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IO THE PRESBYTERIAI
For the Children
THE NAUGHTY PARROT.
Once there was a little girl who spent the summer days
With sheep and cows and pigeons and horses out to graze,
And other gentle comrades. They all had pleasant ways
Except a horrid parrot with a very brilliant head.
Who never made polite remarks, but always moaned instead,
"Oh, ah, wah! Ah, hoop-bah! I?don't?want to go to bed"!
Now all these other animals were very, very good;
They neighed or they brayed, or they crowed or purred or
mooed;
Thev barked or thev or thov ?
cooed;
Hut still that hateful parrot, he dropped his gaudy head.
And with a twinkle in his eye he dolorously said.
"Oh, ah, wah! Ah( hoop-ball! 1?don't?want to go to bed"!
?Exchange.
UP TO MISCHIEF.
Phillis, Eunice, Helen, Louis and Joe were great
friends, and although they were usually quite good,
they were apt to get into mischief, like most children.
One merrv ennnv / )-> 1- tliov "'1 'L
v.u_. VIIVJ ?*.!?. ail lU^ClllCI llll IIIC
little bridge which crossed the creek, not far from
their houses.
"Look," cried Phyllis suddenly. "There are crabs
in the water?three, four, five?lots of them !"
The children leaned over the railing and looked cfown
into the clear water. "I wish we could catch some
and keep them for pets," said Joe.
"Funny kind of pets!" Eunice laughed. "Would
you tic ribbons and bells around their necks, like kittens?"
"You couldn't, you know." explained Helen. "They
haven't any necks, exactly."
"I have an idea!" cried Louis. "There's an old
crab net up in our barn, and I'll go and get it, and
some meat and string, and we'll fish for crabs."
nu 1 -a.'- ! ' - J Til *? t
vyii. icin: crieu rnyms, wno was always
ready for something interesting. So Louis ran off
and in a short while came back with the crab net and
meat and basket. "All you have to do," he explained,
/'is to tie the meat on a string and let it, down into
the water. Then, when the crab catches hold of it,
you pull him up softly to the top of the water, and
somebody else takes the crab net and scoops him up."
It was very exciting. Louis let down the meat,
and almost at once a big crab caught hold of it!
Slowly, Louis pulled him up to the edge of the water,
and in another instant Joe had caught him in the
net and dumped him into the basket.
All the afternoon the children kept on catching
crab after crab, till they had seventeen. Then the
sun began to sink, and the shadows stretched out long
S !_J
anu wciru.
"We must go home. It's supper time," said Helen.
"J wonder," said Louis, slowly jiggling the crabs
in the basket, "if mother will let us keep the crabs
for pets?"
"I don't believe she will," Helen answered, shak
ing tier head doubtfully.
Louis wrinkled his forehead in thought for a moment.
"I will put them into my wash-bowl V* he exclaimed.
joyfully, "and we won't say anything about
4 OF THE SOUTH. September 15, 1909.
tliem for a day or two. We'll wait until we can tell
mother and father what good crabs they are, and
what nice manners they have, and how they are no
trouble at all. Come on home. We'll go in at the
hack door and take the basket up to my room before
any one sees us."
So they went home, and slipped quietly in at the
kitchen door of the gray stone house. When they
were up in tHe room that Louis'and Joe shared, they
shook the crabs out of the basket into the wash-bowl.
"They won't be any trouble at all," said Joe, confidently,
and then they heard some one coming and
scurried downstairs.
That night Mrs. Darey was surprised to find both
boys quite ready to go upstairs when bed-time came.
Usually they begged and begged to stay up just a
few minutes longer. They found their crabs crawling
restlessly around in the wash-bowl, trying to get
acquainted with their strantre new home. Louis anrl
Joe watched them awhile, and then went to bed and
slept peacefully.
When Louis awoke in the morning, the first thing
he noticed, as he lazily opened one eye, was something
moving slowly across the floor. He rubbed
his eyes and looked closer. "Oh!" he cried, sitting
up in bed, "it's a crab."
"A what.1"' asked Joe, sleepily.
"One of those crabs," replied Louis, excitedly. "It
has crawled out of the wash-bowl. Look and see if
there are any more around."
"Yes!" cried Joe. sitting up. "There's another by
the bureau!" Then he stood up in bed and looked
over at the wash-bowl. "There's only one left in the
bowl; there must be sixteen crabs crawling around
the room!"
"Time to get up!" called Mr. Darcy's voice outside
the door. "Are you boys awake?"
"Yes, father," said Joe, truthfully; but he did not
jump up, and neither did Louis.
"I don't care to get up just yet, do you?" said '
Louis. "You can't tell when you might put your foot
011 a crah, with sixteen loose."
Joe plunged down again 011 the bed and pulled the
cover over hi in. "They couldn't climb up the legs
of the bed, could they?" he asked. "O-o-o?there's
another crawling into your shoe, and there's the last
one of all coming out of the wash-bowl! There
he goes plump on the floor!"
"Wish we hadn't gone crabbing," sighed Louis,
mournfully.
"Are you boys getting up?" called Mr. Darcy again.
"X-no," quivered Louis.
vvny not r" asked Mr. Darcy.
"'Cause we're 'fraid to!" wailed Joe.
"Afraid to get up! Nonsense!" said Mr. Darcy,
and he opened the door and went in.
"Look out, father, the room's full of crabs!" cried
Louis.
"Crabs!" echoed Mr. Darcy, astonished. %
"Seventeen of them," said Toe. "We had them
in the wash-bowl, and they got out."
"Seventeen crabs in this room!" exclaimed Mr.
Darcy, and he went away at once. In a few minutes
he came back with a pair of tongs and a shovel.
"Where are they?" he asked.