back, and +peering out from his warm nestling-place over the long icy plain to +watch for his father's return from the bear-hunt. + +When the men come home dragging the great Nannook, as they call the +bear, there is a merry feast. They crowd together in the hut, bringing +in a great block of snow, which they put over the lamp-fire to melt +into water; and then they cut long strips of bear's meat, and laugh +and eat and sing, as they tell the long story of the hunt of Nannook, +and the seals they have seen, and the foot-tracks of the reindeer they +have met in the long valley. + +Perhaps the day will come when pale, tired travellers will come to +their sheltering home, and tell them wonderful stories, and share +their warmth for a while, till they can gain strength to go on their +journey again. + +Perhaps while they are so merry there all together, a very great +snowstorm will come and cover the little house, so that they cannot +get out for several days. When the storm ends, they dig out the low +doorway, and creep again into the starlight, and Agoonack slips into +her warm clothes and runs out for Jack Frost to kiss her cheeks, and +leave roses wherever his lips touch. If it is very cold indeed, she +must stay in, or Jack Frost will give her no roses, but a cold, frosty +bite. + +This is the way Agoonack lives through the long darkness. But I have +to tell you more of her in another chapter, and you will find it is +not always dark in the cold northern countries. + + + +HOW AGOONACK LIVES THROUGH THE LONG SUMMER. + + +It is almost noon one day when Agoonack's mother wraps the little girl +in her shaggy clothes and climbs with her a high hill, promising a +pleasant sight when they shall have reached the top. + +It is the sun, the beautiful, bright, round sun, which shines and +smiles at them for a minute, and then slips away again below the far, +frozen water. + +They haven't seen him for many months, and now they rejoice, for the +next day he comes again and stays longer, and the next, and the next, +and every day longer and longer, until at last he moves above them in +one great, bright circle, and does not even go away at all at night. +His warm rays melt the snow and awaken the few little hardy flowers +that can grow in this short summer. The icy coat breaks away from the +clear running water, and great flocks of birds with soft white plumage +come, like a snowstorm of great feathery flakes, and settle among the +black rocks along the seashore. Here they lay their eggs in the many +safe little corners and shelves of the rock; and here they circle +about in the sunshine, while the Esquimau boys make ready their +long-handled nets and creep and climb out upon the ledges of rock, +and, holding up the net as the birds fly by, catch a netful to carry +home for supper. + +The sun shines all day long, and all night long, too; and yet he +can't melt all the highest snowdrifts, where the boys are playing +bat-and-ball,--long bones for sticks, and an odd little round one for +a ball. + +It is a merry life they all live while the sunshine stays, for they +know the long, dark winter is coming, when they can no longer climb +among the birds, nor play ball among the drifts. + +The seals swim by in the clear water, and the walrus and her young one +are at play; and, best of all, the good reindeer has come, for the sun +has uncovered the crisp moss upon which he feeds, and he is roaming +through the valleys where it grows among the rocks. + +The old men sit on the rocks in the sunshine, and laugh and sing, and +tell long stories of the whale and the seal, and the great white +whale that, many years ago, when Agoonack's father was a child, came +swimming down from the far north, where they look for the northern +lights, swimming and diving through the broken ice; and they watched +her in wonder, and no one would throw a harpoon at this white lady of +the Greenland seas, for her visit was a good omen, promising a mild +winter. + +Little Agoonack comes from her play to crouch among the rocky ledges +and listen to the stories. She has no books; and, if she had, she +couldn't read them. Neither could her father or mother read to her: +their stories are told and sung, but never written. But she is +a cheerful and contented little girl, and tries to help her dear +friends; and sometimes she wonders a great while by herself about what +the pale stranger told them. + +And now, day by day, the sun is slipping away from them; gone for a +few minutes to-day, to-morrow it will stay away a few more, until +at last there are many hours of rosy twilight, and few, very few, of +clear sunshine. + +But the children are happy: they do not dread the winter, but they +hope the tired travellers have reached their homes; and Agoonack +wants, oh, so much! to see them and help them once more. The father +will hunt again, and the mother will tend the lamp and keep the house +warm; and, although they will have no sun, the moon and stars are +bright, and they will see again the streamers of the great northern +light. + +Would you like to live in the cold countries, with their long darkness +and long sunshine? + +It is very cold, to be sure, but there are happy children there, and +kind fathers and mothers, and the merriest sliding on the very best of +ice and snow. + + + +GEMILA, THE CHILD OF THE DESERT. + + +It is almost sunset; and Abdel Hassan has come out to the door of +his tent to enjoy the breeze, which is growing cooler after the day's +terrible heat. The round, red sun hangs low over the sand; it will be +gone in five minutes more. The tent-door is turned away from the sun, +and Abdel Hassan sees only the rosy glow of its light on the hills in +the distance which looked so purple all day. He sits very still, and +his earnest eyes are fixed on those distant hills. He does not move or +speak when the tent-door is again pushed aside, and his two children, +Alee and Gemila, come out with their little mats and seat themselves +also on the sand. You can see little Gemila in the picture. How glad +they are of the long, cool shadows, and the tall, feathery palms! how +pleasant to hear the camels drink, and to drink themselves at the deep +well, when they have carried some fresh water in a cup to their silent +father! He only sends up blue circles of smoke from his long pipe as +he sits there, cross-legged, on a mat of rich carpet. He never sat in +a chair, and, indeed, never saw one in his life. His chairs are mats; +and his house is, as you have heard, a tent. + +Do you know what a tent is? + +I always liked tents, and thought I should enjoy living in one; and +when I was a little girl, on many a stormy day when we couldn't go to +school, I played with my sisters at living in tents. We would take a +small clothes-horse and tip it down upon its sides, half open; then, +covering it with shawls, we crept in, and were happy enough for the +rest of the afternoon. I tell you this, that you may also play tents +some day, if you haven't already. + +The tent of Gemila's father is, however, quite different from ours. +Two or three long poles hold it up, and over them hangs a cloth made +of goats'-hair, or sometimes sheepskins, which are thick enough to +keep out either heat or cold. The ends of the cloth are fastened down +by pegs driven into the sand, or the strong wind coming might blow +the tent away. The tent-cloth pushes back like a curtain for the door. +Inside, a white cloth stretched across divides this strange house into +two rooms; one is for the men, the other for the women and children. +In the tent there is no furniture like ours; nothing but mats, and low +cushions called divans; not even a table from which to eat, nor a +bed to sleep upon. But the mats and the shawls are very gorgeous and +costly, and we are very proud when we can buy any like them for our +parlors. And, by the way, I must tell you that these people have been +asleep all through the heat of the day,--the time when you would have +been coming home from school, eating your dinner, and going back to +school again. They closed the tent-door to keep out the terrible blaze +of the sun, stretched themselves on the mats, and slept until just +now, when the night-wind began to come. + +Now they can sit outside the tent and enjoy the evening, and the +mother brings out dates and little hard cakes of bread, with plenty of +butter made from goats' milk. The tall, dark servant-woman, with loose +blue cotton dress and bare feet, milks a camel, and they all take +their supper, or dinner perhaps I had better call it. They have no +plates, nor do they sit together to eat. The father eats by himself: +when he has finished, the mother and children take the dates and bread +which he leaves. We could teach them better manners, we think; but +they could teach us to be hospitable and courteous, and more polite to +strangers than we are. + +When all is finished, you see there are no dishes to be washed and put +away. + +The stars have come out, and from the great arch of the sky they look +down on the broad sands, the lonely rocks, the palm-trees, and the +tents. Oh, they are so bright, so steady, and so silent, in that +great, lonely place, where no noise is heard! no sounds of people or +of birds or animals, excepting the sleepy groaning of a camel, or the +low song that little Alee is singing to his sister as they lie upon +their backs on the sand, and watch the slow, grand movement of the +stars that are always journeying towards the west. + +Night is very beautiful in the desert; for this is the desert, where +Abdel Hassan the Arab lives. His country is that part of our round +ball where the yellow sands stretch farther than eye can see, and +there are no wide rivers, no thick forests, and no snow-covered hills. +The day is too bright and too hot, but the night he loves; it is his +friend. + +He falls asleep at last out under the stars, and, since he has been +sleeping so long in the daytime, can well afford to be awake very +early in the morning: so, while the stars still shine, and there is +only one little yellow line of light in the east, he calls his +wife, children, and servants, and in a few minutes all is bustle and +preparation; for to-day they must take down the tent, and move, with +all the camels and goats, many miles away. For the summer heat has +nearly dried up the water of their little spring under the palm-trees, +and the grass that grew there is also entirely gone; and one cannot +live without water to drink, particularly in the desert, nor can the +goats and camels live without grass. + +Now, it would be a very bad thing for us, if some day all the water +in our wells and springs and ponds should dry up, and all the grass on +our pleasant pastures and hills should wither away. + +What should we do? Should we have to pack all our clothes, our books, +our furniture and food, and move away to some other place where there +were both water and grass, and then build new houses? Oh, how much +trouble it would give us! No doubt the children would think it great +fun; but as they grew older they would have no pleasant home to +remember, with all that makes "sweet home" so dear. + +And now you will see how much better it is for Gemila's father than if +he lived in a house. In a very few minutes the tent is taken down, the +tent-poles are tied together, the covering is rolled up with the pegs +and strings which fastened it, and it is all ready to put up again +whenever they choose to stop. As there is no furniture to carry, the +mats and cushions only are to be rolled together and tied; and now +Achmet, the old servant, brings a tall yellow camel. + +Did you ever see a camel? I hope you have some time seen a living one +in a menagerie; but, if you haven't, perhaps you have seen a picture +of the awkward-looking animal with a great hump upon his back, a long +neck, and head thrust forward. A boy told me the other day, that, when +the camel had been long without food, he ate his hump: he meant that +the flesh and fat of the hump helped to nourish him when he had no +food. + +Achmet speaks to the camel, and he immediately kneels upon the sand, +while the man loads him with the tent-poles and covering; after which +he gets up, moves on a little way, to make room for another to come +up, kneel, and be loaded with mats, cushions, and bags of dates. + +Then comes a third; and while he kneels, another servant comes from +the spring, bringing a great bag made of camels'-skin, and filled with +water. Two of these bags are hung upon the camel, one on each side. +This is the water for all these people to drink for four days, while +they travel through a sandy, rocky country, where there are no springs +or wells. I am afraid the water will not taste very fresh after it has +been kept so long in leather bags; but they have nothing else to carry +it in, and, besides, they are used to it, and don't mind the