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2^ " T]
The Family
THE CHILDREN'S CITIES.
By Elizabeth Sara Shepard.
(The Christian Register reprints
front the "Atlantic Monthly" for July.
1SG2, the one story for children printed
itt the '"Atlantic's" pages. Il was one
of the last productions of a young English
writer, Elizabeth Sara* Shepard,
precocious author, a few yVars earlier.
of the musical romance, "Charles Auchester."
much admired by American readers
in its day.)
There was a certain king who had
three sons, and who. loving 4hem all
alike, desired to leave them to reign
over his kingdom as brothers, and not
one above another.
His kingdom consisted of thr?e beautiful
cities, divided by valleys covered with
(lowers and full of glass, the cities lying
so near together thai from the walls of
each you could see the walls of the
other two. The first city was called
J lie city of Wesson land, the second the
city of Confection, and tlie third the
city of Pastime.
The king, feeling himself very eld and
feeble, sent for the lawyers to write
his will that his children might know
how lie wished them to behave after he
was dead.
So the lawyers came to the palace and
went into the king's bedroom, where he
lay in liis golden bed, and the will was
drawn up as lie desired.
One day, not long after the will was
made, the kinsr's fool was Irvine in nmiic
a boat of a leaf to sail upon the silver
liver. And the fool thought the paper
on which the will was written would
make a better boat?for he could not
read what was written; so he ran to the
palace quickly, and, knowing where it
was laid, he got the will and made a
boat of it and set it upon the river,
where away it floated out of sight. Soon
after this the king died without telling
his sons what he wished them to do.
Now the princes were very good little
persons, at least they had not yet been
naughty and had never quarreled, so the
child-people were pleased with the
thought of having the princes for their
rulers, but knew not how to arrange it.
Then the eldest prince, whose name was
Gentil, called his brothers to him and
said:
"1 am quite sure, though there is no
will, that our royal papa built three cities
mat we mignt eacn nave one to reign
over and not one reign over all. Therefore,
I will have you each, dear brothers,
choose a city to govern, and 1 will
govern the city you do not choose."
His brothers danced for joy, and the
people, too, were pleased; for they loved
all the three princes. Hut there.were
not enough people in the kingdom to fill
more than one city quite full. Was not
this very odd? Gentil thought so; but,
as he could not make out the reason, he
said to the child-people:
"I will count you and divide you into
three groups, and each group shall go
to one city." *
For, before the king had built the
cities, the child-people had lived in the
* r
?E PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU'
{..toon valleys and slept on beds of
t.owors.
So .loujou, the second prince, chose the
city oi i astime; r.onbon, the youngest
piince, the city of Confection; and the
cit* of Lessonland was left for Prince
dentil, who took possession of it directly.
The city of Lessonland was built of
hooks all books, and only books. The
walls were books, set i lose like bricKs.
and the bridges over the rivers (which
were very blue) were built of books in
arches, and there were books to pave
the roads and paths, and the doors of
the houses were books with golden letters
on the outside. The palace of
Prince Gentil was built of the largest
books, all bound in scarlet and green
and purple and blue and yellow. And
inside the palace all the loveliest pictures
were hlinfr Him.. It." .. "11 1 1
? u,.uu . lie nulla illl H Hie U it 11(1"
romest maps; and in bis library were,
one would iliink, all the lesson-books, and
all the story books in the world. Directly
Gentil began to reign, he said to himself:
"What are all these books for? They
must mean that we are to learn, and to
become very clever, in order to be good.
I wish to be very clever and to make my
people clever, so 1 must set them a good
example,"
And he called together all his childpeople.
who would do anything for the
love of hint, and he said, "If we mean
to he of any use in the world, we must
learn, learn, learn, and read, read, read,
f.ut always he doing lessons."
And they said they would,, to please
him; and they all gathered together in
the palace council chamber, and Gentil
ret them tasks, and they all went home
to learn them while he learned his in
the palace.
