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Ebook has 90 lines and 6769 words, and 2 pages

Editor: Palmer Cox

MONKEY JACK AND OTHER STORIES

Edited by Palmer Cox

MONKEY JACK.

A lit-tle maid weeps pit-e-ous-ly, In dire dis-tress de-mand-ing aid; Her pre-cious ball is up a tree, And ev-ery boy shrinks back a-fraid.

It hangs a-loft, a shin-ing thing, Caught by the ve-ry top-most spray, Where slen-der branch-es ta-per-ing 'Neath the light bur-den move and sway.

Hur-rah! he comes whom all ad-mire, Whose nim-ble legs, and lis-som back, And read-y pluck, that naught can tire, Win him the name of "Mon-key Jack."

See how he leaps from bough to bough To gain that most be-lov'd of balls! His out-stretch'd hand has caught it now; The branch gives way--the he-ro falls!

The fright-en'd chil-dren ut-ter cries, But e-ven yet he does his best; His vic-tor hand re-tains the prize, And clasps it to his faith-ful breast.

Laid on his bed, com-pos'd, though sad, With bro-ken leg and in-jured back, We find a lit-tle pa-tient lad, A-las, no long-er "Mon-key Jack!"

With books and toys, what-e'er is best, His com-rades seek him, one and all, And shy-ly peep-ing through the rest, Poor lit-tle Ro-sa brings her ball.

Placed at the win-dow, day by day, While pil-lows raise his wea-ry head, His wist-ful eyes be-hold the play Which once with joy-ous heart he led.

And in his hand the ball is laid, And if to fling it is his whim, The sig-nal is at once obey'd, With ea-ger feet they run to him.

But more than this they glad-ly do-- Each coin they get they save with care, And Ro-sa brings her six-pence, too, To swell the splen-did treas-ure there.

Mon-ey can pur-chase any-thing. The hap-py chil-dren send to town, And to the crip-ple's bed they bring A sur-geon of the first re-nown.

Oh, beau-ti-ful tri-um-phant day! When light of heart and free from pain, The pa-tient lad has slipped away, And "Mon-key Jack" climbs trees again!

Here are a num-ber of lit-tle tots, and what do you think they are do-ing? I think the lit-tle girl on her knees is pay-ing for-feits.

A PAIR OF FRIENDS.

Tab-by and Rover are very good friends, so that she is not at all a-fraid to eat out of his dish when-ev-er she has not din-ner e-nough of her own.

A RAIN-Y DAY.

Rain, rain, rain! How it did rain! The great drops ran down the glass in streams. Tom, Jack, and lit-tle Meg watched it for a long time. "O dear!" they said at last, "do you think it will nev-er clear? We want to go out and play."

"Why do you not go up to the gar-ret, and play?" asked their mam-ma.

That struck them as a fine plan; and off they trooped, pound-ing up the bare stairs with their nois-y feet. They found three old brooms, and be-gan to play soldier,--Tom first, then Jack, with Meg last of all. The gar-ret was ver-y large; and their mam-ma could hear them as they tramped a-long, and could hear Tom's com-mand to right a-bout face when they had reached the farth-er end.

Mean-time their friend Rose had come, all wrapped up, through the rain, to make them a call. She brought a bas-ket, in which were her two kit-tens.

"The chil-dren are in the gar-ret," said their mam-ma.

So Rose ran up to find them. She did find them; but what do you think?--they were fast a-sleep.

Sweet is the voice that calls From bab-bling wa-ter-falls In mead-ows where the down-y seeds are fly-ing, And soft the breez-es blow, And ed-dy-ing come and go, In fad-ed gar-dens where the rose is dy-ing

THE QUARREL.

Grace and Bell have had a quar-rel. Bell was most at fault, but now she is ver-y sor-ry for what she has done. So she kiss-es her sis-ter, and the trou-ble is all o-ver.

OLD WINTER.

Old Win-ter is com-ing; a-lack, a-lack! How i-cy and cold is he! He's wrapped to the heels in a snow-y white sack; The trees he has lad-en till read-y to crack; He whis-tles his trills with a won-der-ful knack, For he comes from a cold coun-tree.

A fun-ny old fel-low is Win-ter, I trow, A mer-ry old fel-low for glee: He paints all the no-ses a beau-ti-ful hue, He counts all our fin-gers, and pinch-es them too; Our toes he gets hold of through stock-ing and shoe; For a fun-ny old fel-low is he.

Old Win-ter is blow-ing his gusts a-long, And mer-ri-ly shak-ing the tree: From morn-ing to night he will sing us his song, Now moan-ing and short, now bold-ly and long; His voice it is loud, for his lungs are so strong, And a mer-ry old fel-low is he.

Old Win-ter's a rough old chap to some, As rough as ev-er you'll see. "I with-er the flow-ers when-ev-er I come, I qui-et the brook that went laugh-ing a-long, I drive all the birds off to find a new home I'm as rough as rough can be."

A cun-ning old fel-low is Winter, they say,-- A cun-ning old fel-low is he: He peeps in the crev-i-ces day by day, To see how we're pass-ing our time a-way, And mark all our do-ing from so-ber to gay; I'm a-fraid he is peep-ing at me!

THE HARD LESSON.

"I can nev-er, nev-er learn it," said Bell; and she burst in-to tears.

"Car-rie has learned it," said Miss Gray; "and I am sure you can. Try, try a-gain."

"Yes, Bell," said Car-rie; "and then per-haps we can have a romp in the hay-field. You will have to hur-ry, for the men are cart-ing it in-to the barn."

Thus urged, Bell made a fresh ef-fort; and soon the les-son was learned and re-cit-ed.

Off scam-pered the two girls to the hay-field. Soon Miss Gray fol-lowed, but there was noth-ing to be seen of them. She looked all a-bout, and at last walked up to the man who was load-ing the hay on the cart.

"Can you see an-y thing of two lit-tle girls from where you are?" she asked.

"I don't see them," he an-swered, stand-ing up and look-ing a-round.

Miss Gray turned a-way, when all at once she heard a laugh be-hind her. She looked back, and there were the laugh-ing fa-ces of Bell and Car-rie. They had been on the cart, all hid-den un-der the hay in or-der to play a lit-tle joke on Miss Gray. Then they scram-bled down, and came run-ning to her.

The man on the cart smiled to see their fun. Then he said sadly, "Dear me, I wish my lit-tle lass could run a-bout like that."

"Is she ill?" asked Car-rie.

"Yes," said the man; "but she is get-ting bet-ter now."

"We'll ask mam-ma to take us to see her," said Bell.

The ver-y next day their mam-ma did take them. They found Ruth sit-ting pil-lowed up in a chair, ver-y pale and white. Bell had picked her a bunch of flow-ers, which she seemed ver-y glad to get; and the three girls soon be-came good friends. Car-ree found a lit-tle gray kitten with which she played.

The vis-it seemed to do Ruth a great deal of good; for a pink flush came in her cheeks, and she e-ven laughed, which her moth-er said she had not done before for weeks.

They came a-gain the ver-y next day. Miss Gray was with them, and car-ried a bas-ket on her arm in which were some dain-ties to tempt the sick girl's ap-pe-tite. She was glad to see them, and told them they should have the kit-ten for their ver-y own. So pus-sy went back in the bas-ket which had brought the dain-ties.

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