taste. + +Here are smaller bags, made of goats'-skin, and filled with milk; and +when all these things are arranged, which is soon done, they are ready +to start, although it is still long before sunrise. The camels have +been drinking at the spring, and have left only a little muddy water, +like that in our street-gutters; but the goats must have this, or none +at all. + +And now Abdel Hassan springs upon his beautiful black horse, that has +such slender legs and swift feet, and places himself at the head of +this long troop of men and women, camels and goats. The women are +riding upon the camels, and so are the children; while the servants +and camel-drivers walk barefooted over the yellow sand. + +It would seem very strange to you to be perched up so high on a +camel's back, but Gemila is quite accustomed to it. When she was very +little, her mother often hung a basket beside her on the camel, and +carried her baby in it; but now she is a great girl, full six years +old, and when the camel kneels, and her mother takes her place, the +child can spring on in front, with one hand upon the camel's rough +hump, and ride safely and pleasantly hour after hour. Good, patient +camels! God has fitted them exactly to be of the utmost help to the +people in that desert country. Gemila for this often blesses and +thanks Him whom she calls Allah. + +All this morning they ride,--first in the bright starlight; but soon +the stars become faint and dim in the stronger rosy light that is +spreading over the whole sky, and suddenly the little girl sees +stretching far before her the long shadow of the camels, and she knows +that the sun is up, for we never see shadows when the sun is not up, +unless it is by candlelight or moonlight. The shadows stretch out very +far before them, for the sun is behind. When you are out walking very +early in the morning, with the sun behind you, see how the shadow of +even such a little girl as you will reach across the whole street; and +you can imagine that such great creatures as camels would make even +much longer shadows. + +Gemila watches them, and sees, too, how the white patches of sand +flush in the morning light; and she looks back where far behind are +the tops of their palm-trees, like great tufted fans, standing dark +against the yellow sky. + +She is not sorry to leave that old home. She has had many homes +already, young as she is, and will have many more as long as she +lives. The whole desert is her home; it is very wide and large, and +sometimes she lives in one part, sometimes in another. + +As the sun gets higher, it begins to grow very hot. The father +arranges the folds of his great white turban, a shawl with many folds, +twisted round his head to keep off the oppressive heat. The servants +put on their white fringed handkerchiefs, falling over the head and +down upon the neck, and held in place by a little cord tied, round the +head. It is not like a bonnet or hat, but one of the very best things +to protect the desert travellers from the sun. The children, too, +cover their heads in the same way, and Gemila no longer looks out to +see what is passing: the sun is too bright; it would hurt her eyes and +make her head ache. She shuts her eyes and falls half asleep, sitting +there high upon the camel's back. But, if she could look out, there +would be nothing to see but what she has seen many and many times +before,--great plains of sand or pebbles, and sometimes high, bare +rocks,--not a tree to be seen, and far off against the sky, the low +purple hills. They move on in the heat, and are all silent. It is +almost noon now, and Abdel Hassan stops, leaps from his horse, and +strikes his spear into the ground. The camel-drivers stop, the +camels stop and kneel, Gemila and Alee and their mother dismount. The +servants build up again the tent which they took down in the morning; +and, after drinking water from the leathern bags, the family are soon +under its shelter, asleep on their mats, while the camels and servants +have crept into the shadow of some rocks and lain down in the sand. +The beautiful black horse is in the tent with his master; he is +treated like a child, petted and fed by all the family, caressed and +kissed by the children. Here they rest until the heat of the day is +past; but before sunset they have eaten their dates and bread, loaded +again the camels, and are moving, with the beautiful black horse and +his rider at the head. + +They ride until the stars are out, and after, but stop for a few +hours' rest in the night, to begin the next day as they began this. +Gemila still rides upon the camel, and I can easily understand that +she prays to Allah with a full heart under the shining stars so clear +and far, and that at the call to prayer in the early dawn her pretty +little veiled head is bent in true love and worship. But I must tell +you what she sees soon after sunrise on this second morning. Across +the sand, a long way before them, something with very long legs is +running, almost flying. She knows well what it is, for she has often +seen them before, and she calls to one of the servants, "See, there is +the ostrich!" and she claps her hands with delight. + +The ostrich is a great bird, with very long legs and small wings; and +as legs are to run with, and wings to fly with, of course he can run +better than he can fly. But he spreads his short wings while running, +and they are like little sails, and help him along quite wonderfully, +so that he runs much faster than any horse can. + +Although he runs so swiftly, he is sometimes caught in a very odd way. +I will tell you how. + +He is a large bird, but he is a very silly one, and, when he is tired +of running, he will hide his head in the sand, thinking that because +he can see no one he can't be seen himself. Then the swift-footed Arab +horses can overtake him, and the men can get his beautiful feathers, +which you must have often seen, for ladies wear them in their bonnets. + +All this about the ostrich. Don't forget it, my little girl: some time +you may see one, and will be glad that you know what kind of a fellow +he is. + +The ostrich which Gemila sees is too far away to be caught; besides, +it will not be best to turn aside from the track which is leading +them to a new spring. But one of the men trots forward on his camel, +looking to this side and to that as he rides; and at last our little +girl, who is watching, sees his camel kneel, and sees him jump off +and stoop in the sand. When they reach the place, they find a sort of +great nest, hollowed a little in the sand, and in it are great eggs, +almost as big as your head. The mother ostrich has left them there. +She is not like other mother-birds, that sit upon the eggs to keep +them warm; but she leaves them in the hot sand, and the sun keeps them +warm, and by and by the little ostriches will begin to chip the shell, +and creep out into the great world. + +The ostrich eggs are good to eat. You eat your one egg for breakfast, +but one of these big eggs will make breakfast for the whole family. +And that is why Gemila clapped her hands when she saw the ostrich: she +thought the men would find the nest, and have fresh eggs for a day or +two. + +This day passes like the last: they meet no one, not a single man or +woman, and they move steadily on towards the sunset. In the morning +again they are up and away under the starlight; and this day is a +happy one for the children, and, indeed, for all. + +The morning star is yet shining, low, large, and bright, when our +watchful little girl's dark eyes can see a row of black dots on the +sand,--so small you might think them nothing but flies; but Gemila +knows better. They only look small because they are far away; they are +really men and camels, and horses too, as she will soon see when +they come nearer. A whole troop of them; as many as a hundred camels, +loaded with great packages of cloths and shawls for turbans, carpets +and rich spices, and the beautiful red and green morocco, of which, +when I was a little girl, we sometimes had shoes made, but we see it +oftener now on the covers of books. + +All these things belong to the Sheik Hassein. He has been to the great +cities to buy them, and now he is carrying them across the desert +to sell again. He himself rides at the head of his company on a +magnificent brown horse, and his dress is so grand and gay that it +shines in the morning light quite splendidly. A great shawl with +golden fringes is twisted about his head for a turban, and he wears, +instead of a coat, a tunic broadly striped with crimson and yellow, +while a loose-flowing scarlet robe falls from his shoulders. His face +is dark, and his eyes keen and bright; only a little of his straight +black hair hangs below the fringes of his turban, but his beard is +long and dark, and he really looks very magnificent sitting upon his +fine horse, in the full morning sunlight. + +Abdel Hassan rides forward to meet him, and the children from behind +watch with great delight. + +Abdel Hassan takes the hand of the sheik, presses it to his lips and +forehead, and says, "Peace be with you." + +Do you see how different this is from the hand-shakings and +"How-do-you-do's" of the gentlemen whom we know? Many grand +compliments are offered from one to another, and they are very polite +and respectful. Our manners would seem very poor beside theirs. + +Then follows a long talk, and the smoking of pipes, while the servants +make coffee, and serve it in little cups. + +Hassein tells Abdel Hassan of the wells of fresh water which he left +but one day's journey behind him, and he tells of the rich cities he +has visited. Abdel Hassan gives him dates and salt in exchange for +cloth for a turban, and a brown cotton dress for his little daughter. + +It is not often that one meets men in the desert, and this day will +long be remembered by the children. + +The next night, before sunset, they can see the green feathery tops of +the palm-trees before them. The palms have no branches, but only great +clusters of fern-like leaves at the top of the tree, under which grow +the sweet dates. + +Near those palm-trees will be Gemila's home for a little while, for +here they will find grass and a spring. The camels smell the water, +and begin to trot fast; the goats leap along over the sand, and the +barefooted men hasten to keep up with them. + +In an hour more the tent is pitched under the palm-trees, and all have +refreshed themselves with the cool, clear water. + +And now I must tell you that the camels have had nothing to drink +since they left the old home. The camel has a deep bag below his +throat, which he fills with water enough to last four or five days; +so he can travel in the desert as long as that, and sometimes longer, +without drinking again. Yet I believe the camels are as glad as the +children to come to the fresh spring. + +Gemila thinks so at night, as she stands under the starlight, patting +her good camel Simel, and kissing his great lips. + +The black goats, with long silky ears, are already cropping the grass. +The father sits again at the tent-door, and smokes his long pipe; the +children bury their bare feet in the sand, and heap it into little +mounds about them; while the mother is bringing out the dates and the +bread and butter. + +It is an easy thing for them to move: they are already at home again. +But although they have so few cares, we do not wish ourselves in their +place, for we love the home of our childhood, "be it ever so humble," +better than roaming like an exile. + +But all the time I haven't told you how Gemila looks, nor what clothes +she wears. Her face is dark; she has a little straight nose, full +lips, and dark, earnest eyes; her dark hair will be braided when it +is long enough. On her arms and her ankles are gilded bracelets and +anklets, and she wears a brown cotton dress loosely hanging halfway to +the bare, slender ankles. On her head the white fringed handkerchief, +of which I told you, hangs like a little veil. Her face is pleasant, +and when she smiles her white teeth shine between her parted lips. + +She is the child of the desert, and she loves her desert home. + +I think she would hardly be happy to live in a house, eat from a +table, and sleep in a little bed like yours. She would grow restless +and weary if she should live so long and so quietly in one place. + + + +THE LITTLE MOUNTAIN MAIDEN. + +[Illustration] + +I want you to look at the picture on this page. It is a little deer: +its name is the chamois. Do you see what delicate horns it has, and +what slender legs, and how it seems to stand on that bit of rock and +lift its head to watch for the hunters. + +Last summer I saw a little chamois like that, and just as small: it +was not alive, but cut or carved of wood,--such a graceful pretty +little plaything as one does not meet every day. + +Would you like to know who