BY NORMAN GALE When Aunt Jan's coming there's such romping in the house, She's sweeter than a daffodil and softer than a mouse! She sings about the passages, and never wants to res...
THE MICE summoned a council to decide how they might best devise means of warning themselves of the approach of their great enemy the Cat. Among the many plans suggested, the one t...
Once upon a time a Fairy, who had somehow or other got into mischief, was condemned by the High Court of Fairyland to live for several years under the form of some creature, and at...
The winter after Nimble lost his spike horns was a mild one. The snowfall was light. And Nimble was able to roam up and down Pleasant Valley and about Blue Mountain as he pleased....
Once upon a time there dwelt on the outskirts of a large forest a poor woodcutter with his wife and two children; the boy was called Hansel and the girl Grettel. He had always litt...
Henry was within a half-hour's walk of the summit of the mountain when he reached a pit so wide that he could not possibly jump to the other side and so deep that it seemed bottoml...
The toothbrush brigade is a happy club We boys and girls have made, We try to care for our teeth So they'll not be decayed. And so we have promised one and all, At morning and at n...
A poor woodman sat in his cottage one night, smoking his pipe by the fireside, while his wife sat by his side spinning. 'How lonely it is, wife,' said he, as he puffed out a long c...
It was Christmas eve, and in the great house on the hill there was much rejoicing and preparation for the feasting on the morrow. A knock came at the door, and two strangers stood...
On a high hill in Greece, long ago, lived Philemon and Baucis. They had always been poor but never unhappy. At the time of this story the people in the valley below them were very...
Do you know the bird that wears a black cravat, which he changes once a year? It is the English Sparrow, the commonest of all our birds. His hair is gray, but he must have been red...
"How ungrateful you must be!" said a Falcon to a Hen. "You are fed with the best of food, you have a snug bed provided for you at night, you are protected from foxes, and yet, when...
The night of Jimmy Rabbit's party arrived at last. The time was an hour after sunset. The place was Farmer Green's back pasture. And Jimmy Rabbit was waiting eagerly. He had told N...
A WAYFARING MAN, traveling in the desert, met a woman standing alone and terribly dejected. He inquired of her, "Who art thou?" "My name is Truth," she replied. "And for what cause...
Hush, Dolly, bye, Dolly, sleep, Dolly, dear, See what a bed, Dolly, I've for you here; Therefore, to sleep, Dolly! don't fret and cry; Lay down your head, Dolly, shut up your eye....
A BOY was stung by a Nettle. He ran home and told his Mother, saying, "Although it hurts me very much, I only touched it gently." "That was just why it stung you," said his Mother....
Sway to and fro in the twilight gray; This is the ferry for Shadowtown; It always sails at the end of the day, Just as the darkness closes down. Rest little head, on my shoulder, s...
FROM THE RIVERSIDE FOURTH READER Ages ago a flock of more than a thousand quails lived together in a forest in India. They would have been happy, but that they were in great dread...
BY OSCAR WILDE Every afternoon, as they were coming from school, the children used to go and play in the Giant's garden. It was a large, lovely garden, with soft green grass. Here...
Hark, Hark the dogs do bark! The beggars have come to town. Some in rags, and some in tags, And some in velvet gowns. Hear, hear, they're drawing near! Just hark to the tramp of fe...
BY COLONEL GUIDO ILGES "Little Moccasin" was, at the time we speak of, fourteen years old, and about as mischievous a boy as could be found anywhere in the Big Horn mountains. Unli...
Once upon a time there was a town called Atpat. In it there lived a poor Brahman. When the month of Bhadrapad came round, every household bought little images of Parwati, and the w...
Little Henry marched resolutely to the mountain which he found much more distant than it had appeared to him. Instead of arriving in a half hour as he had expected, he walked rapid...
THE DOLPHINS and Whales waged a fierce war with each other. When the battle was at its height, a Sprat lifted its head out of the waves and said that he would reconcile their diffe...
"Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man Bake me a cake as quick as you can Pat it and prick it, and mark it with B, And put it in the oven for baby and me." Hurry it, hurry it, baker'...
A BULL was striving with all his might to squeeze himself through a narrow passage which led to his stall. A young Calf came up, and offered to go before and show him the way by wh...
BY NOAH BROOKS (ADAPTED) Among those who accompanied Mr. Lincoln, the President-elect, on his journey from Illinois to the national capital, was Elmer E. Ellsworth, a young man who...
East of the Land of the Rising Sun there dwelled a king who spent all his days and half his nights in pleasure. His kingdom was on the edge of the world, according to the knowledge...
Once upon a time there was a King who had seven sons. One day he said to the six older ones: "You must go forth into the world, each one, and seek a bride. But Boots is too young t...
BY COUNT FRANZ POCCI (TRANSLATED) Two boys gathered some hazelnuts in the woods. They sat down under a tree and tried to eat them, but they did not have their knives, and could not...