THE LITTLE GREEN LADY FROG
Billy Bull Frog had a deep ba.s.s voice, and every night he would sit on a big flat rock amid tall sedge gra.s.s and sing. There was a little green lady frog that sang a beautiful soprano, but, you see, his voice was so loud and strong and deep that hardly any one could hear her when she sang. She could hardly ever hear herself, for the louder she sang the more noise Billy would make, till finally the little green lady frog wouldn"t sing at all.
But this did not make Billy feel badly, because he loved to hear his own voice so much. The little green lady frog would sit very still on her lily pad, and would not even look at Billy when he sang. But, oh, dear me! he was so conceited about his own voice that he thought the little green lady frog was jealous of him.
She wasn"t at all, and Billy was wrong, and was acting very, very foolishly. The real truth of the matter was that the little green lady frog had heard a tree toad singing in a tree quite close to the lake, and she thought his voice very beautiful, because it was a high tenor, and it sounded much better when she sang with him than it did when she sang with Billy Bull Frog.
At first she hardly dared sing with Tommy Tree Toad, because she was afraid of Billy Bull Frog, and then, too, she didn"t know Tommy Tree Toad very well.
But after a while she became bolder and one night, when the moon was shining brightly in the sky and throwing a silver path from the water right up to Tommy Tree Toad"s tree, she climbed up the bank and stood on the silver path of the moon and listened while Tommy sang his most beautiful song.
And the longer she waited the more she wanted to go close up to the big tree and sing with Tommy. He kept singing in his beautiful tenor voice, "k.u.m-k.u.m, k.u.m-k.u.m!" and at last she hopped along the silver way up to the big tree. And then they sang a lovely duet together and all the frogs in the lake held their breath because it was so sweet.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
THE PRINCESS LIL
The Princess Lil stood on the edge of the lake waiting for her turtlemobile to take her to her lily castle, which rested on the bright waters in the center of the lily pond.
Presently she heard the honk, honk of chauffeur Billy Bullfrog"s horn, and in another moment the turtlemobile swung around the tall sedge gra.s.s.
"You"re late," she said, as she took her seat.
"I"m sorry, your Royal Highness," said chauffeur Billy Bullfrog, "but the turtlemobile was tired, and I couldn"t make him put on more speed."
The princess made no reply, but sat gazing at the setting sun"s reflection in the bright waters of the lake. The sky was all fairy colors, and just above the green tree tops the evening star was shining.
The turtlemobile glided swiftly in and out among the lily pads and hummocks of gra.s.s until it came to the open water. In the center of the lake was a beautiful white lily. Here the turtlemobile stopped, and the Princess Lil stepped out on the smooth green lily pad. Quickly running across, she tripped lightly down the golden stairway inside the stem of the beautiful white pond lily. When she reached the bottom of the golden flight, she opened a little door, and entered her pink and white chamber. Throwing herself down on a silken couch, she rang a bell, and presently a pretty little fairy appeared.
"Lorelei," said the princess, "I am weary; bring me my gossamer kimono, and do you loosen my hair. Afterwards you may coil it again and fasten it with a single firefly, as I wish to sit out in the garden after supper."
The moon was shining brightly as the Princess Lil ran up the golden staircase and out upon the big flat lily pad, which was arranged like a beautiful garden. There were small pink flowers growing in little beds of moist earth, and winding in and out was a narrow path of tiny shiny pebbles. Over this the princess tripped until she came to the end of the path, where she sat down, and began to sing softly, oh, so softly, a fairy lullaby.
"_Gently the wind of the dewy night blows, Over the quivering stream; While children are sleeping, the fairies are peeping, Singing to them a dream._
"_Over and over, from daisy and clover, From all of the sweet flower throng, The fairies are swinging and drowsily singing, A sweet little hush-a-by song._"
"Ah!" said the little princess as she finished; "I think all the little boys and girls are asleep by this time. Indeed, I"m sure they are, for there goes the blue-bell tinkling "Nine o"clock!"
"Good night, sweet moon!" she cried, as she paused before the portal of her lily castle, "good night, sweet moon!"
And then the little fairy princess ran down the golden staircase and disappeared in her pink and white chamber.
p.u.s.s.y
See the Papa p.u.s.s.y go Softly on his tippie-toe.
I don t think it"s very nice To catch the cunning little mice.
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DOROTHY"S NEW ROLLER SKATES
Little Dorothy always begged her mother to loop up one of her window curtains when she went to bed, that she might go to sleep watching the stars twinkle, and in the morning see the sun rise, and after he had risen, see if his goldy locks were all on end, as her own often were.
One morning she woke up, not quite as early as usual, and found her room full of light, which seemed to dance about some bright object on a chair by her bedside. For a moment she lay quite still, thinking that perhaps it was some fairy"s wand which caused such a glitter, and that presently a real, live fairy, with beautiful gold wings, would perch on her thumb, and offer to grant her three wishes like other obliging fairies she had read about. And the very first wish that came into her head was for a pair of roller skates; and having got fairly awake at last, she saw that this bright something by her bedside was indeed a beautiful new pair of skates, so bright that she could see her own happy face reflected in them!
"Mother, mother!" she called out, "come quick! Did you or the fairies bring me these lovely new skates?"
Mother smiled. "Who do you think?" she asked, cuddling her little daughter up close.
"I guess it was you, dear mother," answered the little girl, with a grateful hug; "you"re better than any fairy."
After breakfast Dorothy hurried off to the park. She strapped her skates on as fast as she could and was just about to glide away on the smooth pavement when she noticed a poor little girl standing near, watching her with almost a hungry expression in her sad brown eyes. "Do you like to skate?" asked Dorothy.
"Do I! I just love it; but father had to sell my skates because he had no money to buy food with." Dorothy sat down again on the bench and undid the straps, letting one of the skates fall on the ground in her hurry.
"You put these skates on just as fast as you can, and then you take as long a skate as you want to; I"ll sit here and watch you."
When the little girl came back, flushed and smiling, Dorothy said: "Would you like my old skates? They"re not very nice, because one of the straps is gone, and they are dingy and rusty, but perhaps your father could put on a new strap."
The little girl smiled such a glad little smile. "Well, I just guess I would!" she answered quickly. "You"re awfully good to me," and she looked at Dorothy with such a grateful little face that Dorothy answered, "Let"s go home right away and get them."
RAT-A-TAT-TAT, RAT-A-TAT-TAT
"Look! there go the soldiers," cried Mazie, leaning out of the nursery window. "Jamie, come quick and see the real soldiers."
Her little brother left his toy warriors and ran to the window.
"Rat-a-tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat!" went the drums as the troops swung forward in a long line, the gay flags flying in the breeze.
"Why, there"s Harold Gray"s papa!" said Mazie. "There he is, Jamie, on that beautiful black horse."