made it, and where it came from? + +It was made in the mountain country, by the brother of my good +Jeannette, the little Swiss maiden. + +Here among the high mountains she lives with her father, mother, and +brothers; and far up among those high snowy peaks, which are seen +behind the house, the chamois live, many of them together, eating +the tender grass and little pink-colored flowers, and leaping and +springing away over the ice and snow when they see the men coming up +to hunt them. + +I will tell you by and by how it happened that Jeannette's tall +brother Joseph carved this tiny chamois from wood. But first you must +know about this small house upon the great hills, and how they live up +there so near the blue sky. + +One would think it might be easier for a child to be good and pure so +far up among the quiet hills, and that there God would seem to come +close to the spirit, even of a little girl or boy. + +On the sides of the mountains tall trees are growing,--pine and fir +trees, which are green in winter as well as in summer. If you go into +the woods in winter, you will find that almost all the trees have +dropped their pretty green leaves upon the ground, and are standing +cold and naked in the winter wind; but the pines and the firs keep on +their warm green clothes all the year round. + +It was many years ago, before Jeannette was born, that her father +came to the mountains with his sharp axe and cut down some of the +fir-trees. Other men helped him, and they cut the great trees into +strong logs and boards, and built of them the house of which I have +told you. Now he will have a good home of his own for as long as he +likes to live there, and to it will come his wife and children as God +shall send them, to nestle among the hills. + +Then he went down to the little town at the foot of the mountain, and +when he came back, he was leading a brown, long-eared donkey, and upon +that donkey sat a rosy-cheeked young woman, with smiling brown eyes, +and long braids of brown hair hanging below a little green hat set on +one side of her head, while beautiful rose-colored carnations peeped +from beneath it on the other side. Who was this? It wasn't Jeannette: +you know I told you this was before she was born. Can you guess, or +must I tell you that it was the little girl's mother? She had come up +the mountain for the first time to her new home,--the house built of +the fir and the pine,--where after awhile were born Jeannette's two +tall brothers, and at last Jeannette herself. + +It was a good place to be born in. When she was a baby she used to lie +on the short, sweet grass before the doorstep, and watch the cows +and the goats feeding, and clap her little hands to see how rosy the +sunset made the snow that shone on the tops of those high peaks. And +the next summer, when she could run alone, she picked the blue-eyed +gentians, thrusting her small fingers between their fringed eyelids, +and begging them to open and look at little Jean; and she stained her +wee hands among the strawberries, and pricked them with the thorns +of the long raspberry-vines, when she went with her mother in the +afternoon to pick the sweet fruit for supper. Ah, she was a happy +little thing! Many a fall she got over the stones or among the brown +moss, and many a time the clean frock that she wore was dyed red with +the crushed berries; but, oh, how pleasant it was to find them in +great patches on the mountain-side, where the kind sun had warmed them +into such delicious life! I have seen the children run out of school +to pick such sweet wild strawberries, all the recess-time, up in the +fields of Maine; and how happy they were with their little stained +fingers as they came back at the call of the bell! + +In the black bog-mud grew the Alpen roses, and her mother said, "Do +not go there, my little daughter, it is too muddy for you." But at +night, when her brother came home from the chamois hunt, he took off +his tall, pointed hat, and showed his little sister the long spray of +roses twisted round it, which he had brought for her. He could go in +the mud with his thick boots, you know, and never mind it. + +Here they live alone upon the mountain; there are no near neighbors. +At evening they can see the blue smoke curling from the chimney of one +house that stands behind that sunny green slope, a hundred yards from +their door, and they can always look down upon the many houses of the +town below, where the mother lived when she was young. + +Many times has Jeannette wondered how the people lived down there,--so +many together; and where their cows could feed, and whether there were +any little girls like herself, and if they picked berries, and had +such a dear old black nanny-goat as hers, that gave milk for her +supper, and now had two little black kids, its babies. She didn't know +about those little children in Maine, and that they have little +kids and goats, as well as sweet red berries, to make the days pass +happily. + +She wanted to go down and see, some day, and her father promised that, +when she was a great girl, she should go down with him on market-days, +to sell the goats'-milk cheeses and the sweet butter that her mother +made. + +When the cows and goats have eaten all the grass near the house, her +father drives them before him up farther among the mountains, where +more grass is growing, and there he stays with them many weeks: he +does not even come home at night, but sleeps in a small hut among the +rocks, where, too, he keeps the large clean milk-pails, and the little +one-legged stool upon which he sits at morning and night to milk the +cows and goats. + +When the pails are full, the butter is to be made, and the cheese; and +he works while the animals feed. The cows have little bells tied to +their necks, that he may hear and find them should they stray too far. + +Many times, when he is away, does his little daughter at home listen, +listen, while she sits before the door, to hear the distant tinkling +of the cow-bells. She is a loving little daughter, and she thinks of +her father so far away alone, and wishes he was coming home to eat +some of the sweet strawberries and cream for supper. + +Last summer some travellers came to the house. They stopped at the +door and asked for milk; the mother brought them brimming bowlsful, +and the shy little girl crept up behind her mother with her birch-bark +baskets of berries. The gentlemen took them and thanked her, and one +told of his own little Mary at home, far away over the great sea. +Jeannette often thinks of her, and wonders whether her papa has gone +home to her. + +While the gentlemen talked, Jeannette's brother Joseph sat upon the +broad stone doorstep and listened. Presently one gentleman, turning +to him, asked if he would come with them over the mountain to lead the +way, for there are many wild places and high, steep rocks, and they +feared to get lost. + +Joseph sprang up from his low seat and said he would go, brought his +tall hat and his mountain-staff, like a long, strong cane, with a +sharp iron at the end, which he can stick into the snow or ice if +there is danger of slipping; and they went merrily on their way, over +the green grass, over the rocks, far up among the snow and ice, and +the frozen streams and rivers that pour down the mountain-sides. + +Joseph was brave and gay; he led the way, singing aloud until the +echoes answered from every hillside. It makes one happy to sing, and +when we are busy and happy we sing without thinking of it, as the +birds do. When everything is bright and beautiful in nature around +us, we feel like singing aloud and praising God, who made the earth so +beautiful; then the earth also seems to sing of God who made it, +and the echo seems like its answer of praise. Did you ever hear the +echo,--the voice that seems to come from a hill or a house far away, +repeating whatever you may say? Among the mountains the echoes answer +each other again and again. Jeannette has often heard them. + +That night, while the mother and her little girl were eating their +supper, the gentlemen came back again, bringing Joseph with them. He +could not walk now, nor spring from rock to rock with his Alpen staff; +he had fallen and broken his leg, and he must lie still for many days. +But he could keep a cheerful face, and still sing his merry songs; and +as he grew better, and could sit out again on the broad bench beside +the door, he took his knife and pieces of fine wood, and carved +beautiful things,--first a spoon for his little sister, with gentians +on the handle; then a nice bowl, with a pretty strawberry-vine carved +all about the edge. And from this bowl, and with this spoon, she ate +her supper every night,--sweet milk, with the dry cakes of rye bread +broken into it, and sometimes the red strawberries. I know his little +sister loved him dearly, and thanked him in her heart every time she +used the pretty things. How dearly a sister and brother can love each +other! + +Then he made other things,--knives, forks, and plates; and at last +one day he sharpened his knife very sharp, chose a very nice, delicate +piece of wood, and carved this beautiful chamois, just like a living +one, only so small. My cousin, who was travelling there, bought it and +brought it home. + +When the summer had passed, the father came down from the high +pastures; the butter and cheese making was over, and the autumn work +was now to be done. Do you want to know what the autumn work was, and +how Jeannette could help about it? I will tell you. You must know that +a little way down the mountain-side is a grove of chestnut-trees. Did +you ever see the chestnut-trees? They grow in our woods, and on +the shores of some ponds. In the spring they are covered with long, +yellowish blossoms, and all through the hot summer those blossoms are +at work, turning into sweet chestnuts, wrapped safely in round, thorny +balls, which will prick your fingers sadly if you don't take care. But +when the frost of the autumn nights comes, it cracks open the prickly +ball and shows a shining brown nut inside; then, if we are careful, +we may pull off the covering and take out the nut. Sometimes, indeed, +there are two, three, or four nuts in one shell; I have found them so +myself. + +Now the autumn work, which I said I would tell you about, is to gather +these chestnuts and store them away,--some to be eaten, boiled or +roasted, by the bright fire in the cold winter days that are coming; +and some to be nicely packed in great bags, and carried on the donkey +down to the town to be sold. The boys of New England, too, know what +good fun it is to gather nuts in the fall, and spread them over the +garret floor to dry, and at last to crack and eat them by the winter +hearth. So when the father says one night at supper-time, "It is +growing cold; I think there will be a frost to-night," Jeannette knows +very well what to do; and she dances away right early in the evening +to her little bed, which is made in a wooden box built up against the +side of the wall, and falls asleep to dream about the chestnut woods, +and the squirrels, and the little brook that leaps and springs from +rock to rock down under the tall, dark trees. + +She has gone to bed early, that she may wake with the first daylight, +and she is out of bed in a minute when she hears her father's cheerful +call in the morning, "Come, children, it is time to be off." + +Their dinner is packed in a large basket. The donkey stands ready +before the door, with great empty bags hanging at each side, and they +go merrily over the crisp white frost to the chestnut-trees. How the +frost has opened the burrs! He has done more than half their work for +them already. How they laugh and sing and shout to each other as they +gather the smooth brown nuts, filling their baskets, and running to +pour them into the great bags! It is merry autumn work. The sun looks +down upon them through the yellow leaves, and the rocks give them +mossy seats; while here and there comes a bird or a squirrel to see +what these strange people are doing in their woods. + +Jeannette declares that the chestnut days are the best in the year. +Perhaps she is right. I am sure I should enjoy them, shouldn't you? +She really helps, although she is but a little girl, and her father +says at night that his little Jean is a dear, good child. It makes +her very happy. She thinks of what he has said while she undresses at +night, unbraiding her hair and unlacing her little blue bodice with +its great white sleeves, and she goes peacefully to sleep, to dream +again of the merry autumn days. And while she dreams good angels must +be near her, for she said her sweet and reverent prayer on her knees, +with a full and thankful heart to the All-Father who gave her so many +blessings. + +She is our little mountain sister. The mountain life is a fresh and +happy