"How do you do, Sir!" answered Jamie.
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"Here are the pictures of my two brothers," said the Alphabet Clown, showing Jamie two photographs; "there weren"t enough letters to go around, so when I"m acting, I just show their pictures, and when they are acting, they show mine." No sooner had he finished speaking than the Alphabet Letters tumbled apart, and the clown disappeared.
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A big rhinoceros next came into view as the Alphabet Letters kept up their merry pranks. By this time, Jamie was hardly surprised at anything, his friends, the Alphabet Letters, were doing so many funny things.
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"Tickets!" cried a voice at his side. A little Alphabet Man sitting on an Alphabet Chair looked at Jamie as if expecting him to hand over his ticket at once. Just as he was about to explain how the Letters had brought him to the circus, the little man fell apart, and all the Letters laughed and said, "Never mind your ticket, Jamie--follow us!"
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"Bow-wow!" said the little Alphabet Dog as Jamie ran up to pat him.
"Don"t turn into letters just yet," he begged, giving the little dog a hug, but with a merry laugh the Letters jumped apart and Jamie saw a pretty horse, who lifted his right fore leg to shake hands with him. But the Alphabet Horse lasted no longer than the other animals, and the next instant a funny man, with a big E for his eye and nose and a capital C for his mouth and chin, and a big D for his cap, stood before him. A big V made the front of his coat and vest, and a capital I his back, while a large W and X made a pair of funny legs.
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"I wonder who he is?" thought Jamie.
"I"m the Lion Tamer," answered the man, as if reading the little boy"s thoughts.
"Are you?" said Jamie. "I saw your lion the first thing--just as I came into the tent. Aren"t you afraid you"ll lose him?"
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"I"m more afraid he"ll lose me," replied the Lion Tamer. He was quite right, for at that instant the Alphabet Letters fell apart and a pretty girl stood in his place.
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"I"m the Circus Queen, little Jamie," she said with a smile, and then she gave him an alphabet kiss, which looked just like the letter O, I guess. And then the Letters tumbled apart and the Circus Queen disappeared.
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But they were not idle, these wonderful Alphabet Letters. They ran ahead for a little way and then, all of a sudden, arranged themselves into a beautiful white cow, which looked to Jamie very much like the one in Mr.
Jones" big pasture.
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"Where"s Mother?" cried a loud voice, and Jamie saw a small elephant looking anxiously about. A big J made a most beautiful trunk, while a capital M served for two st.u.r.dy legs. An S made a nice tail, and the other letters finished his body very satisfactorily.
"You"d better hurry," advised Jamie, "or the first thing you know the Letters will get tired of making you an elephant, and turn into some other sort of animal."
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And Jamie was right, for the next instant there was no little elephant, but instead, a quiet looking camel, with two big humps.
In a few minutes, the camel, too, disappeared, and the wonderful Alphabet Letters ran over to the other side of the tent, and the next thing Jamie saw was a funny little man whose make-up consisted of only a few big letters, but who nevertheless seemed a very important person.
He stood just outside of a door over which was printed in big red letters,
"ALPHABET MOVING PICTURE SHOW"
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"Come to the "Alphabet Moving Pictures,"" he called out. "Come and see "Alphabet Movies"!" Upon a big white screen the letters of the alphabet arranged themselves into a wonderful picture of Washington Crossing the Delaware. Jamie clapped his hands. Then the next picture came along, as his friends, the Alphabet Letters, jumped down and without any confusion re-arranged themselves. The next picture was very wonderful--George Washington planting the British Flag at Fort Duquesne. Jamie made up his mind to ask Mother when he got home all about it. In a jiffy, the Letters again fell apart, and a picture, which little Jamie could understand much better, was shown. "Hurray! Mother Goose!" shouted Jamie, kicking up his feet so high that down fell the big white circus tent, and he awoke to find himself in his own little bed, with his feet up underneath the sheet, holding it up just like the tent where the Alphabet Letters had done all the funny things.
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Jamie rubbed his eyes, just as Mother came in. "Well, I guess I"ll know my alphabet to-day," he said. After breakfast he told Mother where he had been, and when she asked him to say his alphabet, he recited it without a miss.
"Wasn"t it lucky I went to the circus with the ""Alphabet Letters"?" he asked, and Mother said it certainly was.
LITTLE SIR CAT
Little Sir Cat Tries to Comfort Bo-Peep
Often while with the soldiers Little Sir Cat thought of his dear home at the castle and the quiet silver moat full of silver fish that darted here and there in the sparkling water, and maybe he wished he was back at the castle, but he was too brave a kitten to say so, you may be sure.
Day after day they drilled and marched, and at last they came up with the enemy again and there was a dreadful battle and, when it was all over, Little Sir Cat found himself at the edge of a wood with a bullet wound in his leg. He couldn"t march any more, so they left him alone with his little drum, and when night came down he was faint and hungry and very miserable.
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Well, by and by, when the big moon was high in the sky, and all was quiet, except for a little breeze that wouldn"t go to sleep, but played hide and seek among the leaves on the tall dark trees, a little owl said to him:
"_Cheer up, little comrade, And beat your little drum, For nothing now shall hurt you Since I to you have come, For I will bring you comfort, So never, never fear.
Cheer up, little comrade, For help is very near._"
And when morning came Little Jenny Wren gave him a wonderful herb that cured his leg in less than five hundred short seconds. So he started off again on his journey and pretty soon he met Little Bo Peep. "I"ve lost my sheep and cannot tell where to find them."
"Leave them alone and they"ll come home, bringing their tails behind them," shouted Little Boy Blue, as he pa.s.sed by with his bright yellow horn hung over his shoulder. "My sheep get into the meadow every day and my cows get in the corn, but they always come home at night, bringing their tails behind them."
"That"s because you wake up in time to blow your horn," answered Bo Peep between her sobs; "but I"ve no horn and--boo, hoo--no more sheep and little lambs--boo, hoo"----
"Don"t cry, I"ll help you find them," said Little Sir Cat.
Well, they hadn"t gone very far when they saw little pieces of wool clinging to the bramble bushes.