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Our Boys
WISHES.
"Star light?star bright,
First star I see to-night
I wish I may?I wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight,"
Sang little Ned, with sparkling eyes
Gazing upward at the sky.
see me stars, now tney snine;
Wish I might have one for mine."
What are they made of, nurele, dear.
I wish that one would fall down here
Upon the ground, so that we
Could examine it and see.
There's the moon, O, nursie, see
It's just as round as it can be!
It's made of cheese, wish that I
Could climb up yonder in the sky
And get a bite, and if 'twas good,
I'd bring you back a bite, I would.
How the stars shine! Wish our light
Would splutter 'round like that at night!
Does Jesus live up in the sky?
O, how I wish?'I wish that I
Could see him once?it would be grand
Perhaps he'd let me kiss his hand.
And then perhaps he might take me
And sit me down upon his knee,
And let me whisper in his ear
To send me back my qpama dear.
And he would listen?I'm sure he would?
O, don't I wish?I wish?-I could!
I wish my papa, after tea,
Would stay at home and play with ime.
I wish I had a brother, O,
This wishing business tires me so!
II am so sleepy," sighed little Ned?
"I wish?I wish?* was?in. bed."
Lexngton, Va. ?K. C. G.
VIRGINIA DARE, THE FIRST AMERICAN
BABY.
BY FRED. MYRON COLBY, IN THE UNITED PRESBY
TERIAN.
Almost three hundred years ago, when Queen
Elizabeth was reigning off in England, a grayhaired,
sour-faced virago, striding about in a
great ruff, jeweled stomacher, and portentous
petticoats, swearing at the old lords of her
council, and boxing the ears of her young courtiers,
the very year that her stiff, withered old
fingers signed the fatal warrant for the execution
of her beautiful rival, Mary Stuart, of
whom she was jealous, there was a baby born
that was a very interesting baby, indeed, for
many reasons. As the young parents bent over
their little wee bit of a girl, they thought there
was not another such baby in the whole wide
world; and there was a grand old man, with
long silvery beard falling over his high ruff and
velvet doublet, who called the little stranger his
darling pet, and kissed her as if she was his
own. But this was not what made the baby
famous.
It was long, long ago, you see, before Jamestown
or Plymouth had been settled, and the
English had not a single settlement upon the
main land of America. But a number of energetic
men at the English court were greatly interested
in colonizing the new land. Foremost
among them wras Sir "Walter Raleigh, of whom
yon have heard that pretty story told, of how
he spread his new velvet cloak in the mud for his
royal mistress to walk over, and who, accordingly,
was high in favor with Queen Elizabeth ever
I'KJSSh Y It Kl&N or 1 E ? fit
and Girls
after. This man, after several trials, at last
fitted out a colony whic^ landed at Roanoke
Island, off the coast of North Carolina, a beautiful
green land full of cedars, sassafras, palms
and flowers, and where the 'birds sang the whole
year round. Annanias and Eleanor Dare, the
father and mother of our baby, were among those
settlers. Their child was born about a month
after the landing of the colonists, August 18th,
1587.
In the little wooden chapel two or three weeks
after the event, the colonists assembled one bright
day to attend the baptism and christening of the
little stranger. The font was the family silver
wash ewer, and the sponsor was Governor White
himself, the baby's grandfather. Thereafter she
was known as Virginia Dare, a sweet and ap
propriate name for this pretty wild flower that
bloomed all alone on that desolate coast.
Little Virginia was the first born of English
parents in America, and she was the only white
baby then living in the northern part of this
continent. I wonder how the little brown pappooses
strapped to their boards felt toward the
pretty paleface stranger, or which thought the
other the most curious.
At Baby Dare's christening there were several
Indians present who had come across from the
adjacent coast, and after the ceremony had been
performed the sachem, a tall, grand-looking .savage
named Manteo, expressed a desire to receive
the sacred sprinkling likewise. His wish was
complied with, and his dusky followers gathered
around with awe-struck faces while the pastor
sprinkled him with water from his fingers and
said a prayer. It must have been a very impressive
scene, and no doubt the savages were greatly
affected by it.
\T.
no sooner was Manteo baptized than he gazed
complacently around and exclaimed:
"Now Manteo is white like palefaces."