one. I should like to stay with this little sister a long, long +time. + + + +THE STORY OF PEN-SE. + + +Dear children, have you ever watched the sun set? If you live in the +country, I am almost sure you have many times delighted yourselves +with the gold and rosy clouds. But those of you who live in the city +do not often have the opportunity, the high houses and narrow streets +shut out so much of the sky. + +I am so happy as to live in the country; and let me tell you where I +go to see the sun set. + +The house in which I live has some dark, narrow garret stairs leading +from the third story into a small garret under the roof, and many +and many a time do I go up these narrow stairs, and again up to the +scuttle-window in the roof, open it, and seat myself on the top step +or on the roof itself. Here I can look over the house-tops, and even +over the tree-tops, seeing many things of which I may perhaps tell you +at some time; but to-night we are to look at the sunset. + +Can you play that you are up here with me, looking past the houses, +past the elm-trees and the low hills that seem so far away, to where +the sun hangs low, like a great red ball, so bright that we can hardly +look at it? Watch it with me. Now a little part has disappeared; now +it is half gone, and in a minute more we see nothing but the train of +bright clouds it has left behind. + +Where did it go? + +It seemed to slip down over the edge of the world. To-morrow morning, +if you are up early, you will see it come back again on the other +side. As it goes away from us to-night, it is coming to somebody who +lives far away, round the other side of the world. While we had the +sunshine, she had night; and now, when night is coming to us, it is +morning for her. + +I think men have always felt like following the sun to the unknown +West, beyond its golden gate of setting day, and perhaps that has led +many a wanderer on his path of discovery. Let us follow the sun over +the rolling earth. + +The sun has gone; shall we go, too, and take a peep round there to see +who is having morning now? + +The long, bright sunbeams are sliding over the tossing ocean, and +sparkling on the blue water of a river upon which are hundreds of +boats. The boats are not like those which we see here, with white +sails or long oars. They are clumsy, square-looking things, without +sails, and they have little sheds or houses built upon them. We will +look into one, and see what is to be seen. + +There is something like a little yard built all around this boat; +in it are ducks,--more ducks than you can well count. This is their +bedroom, where they sleep at night; but now it is morning, and they +are all stirring,--waddling about as well as they can in the crowd, +and quacking with most noisy voices. They are waking up Kang-hy, their +master, who lives in the middle of the boat; and out he comes from the +door of his odd house, and out comes little Pen-se, his daughter, who +likes to see the ducks go for their breakfast. + +The father opens a gate or door in the basket-work fence of the ducks' +house, and they all crowd and hurry to reach the water again, after +staying all night shut up in this cage. There they go, tumbling and +diving. Each must have a thorough bath first of all; then the old +drake leads the way, and they swim off in the bright water along the +shore for a hundred yards, and then among the marshes, where they will +feed all day, and come back at night when they hear the shrill whistle +of Kang-hy calling them to come home and go to bed. + +Pen-se and her father will go in to breakfast now, under the bamboo +roof which slides over the middle part of the boat, or can be pushed +back if they desire. As Kang-hy turns to go in, and takes off his +bamboo hat, the sun shines on his bare, shaved head, where only one +lock of hair is left; that is braided into a long, thick tail, and +hangs far down his back. He is very proud of it, and nothing would +induce him to have it cut off. Now it hangs down over his loose blue +nankeen jacket, but when he goes to work he will twist it round upon +the crown of his head, and tuck the end under the coil to keep it out +of the way. Isn't this a funny way for a man to wear his hair? Pen-se +has hers still in little soft curls, but by and by it will be braided, +and at last fastened up into a high knot on the top of her head, as +her mother's is. Her little brother Lin already has his head shaved +almost bare, and waits impatiently for the time when his single lock +of hair will be long enough to braid. + +When I was a child it was a very rare thing to see people such as +these in our own land, but now we are quite familiar with these odd +ways of dressing, and our streets have many of these funny names on +their signs. + +Shall we look in to see them at breakfast? Tea for the children as +well as for the father and mother. They have no milk, and do not like +to drink water, so they take many cups of tea every day. And here, +too, are their bowls of rice upon the table, but no spoons or forks +with which to eat it. Pen-se, however, does not need spoon or fork; +she takes two small, smooth sticks, and, lifting the bowl to her +mouth, uses the sticks like a little shovel. You would spill the rice +and soil your dress if you should try to do so, but these children +know no other way, and they have learned to do it quite carefully. + +The sticks are called chopsticks; and up in the great house on the +hill, where Pen-se went to carry fish, lives a little lady who has +beautiful pearl chopsticks, and wears roses in her hair. Pen-se often +thinks of her, and wishes she might go again to carry the fish, and +see some of the beautiful things in that garden with the high walls. +Perhaps you have in your own house, or in your schoolroom, pictures of +some of the pretty things that may have been there,--little children +and ladies dressed in flowery gowns, with fans in their hands; +tea-tables and pretty dishes, and a great many lovely flowers and +beautiful birds. + +But now she must not stop to think. Breakfast is over, and the father +must go on shore to his work,--carrying tea-boxes to the store of a +great merchant. Lin, too, goes to his work, of which I will by and by +tell you; and even Pen-se and her little sister, young as they are, +must go with their mother, who has a tanka-boat in which she carries +fresh fruit and vegetables, to the big ships which are lying off +shore. The two little girls can help at the oars, while the mother +steers to guide the boat. + +I wish I could tell you how pleasant it is out on the river this +bright morning. A hundred boats are moving; the ducks and geese +have all gone up the stream; the people who live in the boats have +breakfasted, and the fishermen have come out to their work. This +is Lin's work. He works with his uncle Chow, and already his blue +trousers are stripped above his knees, and he stands on the wet +fishing-raft watching some brown birds. Suddenly one of them plunges +into the water and brings up a fish in its yellow bill. Lin takes it +out and sends the bird for another; and such industrious fishermen +are the brown cormorants that they keep Lin and his uncle busy all the +morning, until the two large baskets are filled with fish, and then +the cormorants may catch for themselves. Lin brings his bamboo pole, +rests it across his shoulders, hangs one basket on each end, and goes +up into the town to sell his fish. Here it was that Pen-se went on +that happy day when she saw the little lady in the house on the hill, +and she has not forgotten the wonders of that day in the streets. + +The gay sign-posts in front of the shops, with colors flying; the busy +workmen,--tinkers mending or making their wares; blacksmiths with all +their tools set up at the corners of the streets; barbers with +grave faces, intently braiding the long hair of their customers; +water-carriers with deep water-buckets hung from a bamboo pole like +Lin's fish-baskets; the soldiers in their paper helmets, wadded gowns, +and quilted petticoats, with long, clumsy guns over their shoulders; +and learned scholars in brown gowns, blue bordered, and golden birds +on their caps. The high officers, cousins to the emperor, have the +sacred yellow girdle round their waists, and very long braided tails +hanging below their small caps. Here and there you may see a high, +narrow box, resting on poles, carried by two men. It is the only kind +of carriage which you will see in these streets, and in it is a lady +going out to take the air; although I am sadly afraid she gets but +little, shut up there in her box. I would rather be like Pen-se, a +poor, hardworking little girl, with a fresh life on the river, and a +hard mat spread for her bed in the boat at night. How would you like +to live in a boat on a pleasant river with the ducks and geese? I +think you would have a very jolly time, rocked to sleep by the tide, +and watched over by the dancing boat-lights. But this poor lady +couldn't walk, or enjoy much, if she were allowed. Shall I tell you +why? When she was a very little girl, smaller than you are, smaller +than Pen-se is now, her soft baby feet were bound up tightly, the toes +turned and pressed under, and the poor little foot cramped so that +she could scarcely stand. This was done that her feet might never +grow large, for in this country on the other side of the world one is +considered very beautiful who has small feet; and now that she is a +grown lady, as old perhaps as your mamma, she wears such little shoes +you would think them too small for yourself. It is true they are very +pretty shoes, made of bright-colored satin, and worked all over +with gold and silver thread, and they have beautiful white soles of +rice-paper; and the poor lady looks down at them and says to herself +proudly, "Only three inches long." And forgetting how much the +bandages pained her, and not thinking how sad it is only to be able +to hobble about a little, instead of running and leaping as children +should, she binds up the feet of Lou, her dear little daughter, in the +great house on the hill, and makes her a poor, helpless child; not +so happy, with all her flower-gardens, gold and silver fish, and +beautiful gold-feathered birds, as Pen-se with her broad, bare feet, +and comfortable, fat little toes, as she stands in the wet tanka-boat, +helping her mother wash it with river-water, while the leather shoes +of both of them lie high and dry on the edge of the wharf, until the +wet work is done. + +But we are forgetting Lin, who has carried his fish up into the town +to sell. Here is a whole street where nothing is sold but food. I +should call it Market Street, and I dare say they do the same in a way +of their own. + +What will all these busy people have for dinner to-day? Fat +bears'-paws, brought from the dark forest fifty miles away,--these +will do for that comfortable-looking mandarin with the red ball on +the top of his cap. I think he has eaten something of the same kind +before. A birds'-nest soup for my lady in the great house on the hill; +birds' nests brought from the rocks where the waves dash, and the +birds feel themselves very safe. But "Such a delicious soup!" said +Madam Faw-Choo, and Yang-lo, her son, sent the fisherman again to the +black rocks for more. + +What will the soldiers have,--the officer who wears thick satin boots, +and doesn't look much like fighting in his gay silk dress? A stew of +fat puppies for him, and only boiled rats for the porter who carries +the heavy tea-boxes. But there is tea for all, and rice, too, as much +as they desire; and, although I shouldn't care to be invited to dine +with any of them, I don't doubt they enjoy the food very much. + +In the midst of all this buying and selling Lin sells his fish, some +to the English gentleman, and some to the grave-faced man in the blue +gown; and he goes happily home to his own dinner in the boat. Rice +again, and fried mice, and the merry face and small, slanting black +eyes of his little sister to greet him. After dinner his father has +a pipe to smoke, before he goes again to his work. After all, why not +eat puppies and mice as well as calves and turtles and oysters? And as +for birds'-nest soup, I should think it quite as good as chicken pie. +It is only custom that makes any difference. + +So pass the days of our child Pen-se, who lives on the great river +which men call the child of the ocean. But it was not always so. +She was born among the hills where the tea grows with its glossy, +myrtle-like leaves, and white, fragrant blossoms. When the tea-plants +were in bloom, Pen-se first saw the light; and when she was hardly +more than a baby she trotted behind her father, while he gathered the +leaves, dried and rolled them, and then packed them in square boxes to +come in ships across the ocean for your papa and mine to drink. + +Here, too, grew