Now let us see how Joujou is getting
on. He was a good prince, Joujou, oh so
fond of fun? as you may believe from his
wuwu.-wus iue iny 01 rasume. un, mat
city of Pastime! liow unlike the city of
dear, dull Lessonland! The walls of thb
city of Pastime were beautiful toy bricks,
painted all the colors of the rainbow;
and the streets of the city were filled
with carriages just big enough for childpeople
to drive in, and little gigs and
music-carts and post-chaises that ran
along by clock-work, and such rocking
norses: And mere was not to be found
a book in the whole city, but the houses
were crammed with toys from the top
to the bottom?tops, hoops, balls, battledoi
es, bows and arrows guns, peep-shows,
drums and trumpets, marbles, ninepins,
tumblers, kites, and hundreds upon hundreds
more; for there you found, if I may
say so. every kind of toy that ever was
made in the world, besides thousands
of large wax dolls, all in different court
uresse3. Anci airectiy Joujou began to
reign. he said to himself:
"What are all these toys for? They
ir?n?t mean that we are to play always,
that we may be always happy. I wish
to be very happy, and that my people
shall be liappy always. Won't I set them
an example!"
And Joujou blew a penny trumpet, and
got on the back of the largest rockinghorse
and rocked with all his might and
cried:
"Child-people, you are to play always;
for in all the city of Pastime you see
TH. March 31, 1909.
nothing but toys'!"
The child-people did not waft long.
Some jumped on rocking-horses, some
drove off in carriages, and some in gigs
and music carts and organs were
piayed and Leils King and shuttlecocks
and kites flew up to the blue sky, and
there was laughter, laughter. In all the
streets of Pastime.
A awl " 1 1
... .. ...... .li i nit' isonuon. liow is he
geltingon? He was a clear Utile fat
fellow?bill, ob, so fond of sweets! as
yon may believe Iroiu bis choosing the
city of Conieilion. And there were no
books in Conteclion, and 110 toys; but the
walls were built of gingerbread, and the
bridges of sugar thai glittered in the sun.
Rivers ran with grape-juice through the
aim unrisimas trees grew along
the banks, with candy and almonds and
golden nuts on the branches; and in
every house the tables were made of
sweet brown chocolate, and there were
great plum cakes on the tables, and
little cakes, and all sorts of cakes. When
Bonbon first sat on his throne, lie did
not think much about it, but began to
eat directly, and called out with his
mouth full:
"Child-people, eat alwavs' fo?* ??? >"
?ho city of Confection there is nothing
hn( cakes and sweets."
And did not the child-people fall to.
and eat at once, and eat on, and eat
always, as long as they could?
Now, by this time what has happened
to Gentil? For we left him in the city of
l,essonland. All the first day he learned
the lessons he had set himself, and the
people learned theirs too, and they ail
cante to Gentil in the evening to say them
to the prince. Rut by the time Gentil
had heard all the lessons, he was very,
very tired, so tired that ho foil asleep
on the throne: ami wh?n
, , .. ,i^ nnunc IIIC
next morning, behold! there were all his
people asleep on the floor. He looked
at his watch and found it was very late,
and he woke up the people, crying with a
very loud voice:
"It is very late, good people!"
And the people jumped up and rubbed
"their eyes, and cried:
"We have been learning always, and
we can no longer seh to read, the letters
uauw oeiore our eyes."
And all the child-people groaned, and
cried very bitterly behind their books.
Then Gentil said:
"I will read to you. good people, and
that will rest your eyes."
And he read them a delightful story
about animals; but, when he stopped to
show them a picture of a lion, the people
were all asleep. Then Gentil grew
angry, and cried in a loud voice:
"Wake up, idle people, and listen!"
But, when the people woke up, they
were stupid, and sat like cats and sulked.
So Gentil put the book away, and sent
them home, giving them each a long
task for rudeness. The child-people went
away; but, as they found only books at
home, they went to sleep without learn
iiiK the'r tasks. And air the fifth day
they slept. Hut on the sixth day Gentil
went out to see what they were doing;
and they began to throw their books
about, and a book knocked Prince Gentil
in the head and hurt him so much that
he was obliged to go to bed. While he
was in bed. the little people negan to