The ignoarnt chief had really expected that this
physical transformation would ensue, but when
a looking glass was held before him he turned
away evidently chagrined and disappointed. The
significance of the ceremony was explained to
him, hut the religious rite probably always remained
a mystery to the simple red man.
Pretty little Virginia was just cutting her first
tiny teeth when there came very distressing
times to the colony. There was great need of
.supplies and it was determined to send to "Eng
land for them. So Governor White was obliged
to kiss his grandchild good-by, and very tearfully
sailed away in the single ship the colonists
had. He never saw his little "Virginia again.
It was three years before Governor White returned
to "Roanoke Island. He was kept in England
by the invasion of the Spaniards, and after
the winds and the waves had shattered the dreaded
Armada, it was some time before Raleigh
could get together the men and supplies that were
needed by the far-off colony. At last the ship
was ready and White took his departure, his
heart bounding with joy with the thought of
meeting his daughter and his fairy grand-child.
Rut he had not sailed far when his vessel was
uvertaicen Dy a Spanish cruiser and captured.
"White himself escaped in a boat, and after many
days reached England again. Then he had to
wait for another ship, and the weary old man saw
day after day go bv before he left the chalk
cliffs of Albion behind him. After long, anxious
months, he approached the new land.*
You can fancy how he strained his eyes to
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catch the first signs of life among the green trees.
It was near sunset and he expected to see the
smoke rising from the chimneys and the settlers
hurrying in from the fields and gardens to eat
i vening meal, or el-re crowding down to greet the
long-looked-for arrival. But no such cheering
sight met his eves. There stood the eahiina hut
.hey were deserted. Not a single luiman soul
was visible.
They landed and walked up the grass-grown
paths. Vines and climbers festooned the doorways,
and a herd of deer was feeding on the ripe
melons and cucumbers. A dreary stillness reigned
everywhere. In the home of the settler, Dare,
stood the cradle that had held his little grandchild,
as if she had left it but a moment since.
A miniature shoe that had covered one of those
small feet lay on the floor beside it. That was
all. He tried to find other traces of his old
friends, but though he spent days in the search,
and though other explorers joined in the hunt
for the lost colony, nothing was ever found.
Poor little baby! dear little sweetheart! her
life's path ran over thorny places. But she is
not forgotten, and the children of today will
take her to their hearts, as they might a playmate
whom they had seen for one brief day and
then bade good-toy to forever. Among the
thronging figures of bhat far-away time none has
a greater interest for us than that of the baby
girl, Virginia Dare.
THE "B. O. W. H."
Winthrop Appleton he said his name was,
when he joined the school, and that name together
with his very nice clothes and the fact
that he had come to live in the big house on the
hill, made the other boys in the school a little
shy of him, for fear that he would be
"stuck up."
The truth was that he had never been to a
school before, but had been taught at home,
and the other boys frightened him very much,
and he was quite sure he would be friends with
them all, and he never even dreamed that they
were equally afraid of him.
"How ever will I get to know the boys?"
he asked wistfully of the one friendly boy who
sat beside him in school and walked part of
the way home with him.
"Say, you join the 'B. O. W. H.' and then
they'll all know you, at least all of the best
ones. But you wouldn't join them."
"Wouldn't I? Just try me. But why do you
think I wouldn't?"
" 'Cause they have a president, and you
have to do just as he and one or two others
say; you have to do some funny stunts sometimes,
and I don't believe you'd like to do
some of them."
"But the other boys <lo "them," pleaded
Winthrop.
"Yes, but?er?well, you're sort of swell,
you know, and you wouldn't do some of the
things. I know you wouldn't."
"Swell, nothing!" said Winthrop again.
"Perhaps my clothes are some swell, but my
heart isn't a bit swelled, and I do want the
boys for friends, they all seem to have such
good old times together."
Rnf, Vi'?? 1 1 11
uuc tucuuij' uoy, reponen all tfiis talK
to the president of the "B. 0. W. H.," and as
a result Winthrop was seen a few days later
going down the main street of the village, with
a shovel over his shoulder and a bucket in
his hand.
In this shape he was seen by his aunt, who
held up her gloved hands in horror, saying:
"Winthrop Appleton, where are you going
in that rig, and with that?er?shovel, I suppose
it is, and a pail?"
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