the mulberry-trees, with their purple fruit and white; +and Pen-se learned to know and to love the little worms that eat the +mulberry-leaves, and then spin for themselves a silken shell, and fall +into a long sleep inside of it. She watched her mother spin off the +fine silk and make it into neat skeins, and once she rode on her +mother's back to market to sell it. You could gather mulberry-leaves, +and set up these little silkworm boxes on the windowsill of your +schoolroom. I have seen silk and flax and cotton all growing in a +pleasant schoolroom, to show the scholars of what linen and silk and +cotton are made. + +Now those days are all past. She can hardly remember them, she was so +little then; and she has learned to be happy in her new home on the +river, where they came when the fire burned their house, and the +tea-plants and the mulberry-trees were taken by other men. + +Sometimes at night, after the day's work is over, the ducks have +come home, and the stars have come out, she sits at the door of the +boat-house, and watches the great bright fireflies over the marshes, +and thinks of the blue lake Syhoo, covered with lilies, where gilded +boats are sailing, and the people seem so happy. + +Up in the high-walled garden of the great house on the hill, the +night-moths have spread their broad, soft wings, and are flitting +among the flowers, and the little girl with the small feet lies on her +silken bed, half asleep. She, too, thinks of the lake and the lilies, +but she knows nothing about Pen-se, who lives down upon the river. + +See, the sun has gone from them. It must be morning for us now. + + + +THE LITTLE DARK GIRL. + + +In this part of the world, Manenko would certainly be considered +a very wild little girl. I wonder how you would enjoy her for a +playmate. She has never been to school, although she is more than +seven years old, and doesn't know how to read, or even to tell her +letters; she has never seen a book but once, and she has never learned +to sew or to knit. + +If you should try to play at paper dolls with her, she would make very +funny work with the dresses, I assure you. Since she never wore a gown +or bonnet or shoes herself, how should she know how to put them on to +the doll? But, if she had a doll like herself, I am sure she would +be as fond of it as you are of yours; and it would be a very cunning +little dolly, I should think. Perhaps you have one that looks somewhat +like this little girl in the picture. + +Now I will tell you of some things which she can do. + +She can paddle the small canoe on the river; she can help to hoe the +young corn, and can find the wild bees' honey in the woods, gather the +scarlet fruit when it is fully ripe and falls from the trees, and help +her mother to pound the corn in the great wooden mortar. All this, and +much more, as you will see, Manenko can do; for every little girl on +the round world can help her mother, and do many useful things. + +Would you like to know more of her,--how she looks, and where she +lives, and what she does all day and all night? + +Here is a little round house, with low doorways, most like those of a +dog's house; you see we should have to stoop in going in. Look at the +round, pointed roof, made of the long rushes that grow by the river, +and braided together firmly with strips of mimosa-bark; fine, soft +grass is spread all over this roof to keep out the rain. + +If you look on the roof of the house across the street you will see +that it is covered with strips of wood called shingles, which are laid +one over the edge of the other; and when it is a rainy day you can see +how the rain slips and slides off from these shingles, and runs and +drips away from the spout. + +Now, on this little house where Manenko lives there are no shingles, +but the smooth, slippery grass is almost as good; and the rain slides +over it and drips away, hardly ever coming in to wet the people +inside, or the hard beds made of rushes, like the roof, and spread +upon the floor of earth. + +In this house lives Manenko, with Maunka her mother, Sekomi her +father, and Zungo and Shobo her two brothers. + +They are all very dark, darker than the brown baby. I believe you +would call them black, but they are not really quite so. Their lips +are thick, their noses broad, and instead of hair, their heads are +covered with wool, such as you might see on a black sheep. This wool +is braided and twisted into little knots and strings all over their +heads, and bound with bits of red string, or any gay-looking thread. +They think it looks beautiful, but I am afraid we should not agree +with them. + +Now we will see what clothes they wear. + +You remember Agoonack, who wore the white bear's-skin, because she +lived in the very cold country; and the little brown baby, who wore +nothing but a string of beads, because she lived in the warm country. +Manenko, too, lives in a warm country, and wears no clothes; but on +her arms and ankles are bracelets and anklets, with little bits of +copper and iron hanging to them, which tinkle as she walks; and she +also, like the brown baby, has beads for her neck. + +Her father and mother, and Zungo her brother, have aprons and mantles +of antelope skins; and they, too, wear bracelets and anklets like +hers. + +Little Shobo is quite a baby and runs in the sunshine, like his little +sister, without clothes. Dear little Shobo! how funny and happy he +must look, and how fond he must be of his little sister, and our +little sister, Manenko! We have all seen such little dark brothers +and sisters. His short, soft wool is not yet braided or twisted, but +crisps in little close curls all over his head. + +In the morning they must be up early, for the father is going to hunt, +and Zungo will go with him. The mother prepares the breakfast, small +cakes of bread made from the pounded corn, scarlet beans, eaten with +honey, and plenty of milk from the brown cow. She brings it in a deep +jug, and they dip in their hands for spoons. + +All the meat is eaten, and to-day the men must go out over the broad, +grassy fields for more. They will find the beautiful young antelope, +so timid and gentle as to be far more afraid of you than you would be +of them. They are somewhat like small deer, striped and spotted, and +they have large, dark eyes, so soft and earnest you cannot help loving +them. Here, too, are the buffalo, like large cows and oxen with strong +horns, and the great elephants with long trunks and tusks. Sometimes +even a lion is to be met, roused from his sleep by the noise of the +hunters; for the lion sleeps in the daytime and generally walks abroad +only at night. When you are older you can read the stories of famous +lion and elephant hunters, and of strange and thrilling adventures in +the "Dark Continent." + +It would be a wonderful thing to you and me to see all these strange +or beautiful animals, but Zungo and his father have seen them so many +times that they are thinking only of the meat they will bring home, +and, taking their long spears and the basket of ground nuts and meal +which the mother has made ready, they are off with other hunters +before the sun is up. + +Now the mother takes her hoe, and, calling her little girl to help, +hoes the young corn which is growing on the round hill behind the +house. I must tell you something about the little hill. It looks like +any other hill, you would think, and could hardly believe that there +is anything very wonderful to tell about it. But listen to me. + +A great many years ago there was no hill there at all, and the ground +was covered with small white ants. You have seen the little ant-houses +many a time on the garden-path, and all the ants at work, carrying +grains of sand in their mouths, and running this way and that, as if +they were busy in the most important work. Oh, the little ants are +very wise! They seem to know how to contrive great things and are +never idle. "Go to the ant; consider her ways, and be wise," said one +of the world's wisest men. + +Well, on the spot where this hill now stands the white ants began to +work. They were not satisfied with small houses like those which we +have seen, but they worked day after day, week after week, and even +years, until they had built this hill higher than the house in which +I live, and inside it is full of chambers and halls, and wonderful +arched passages. They built this great house, but they do not live +there now. I don't know why they moved,--perhaps because they didn't +like the idea of having such near neighbors when Sekomi began to +build his hut before their door. But, however it was, they went, and, +patient little creatures that they are, built another just like it a +mile or so away; and Sekomi said: "The hill is a fine place to plant +my early corn." + +There is but little hoeing to do this morning, and, while the work +goes on, Shobo, the baby, rolls in the grass, sucking a piece of +sugar-cane, as I have seen children suck a stick of candy. Haven't +you? + +The mother has baskets to make. On the floor of the hut is a heap of +fine, twisting tree-roots which she brought from the forest yesterday, +and under the shadow of her grassy roof she sits before the door +weaving them into strong, neat baskets, like the one in which the men +carried their dinner when they went to hunt. While she works other +women come too with their work, sit beside her in the shade, and +chatter away in a very queer-sounding language. We couldn't understand +it at all; but we should hear them always call Manenko's mother +Ma-Zungo, meaning Zungo's mother, instead of saying Maunka, which you +remember I told you is her name. Zungo is her oldest boy, you +know, and ever since he was born she has been called nothing but +Ma-Zungo,--just as if, when a lady comes into your school, the teacher +should say: "This is Joe's mother," or "This is Teddy's mamma," so +that the children should all know her. + +So the mother works on the baskets and talks with the women; but +Manenko has heard the call of the honey-bird, the brisk little chirp +of "Chiken, chiken, chik, churr, churr," and she is away to the wood +to follow his call, and bring home the honey. + +She runs beneath the tall trees, looking up for the small brown bird; +then she stops and listens to hear him again, when close beside her +comes the call, "Chiken, chiken, chik, churr, churr," and there sits +the brown bird above a hole in the tree, where the bees are flying in +and out, their legs yellow with honey-dust. It is too high for Manenko +to reach, but she marks the place and says to herself: "I will tell +Ra when he comes home." Who is Ra? Why, that is her name for "father." +She turns to go home, but stops to listen to the wild shouts and songs +of the women who have left the huts and are coming down towards the +river to welcome their chief with lulliloo, praising him by such +strange names as "Great lion," "Great buffalo." + +The chief comes from a long journey with the young men up the river +in canoes, to hunt the elephant, and bring home the ivory tusks, +from which we have many beautiful things made. The canoes are full of +tusks, and, while the men unload them, the women are shouting: "Sleep, +my lord, my great chief." Manenko listens while she stands under the +trees,--listens for only a minute, and then runs to join her mother +and add her little voice to the general noise. + +The chief is very proud and happy to bring home such a load; before +sunset it will all be carried up to the huts, the men will dress in +their very best, and walk in a gay procession. Indeed, they can't +dress much; no coats or hats or nicely polished boots have they to put +on, but some will have the white ends of oxen's tails in their hair, +some a plume of black ostrich feathers, and the chief himself has a +very grand cap made from the yellow mane of an old lion. The drum will +beat, the women will shout, while the men gather round a fire, and +roast and eat great slices of ox-meat, and tell the story of their +famous elephant-hunt. How they came to the bushes with fine, silvery +leaves and sweet bark, which the elephant eats, and there hiding, +watched and waited many hours, until the ground shook, with the heavy +tread of a great mother-elephant and her two calves, coming up from +the river, where they had been to drink. Their trunks were full +of water, and they tossed them up, spouting the water like a fine +shower-bath over their hot heads and backs, and now, cooled and +refreshed, began to eat the silvery leaves of the bushes. Then the +hunters threw their spears thick and fast; after two hours, the great +creature lay still upon the ground,--she was dead. + +So day after day they had hunted, loading the canoes with ivory, and +sailing far up the river; far up where the tall rushes wave, twisted +together by the twining morning-glory vines; far up where the +alligators make great nests in the river-bank, and lay their eggs, +and stretch themselves in the sunshine, half asleep inside their scaly +armor; far up where the hippopotamus is standing in his drowsy dream +on the bottom of the river, with the water covering him, head and all. +He is a great, sleepy fellow, not unlike a very large, dark-brown pig, +with a thick skin and no hair. Here he lives under the water all day, +only once in a while poking up his nose for a breath of fresh air. And +here is the mother-hippopotamus, with her baby standing upon her neck, +that he may be nearer the top of the water. Think how funny he must +look. + +All day long they stand here under the water, half asleep, sometimes +giving a loud grunt or snore, and sometimes, I am sorry to say, +tipping over a canoe which happens to float over their heads. But at +night, when men are asleep, the great beasts come up out of the river +and eat the short, sweet grass upon the shore, and look about to see +the world a little. Oh, what mighty beasts! Men are so small and weak +beside them. And yet, because the mind of man is so much above theirs, +he can rule them; for God made man to be king of the whole earth, and +greater than all. + +All these wonderful things the men have seen, and Manenko listens to +their stories until the moon is high and the stars have almost faded +in her light. Then her father and Zungo come home, bringing the +antelope and buffalo meat, too tired to tell their story until the +next day. So, after eating supper, they are all soon asleep upon the +mats which form their beds. It is a hard kind of bed, but a good one, +if you don't have too many mice for bedfellows. A little bright-eyed +mouse is a pretty creature, but one doesn't care to sleep with him. + +These are simple, happy people; they live out of doors most of the +time, and they love the sunshine, the rain, and the wind. They have +plenty to eat,--the pounded corn, milk and honey, and scarlet beans, +and the hunters bring meat, and soon it will be time for the wild +water-birds to come flocking down the river,--white pelicans and brown +ducks, and hundreds of smaller birds that chase the skimming flies +over the water. + +If Manenko could read, she would be sorry that she has no books; +and if she knew what dolls are, she might be longing every day for a +beautiful wax doll, with curling hair, and eyes to open and shut. But +these are things of which she knows nothing at all, and she is happy +enough in watching the hornets building their hanging nests on the +branches of the trees, cutting the small sticks of sugar-cane, or +following the honey-bird's call. + +If the children who have books would oftener leave them, and study +the wonders of the things about them,--of the birds, the plants, the +curious creatures that live and work on the land and in the air and +water,--it would be better for them. Try it, dear children; open your +eyes and look into the ways and forms of life in the midst of which +God has placed you, and get acquainted with them, till you feel that +they, too, are your brothers and sisters, and God your Father and +theirs. + + + +LOUISE, THE CHILD OF THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER RHINE. + + +Have you heard of the beautiful River Rhine--how at first it hides, a +little brook among the mountains and dark forests, and then steals out +into the sunshine, and leaps down the mountain-side, and hurries +away to the sea, growing larger and stronger as it runs, curling and +eddying among the rocks, and sweeping between the high hills where the +grape-vines grow and the solemn old castles stand? + +How people come from far and near to see and to sail upon the +beautiful river! And the children who are so blessed as to be born +near it, and to play on its shores through all the happy young years +of their lives, although they may go far away from it in the after +years, never, never forget the dear and beautiful River Rhine. + +It is only a few miles away from the Rhine--perhaps too far for you to +walk, but not too far for me--that we shall find a fine large house, +a house with pleasant gardens about it, broad gravel walks, and soft, +green grass-plats to play upon, and gay flowering trees and bushes, +while the rose-vines are climbing over the piazza, and opening +rose-buds are peeping in at the chamber windows. + +Isn't this a pleasant house? I wish we could all live in as charming +a home, by as blue and lovely a river, and with as large and sweet +a garden, or, if we might have such a place for our school, how +delightful it would be! + +Here lives Louise, my blue-eyed, sunny-haired little friend, and here +in the garden she plays with Fritz and sturdy little Gretchen. And +here, too, at evening the father and mother come to sit on the +piazza among the roses, and the children leave their games, to nestle +together on the steps while the dear brother Christian plays softly +and sweetly on his flute. + +Louise is a motherly child, already eight years old, and always +willing and glad to take care of the younger ones; indeed, she calls +Gretchen _her_ baby, and the little one loves dearly her child-mamma. + +They live in this great house, and they have plenty of toys and books, +and plenty of good food, and comfortable little beds to sleep in at +night, although, like Jeannette's, they are only neat little boxes +built against the side of the wall. + +But near them, in the valley, live the poor people, in small, low +houses. They eat black bread, wear coarse clothes, and even the +children must work all day that they may have food for to-morrow. + +The mother of Louise is a gentle, loving woman; she says to her +children: "Dear children, to-day we are rich, we can have all that +we want, but we will not forget the poor. You may some day be poor +yourselves, and, if you learn now what poverty is, you will be more +ready to meet it when it comes." So, day after day, the great stove +in the kitchen is covered with stew-pans and kettles, in which are +cooking dinners for the sick and the poor, and day after day, as the +dinner-hour draws near, Louise will come, and Fritz, and even little +Gretchen, saying: "Mother, may I go?" "May I go?" and the mother +answers: "Dear children, you shall all go together"; and she fills the +bowls and baskets, and sends her sunny-hearted children down into the +valley to old Hans the gardener, who has been lame with rheumatism so +many years; and to young Marie, the pale, thin girl, who was so merry +and rosy-cheeked in the vineyard a year ago; and to the old, old woman +with the brown, wrinkled face and bowed head, who sits always in the +sunshine before the door, and tries to knit; but the needles drop from +the poor trembling hands, and the stitches slip off, and she cannot +see to pick them up. She is too deaf to hear the children as they come +down the road, and she is nodding her poor old head, and feeling about +in her lap for the lost needle, when Louise, with her bright eyes, +spies it, picks it up, and before the old woman knows she has come, +a soft little hand is laid in the brown, wrinkled one, and the little +girl is shouting in her ear that she has brought some dinner from +mamma. It makes a smile shine in the old half-blind eyes. It is always +the happiest part of the day to her when the dear little lady comes +with her dinner. And it made Louise happy too, for nothing repays us +so well as what we do unselfishly for others. + +These summer days are full of delight for the children. It is not all +play for them, to be sure; but then, work is often even more charming +than play, as I think some little girls know when they have been +helping their mothers,--running of errands, dusting the furniture, +and sewing little squares of patchwork that the baby may have a +cradle-quilt made entirely by her little sister. + +Louise can knit, and, indeed, every child and woman in that country +knits. You would almost laugh to see how gravely the little girl takes +out her stocking, for she has really begun her first stocking, and +sits on the piazza-steps for an hour every morning at work. Then the +little garden, which she calls her own, must be weeded. The gardener +would gladly do it, but Louise has a hoe of her own, which her father +bought in the spring, and, bringing it to his little daughter, said: +"Let me see how well my little girl can take care of her own garden." +And the child has tried very hard; sometimes, it is true, she would +let the weeds grow pretty high before they were pulled up, but, on the +whole, the garden promises well, and there are buds on her moss-rose +bush. It is good to take care of a garden, for, besides the pleasure +the flowers can bring us, we learn how watchful we must be to root out +the weeds, and how much trimming and care the plants need; so we learn +how to watch over our own hearts. + +She has books, too, and studies a little each day,--studies at home +with her mother, for there is no school near enough for her to go to +it, and while she and Fritz are so young, their mother teaches them, +while Christian, who is already more than twelve years old, has gone +to the school upon that beautiful hill which can be seen from Louise's +chamber window,--the school where a hundred boys and girls are +studying music. For, ever since he was a baby, Christian has loved +music; he has sung the very sweetest little songs to Louise, while she +was yet so young as to lie in her cradle, and he has whistled until +the birds among the bushes would answer him again, and now, when he +comes home from school to spend some long summer Sunday, he always +brings the flute, and plays, as I told you in the beginning of the +story. + +When the summer days are over, what comes next? You do not surely +forget the autumn, when the leaves of the maples turn crimson and +yellow, and the oaks are red and brown, and you scuff your feet along +the path ankle-deep in fallen leaves! + +On the banks of the Rhine the autumn is not quite like ours. You shall +see how our children of the great house will spend an autumn day. + +Their father and mother have promised to go with them to the vineyards +as soon as the grapes are ripe enough for gathering, and on this sunny +September morning the time has really come. + +In the great covered baskets are slices of bread and German sausage, +bottles of milk and of beer, and plenty of fresh and delicious prunes, +for the prune orchards are loaded with ripe fruit. This is their +dinner, for they will not be home until night. + +Oh, what a charming day for the children! Little Gretchen is rolling +in the grass with delight, while Louise runs to bring her own little +basket, in which to gather grapes. + +They must ride in the broad old family carriage, for the little ones +cannot walk so far; but, when they reach the river, they will take a +boat with white sails, and go down to where the steep steps and path +lead up on the other side, up the sunny green bank to the vineyard, +where already the peasant girls have been at work ever since sunrise. +Here the grapes are hanging in heavy, purple clusters; the sun has +warmed them through and through, and made them sweet to the very +heart. Oh, how delicious they are, and how beautiful they look, heaped +up in the tall baskets, which the girls and women are carrying on +their heads! How the children watch these peasant-girls, all dressed +in neat little jackets, and many short skirts one above another, red +and blue, white and green. On their heads are the baskets of grapes, +and they never drop nor spill them, but carry them steadily down the +steep, narrow path to the great vats, where the young men stand on +short ladders to reach the top, and pour in the purple fruit. Then +the grapes are crushed till the purple juice runs out, and that is +wine,--such wine as even the children may drink in their little silver +cups, for it is even better than milk. You may be sure that they have +some at dinner-time, when they cluster round the flat rock below the +dark stone castle, with the warm noonday sun streaming across their +mossy table, and the mother opens the basket and gives to every one a +share. + +Below them is the river, with its boats and beautiful shining water; +behind them are the vine-covered walls of that old castle where two +hundred years ago lived armed knights and stately ladies; and all +about them is the rich September air, full of the sweet fragrance +of the grapes, and echoing with the songs and laughter of the +grape-gatherers. On their rocky table are purple bunches of fruit, in +their cups the new wine-juice, and in their hearts all the joy of the +merry grape season. + +There are many days like this in the autumn, but the frost will come +at last, and the snow too. This is winter, but winter brings the best +pleasure of all. + +When two weeks of the winter had nearly passed, the children, as you +may suppose, began to think of Christmas, and, indeed, their best +and most loving friend had been preparing for them the sweetest of +Christmas presents. Ten days before Christmas it came, however. Can +you guess what it was? Something for all of them,--something which +Christian will like just as well as little Gretchen will, and the +father and mother will perhaps be more pleased than any one else. + +Do you know what it is? What do you think of a little baby brother,--a +little round, sweet, blue-eyed baby brother as a Christmas present for +them all? + +When Christmas Eve came, the mother said: "The children must have +their Christmas-tree in my room, for baby is one of the presents, and +I don't think I can let him be carried out and put upon the table in +the hall, where we had it last year." + +So all day long the children are kept away from their mother's room. +Their father comes home with his great coat-pockets very full of +something, but, of course, the children don't know what. He comes and +goes, up stairs and down, and, while they are all at play in the snow, +a fine young fir-tree is brought in and carried up. Louise knows it, +for she picked up a fallen branch upon the stairs, but she doesn't +tell Fritz and Gretchen. + +How they all wait and long for the night to come! They sit at the +windows, watching the red sunset light upon the snow, and cannot think +of playing or eating their supper. The parlor door is open, and all +are waiting and listening. A little bell rings, and in an instant +there is a scampering up the broad stairs to the door of mother's +room; again the little bell rings, and the door is opened wide by +their father, who stands hidden behind it. + +At the foot of their mother's white-curtained bed stands the little +fir-tree; tiny candles are burning all over it like little stars, and +glittering golden fruits are hanging among the dark-green branches. +On the white-covered table are laid Fritz's sword and Gretchen's big +doll, they being too heavy for the tree to hold. Under the branches +Louise finds charming things; such a little work-box as it is a +delight to see, with a lock and key, and inside, thimble and scissors, +and neat little spools of silk and thread. Then there are the fairy +stories of the old Black Forest, and that most charming of all little +books, "The White Cat," and an ivory cup and ball for Fritz. Do you +remember where the ivory comes from? And, lest Baby Hans should think +himself forgotten, there is an ivory rattle for him. + +There he lies in the nurse's arms, his blue eyes wide open with +wonder, and in a minute the children, with arms full of presents, have +gathered round the old woman's arm-chair,--gathered round the best and +sweetest little Christmas present of all. And the happy mother, who +sits up among the pillows, taking her supper, while she watches her +children, forgets to eat, and leaves the gruel to grow cold, but her +heart is warm enough. + +Why is not Christian here to-night? In the school of music, away on +the hill, he is singing a grand Christmas hymn, with a hundred young +voices to join him. It is very grand and sweet, full of thanks and of +love. It makes the little boy feel nearer to all his loved ones, and +in his heart he is thanking the dear Father who has given them that +best little Christmas present,--the baby. + + + +LOUISE, THE CHILD OF THE WESTERN FOREST. + + +There are many things happening in this world, dear children,--things +that happen to you yourselves day after day, which you are too young +to understand at the time. By and by, when you grow to be as old as I +am, you will remember and wonder about them all. + +Now, it was just one of these wonderful things, too great for the +young children to understand, that happened to our little Louise and +her brothers and sister when the Christmas time had come around again, +and the baby was more than a year old. + +It was a cold, stormy night; there were great drifts of snow, and +the wind was driving it against the windows. In the beautiful great +parlor, beside the bright fire, sat the sweet, gentle mother, and +in her lap lay the stout little Hans. The children had their little +chairs before the fire, and watched the red and yellow flames, while +Louise had already taken out her knitting-work. + +They were all very still, for their father seemed sad and troubled, +and the children were wondering what could be the matter. Their mother +looked at them and smiled, but, after all, it was only a sad smile. I +think it is hardest for the father, when he can no longer give to wife +and children their pleasant home; but, if they can be courageous and +happy when they have to give it up, it makes his heart easier and +brighter. + +"I must tell the children' to-night," said the father, looking at his +wife, and she answered quite cheerfully: "Yes, tell them; they will +not be sad about it I know." + +So the father told to his wondering little ones that he had lost all +his money; the beautiful great house and gardens were no longer his, +and they must all leave their pleasant home near the Rhine, and cross +the great, tossing ocean, to find a new home among the forests or the +prairies. + +As you may suppose, the children didn't fully understand this. I +don't think you would yourself. You would be quite delighted with the +packing and moving, and the pleasant journey in the cars, and the new +and strange things you would see on board the ship, and it would be +quite a long time before you could really know what it was to lose +your own dear home. + +So the children were not sad; you know their mother said they would +not be. But when they were safely tucked up in their little beds, and +tenderly kissed by the most loving lips, Louise could not go to sleep +for thinking of this strange moving, and wondering what they should +carry, and how long they should stay. For she had herself once been on +a visit to her uncle in the city, carrying her clothes in a new little +square trunk, and riding fifty miles in the cars, and she thought it +would be quite a fine thing that they should all pack up trunks full +of clothing, and go together on even a longer journey. + +A letter had been written to tell Christian, and the next day he came +home from the school. His uncles in the city begged him to stay with +them, but the boy said earnestly: "If my father must cross the sea, I +too must go with him." + +They waited only for the winter's cold to pass away, and when the +first robins began to sing among the naked trees, they had left the +fine large house,--left the beautiful gardens where the children +used to play, left the great, comfortable arm-chairs and sofas, the +bookcases and tables, and the little beds beside the wall. Besides +their clothes, they had taken nothing with them but two great wooden +chests full of beautiful linen sheets and table-cloths. These had been +given to the mother by her mother long ago, before any of the children +were born, and they must be carried to the new home. You will see, by +and by, how glad the family all were to have them. + +Did you ever go on board a ship? It is almost like a great house upon +the water, but the rooms in it are very small, and so are the windows. +Then there is the long deck, where we may walk in the fresh air and +watch the water and the sea-birds, or the sailors at work upon the +high masts among the ropes, and the white sails that spread out like a +white bird's wings, and sweep the ship along over the water. + +It was in such a ship that our children found themselves, with +their father and mother, when the snow was gone and young grass +was beginning to spring up on the land. But of this they could see +nothing, for in a day they had flown on the white wings far out over +the water, and as Louise clung to her father's hand and stood upon the +deck at sunset, she saw only water and sky all about on every side, +and the red clouds of the sunset. It was a little sad, and quite +strange to her, but her younger brothers and sisters were already +asleep in the small beds of the ship, which, as perhaps you know, are +built up against the wall, just as their beds were at home. Louise +kissed her father and went down, too, to bed, for you must know that +on board ship you go _down_ stairs to bed instead of _up_ stairs. + +After all, if father, mother, brother, and sister can still cling to +each other and love each other, it makes little difference where they +are, for love is the best thing in the universe, and nothing is good +without it. + +They lived for many days in the ship, and the children, after a little +time, were not afraid to run about the deck and talk with the sailors, +who were always very kind to them. And Louise felt quite at home +sitting in her little chair beside the great mast, while she knit upon +her stocking,--a little stocking now, one for the baby. + +Christian had brought his flute, and at night he played to them as he +used at home, and, indeed, they were all so loving and happy together +that it was not much sorrow to lose the home while they kept each +other. + +Sometimes a hard day would come, when the clouds swept over them, and +the rain and the great waves tossed the ship, making them all sick, +and sad too, for a time; but the sun was sure to come out at last, as +I can assure you it always will, and, on the whole, it was a pleasant +journey for them all. + +It was a fine, sunny May day when they reached the land again. No +time, though, for them to go Maying, for only see how much is to +be done! Here are all the trunks and the linen-chests, and all the +children, too, to be disposed of, and they are to stop but two days in +this city. Then they must be ready for a long journey in the cars and +steamboats, up rivers and across lakes, and sometimes for miles and +miles through woods, where they see no houses nor people, excepting +here and there a single log cabin with two or three ragged children at +play outside, or a baby creeping over the doorstep, while farther on +among the trees stands a man with his axe, cutting, with heavy blows, +some tall trees into such logs as those of which the house is built. + +These are new and strange sights to the children of the River Rhine. +They wonder, and often ask their parents if they, too, shall live in a +little log house like that. + +How fresh and fragrant the new logs are for the dwelling, and how +sweet the pine and spruce boughs for a bed! A good new log house in +the green woods is the best home in the world. + +Oh, how heartily tired they all are when at last they stop! They have +been riding by day and by night. The children have fallen asleep with +heads curled down upon their arms upon the seats of the car, and the +mother has had very hard work to keep little Hans contented and happy. +But here at last they have stopped. Here is the new home. + +They have left the cars at a very small town. It has ten or twelve +houses and one store, and they have taken here a great wagon with +three horses to carry them yet a few miles farther to a lonely, though +beautiful place. It is on the edge of a forest. The trees are very +tall, their trunks moss-covered; and when you look far in among them +it is so dark that no sunlight seems to fall on the brown earth. But +outside is sunshine, and the young spring grass and wild flowers, +different from those which grow on the Rhine banks. + +But where is their house? + +Here is indeed something new for them. It is almost night; no house is +near, and they have no sleeping-place but the great wagon. But their +cheerful mother packs them all away in the back part of the wagon, +on some straw, covering them with shawls as well as she can, and bids +them good-night, saying, "You can see the stars whenever you open your +eyes." + +It is a new bed and a hard one. However, the children are tired enough +to sleep well; but they woke very early, as you or I certainly should +if we slept in the great concert-hall of the birds. Oh, how those +birds of the woods did begin to sing, long before sunrise! And +Christian was out from his part of the bed in a minute, and off four +miles to the store, to buy some bread for breakfast. + +An hour after sunrise he was back again, and Louise had gathered +sticks, of which her father made a bright fire. And now the mother is +teaching her little daughter how to make tea, and Fritz and Gretchen +are poking long sticks into the ashes to find the potatoes which were +hidden there to roast. + +To them it is a beautiful picnic, like those happy days in the grape +season; but Louise can see that her mother is a little grieved at +having them sleep in the wagon with no house to cover them. And when +breakfast is over she says to the father that the children must be +taken back to the village to stay until the house is built. He, too, +had thought so; and the mother and children go back to the little +town. + +Christian alone stays with his father, working with his small axe as +his father does with the large one; but to both it is very hard work +to cut trees; because it is something they have never done before. +They do their best, and when he is not too tired, Christian whistles +to cheer himself. + +After the first day a man is hired to help, and it is not a great +while before the little house is built--built of great, rough logs, +still covered with brown bark and moss. All the cracks are stuffed +with moss to keep out the rain and cold, and there is one window and a +door. + +It is a poor little house to come to after leaving the grand old one +by the Rhine, but the children are delighted when their father comes +with the great wagon to take them to their new home. + +And into this house one summer night they come--without beds, tables, +or chairs; really with nothing but the trunks and linen-chests. The +dear old linen-chests, see only how very useful they have become! What +shall be the supper-table for this first meal in the new house? What +but the largest of the linen-chests, round which they all gather, some +sitting on blocks of wood, and the little ones standing! And after +supper what shall they have for beds? What but the good old chests +again! For many and many a day and night they are used, and the mother +is, over and over again, thankful that she brought them. + +As the summer days go by, the children pick berries in the woods and +meadows, and Fritz is feeling himself a great boy when his father +expects him to take care of the old horse, blind of one eye, bought to +drag the loads of wood to market. + +Louise is learning to love the grand old trees where the birds and +squirrels live. She sits for hours with her work on some mossy cushion +under the great waving boughs, and she is so silent and gentle that +the squirrels learn to come very near her, turning their heads every +minute to see if she is watching, and almost laughing at her with +their sharp, bright eyes, while they are cramming their cheeks full of +nuts--not to eat now, you know, but to carry home to the storehouses +in some comfortable hollow trees, to be saved for winter use. When the +snow comes, you see, they will not be able to find any nuts. + +One day Louise watched them until she suddenly thought, "Why don't we, +too, save nuts for the winter?" and the next day she brought a +basket and the younger children, instead of her knitting-work. They +frightened away the squirrels, to be sure, but they carried home a +fine large basketful of nuts. + +Oh, how much might be seen in those woods on a summer day!--birds and +flowers, and such beautiful moss! I have seen it myself, so soft and +thick, better than the softest cushion to sit on, and then so lovely +to look at, with its long, bright feathers of green. + +Sometimes Louise has seen the quails going out for a walk; the mother +with her seven babies all tripping primly along behind her, the wee, +brown birds; and all running, helter-skelter, in a minute, if they +hear a noise among the bushes, and hiding, each one, his head under a +broad leaf, thinking, poor little foolish things, that no one can see +them. + +Christian whistles to the quails a long, low call; they will look this +way and that and listen, and at last really run towards him without +fear. + +Before winter comes the log house is made more comfortable; beds and +chairs are bought, and a great fire burns in the fireplace. But do the +best they can the rain will beat in between the logs, and after the +first snowstorm one night, a white pointed drift is found on the +breakfast-table. They laugh at it, and call it ice-cream, but they +almost feel more like crying, with cold blue fingers, and toes that +even the warm knit stockings can't keep comfortable. Never mind, the +swift snowshoes will make them skim over the snow-crust like birds +flying, and the merry sled-rides that brother Christian will give them +will make up for all the trouble. They will soon love the winter in +the snowy woods. + +Their clothes, too, are all wearing out. Fritz comes to his mother +with great holes in his jacket-sleeves, and poor Christian's knees are +blue and frost-bitten through the torn trousers. What shall be done? + +Louise brings out two old coats of her father's. Christian is wrapped +in one from head to foot, and Fritz looks like the oddest little man +with his great coat muffled around him, crossed in front and buttoned +around behind, while the long sleeves can be turned back almost to his +shoulders. Funny enough he looks, but it makes him quite warm; and in +this biting wind who would think of the looks? So our little friend +is to drive poor old Major to town with a sled-load of wood every day, +while his father and brother are cutting trees in the forest. + +Should you laugh to see a boy so dressed coming up the street with a +load of wood? Perhaps you wouldn't if you knew how cold he would be +without this coat, and how much he hopes to get the half-dollar for +his wood, and bring home bread and meat for supper. + +How wise the children grow in this hard work and hard life! Fritz +feels himself a little man, and Louise, I am sure, is as useful as +many a woman, for she is learning to cook and tend the fire, while +even Gretchen has some garters to knit, and takes quite good care of +the baby. + +Little Hans will never remember the great house by the Rhine; he was +too little when they came away; but by and by he will like to hear +stories about it, which, you may be sure, Louise will often tell her +little brother. + +The winter is the hardest time. When Christmas comes there is not even +a tree, for there are no candles to light one and no presents to give. +But there is one beautiful gift which they may and do all give to each +other,--it makes them happier than many toys or books,--it is love. It +makes even this cold dreary Christmas bright and beautiful to them. + +Next winter will not be so hard, for in the spring corn will be +planted, and plenty of potatoes and turnips and cabbages; and they +will have enough to eat and something to sell for money. + +But I must not stay to tell you more now of the backwoods life of +Louise and her brothers and sister. If you travel some day to the +West, perhaps you will see her yourself, gathering her nuts under the +trees, or sitting in the sun on the doorstep with her knitting. Then +you will know her for the little sister who has perhaps come +closest to your heart, and you will clasp each other's hands in true +affection. + + + + +THE SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS. + + +Here, dear children, are your seven little sisters. Let us count them +over. First came the brown baby, then Agoonack, Gemila, Jeannette, +Pen-se, Manenko, and Louise. Seven little sisters I have called them, +but Marnie exclaims: "How can they be sisters when some are black, +some brown, and some white; when one lives in the warm country and +another in the cold, and Louise upon the shores of the Rhine? Sallie +and I are sisters, because we have the same father and live here +together in the same house by the seaside; but as for those seven +children, I can't believe them to be sisters at all." + +Now let us suppose, my dear little girl, that your sister Sallie +should go away,--far away in a ship across the ocean to the warm +countries, and the sun should burn her face and hands and make them +so brown that you would hardly know her,--wouldn't she still be your +sister Sallie? + +And suppose even that she should stay away in the warm countries and +never come back again, wouldn't she still be your dear sister? and +wouldn't you write her letters and tell her about home and all that +you love there? + +I know you would. + +And now, just think if you yourself should take a great journey +through ice and snow and go to the cold countries, up among the white +bears and the sledges and dogs; suppose even that you should have an +odd little dress of white bear-skin, like Agoonack, wouldn't you think +it very strange if Sallie shouldn't call you her little sister just +because you were living up there among the ice? + +And what if Minnie, too, should take it into her head to sail across +the seas and live in a boat on a Chinese river, like Pen-se, and drive +the ducks, eat rice with chopsticks, and have fried mice for dinner; +why, you might not want to dine with her, but she would be your sweet, +loving sister all the same, wouldn't she? + +I can hear you say "Yes" to all this, but then you will add: "Father +is our father the same all the time, and he isn't Pen-se's father, nor +Manenko's." + +Let us see what makes you think he is your father. Because he loves +you so much and gives you everything that you have--clothes to wear, +and food to eat, and fire to warm you? + +Did he give you this new little gingham frock? Shall we see what it +is made of? If you ravel out one end of the cloth, you can find the +little threads of cotton which are woven together to make your frock. +Where did the cotton come from? + +It grew in the hot fields of the South, where the sun shines very +warmly. Your father didn't make it grow, neither did any man. It is +true a man, a poor black man, and a very sad man he was too, put the +little seeds into the ground, but they would never have grown if the +sun hadn't shone, the soft earth nourished, and the rain moistened +them. And who made the earth, and sent the sun and the rain? + +That must be somebody very kind and thoughtful, to take so much care +of the little cotton-seeds. I think that must be a father. + +Now, what did you have for breakfast this morning? + +A sweet Indian cake with your egg and mug of milk? I thought so. Who +made this breakfast? Did Bridget make the cake in the kitchen? Yes, +she mixed the meal with milk and salt and sugar. But where did she get +the meal? The miller ground the yellow corn to make it. But who made +the corn? + +The seeds were planted as the cottonseeds were, and the same kind care +supplied sun and rain and earth for them. Wasn't that a father? Not +your father who sits at the head of the table and helps you at dinner, +who takes you to walk and tells you stories, but another Father; your +Father, too, he must be, for he is certainly taking care of you. + +And doesn't he make the corn grow, also, on that ant-hill behind +Manenko's house? He seems to take the same care of her as of you. + +Then the milk and the egg. They come from the hen and the cow; but who +made the hen and the cow? + +It was the same kind Father again who made them for you, and made +the camels and goats for Gemila and Jeannette; who made also the wild +bees, and taught them to store their honey in the trees, for Manenko; +who made the white rice grow and ripen for little Pen-se, and the +sea-birds and the seals for Agoonack. To every one good food to +eat--and more than that; for must it not be a very loving father who +has made for us all the beautiful sky, and the stars at night, and the +blue sea; who sent the soft wind to rock the brown baby to sleep +and sing her a song, and the grand march of the Northern Lights for +Agoonack--grander and more beautiful than any of the fireworks you +know; the red strawberries for little Jeannette to gather, and the +beautiful chestnut woods on the mountain-side? Do you remember all +these things in the stories? + +And wasn't it the same tender love that made the sparkling water and +sunshine for Pen-se, and the shining brown ducks for her too; the +springs in the desert and the palm-trees for Gemila, as well as the +warm sunshine for Manenko, and the beautiful River Rhine for Louise? + +It must be a very dear father who gives his children not only all +they need for food and clothing, but so many, many beautiful things to +enjoy. + +Don't you see that they must all be his children, and so all sisters, +and that he is your Father, too, who makes the mayflowers bloom, and +the violets cover the hills, and turns the white blossoms into black, +sweet berries in the autumn? It is your dear and kind Father who does +all this for his children. He has very many children; some of them +live in houses and some in tents, some in little huts and some under +the trees, in the warm countries and in the cold. And he loves them +all; they are his children, and they are brothers and sisters. Shall +they not love each other? + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on +the Round Ball That Floats in the Air, by Jane Andrews + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEVEN LITTLE SISTERS *** + +***** This file should be named 12631.txt or 12631.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/6/3/12631/ + +Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Melissa Er-Raqabi and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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