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The .Robber Kitten.
I,
A kitten once to its mother said :
I’ll never more be good ;
But I’ll go and be a robber fierce,
And live in a dreary wood,
Wood, wood, wood,
And live in a dreary wood,”
ii.
It climbed a tree to rob a nest
Os young and tender owls.
But the branch broke off, and the kitten fell,
With six tremendous howls !
Howls, howls, howls,
With six tremendous howls !
hi.
Then up it rose, and scratched its nose,
And went home very sad :
“ Oh ! mother, dear, behold me here,
I’ll'never more be bad,
Bad, bad, bad,
I'll never more be bad.”
THE LITTLE FLOWER GOODNESS.
A FAIRY TALE.
BY FANNY FIELDING.
IGNONETTE will fetch
water,” said Grand
mamma Goodenough,
lii “ she is always ready to
* accommodate us.”
The little girls were spending a
holiday at “ Goodenough Home,”
Inpj the kin children and a few other
ff companions, who belonged to the
village school. They were very happy
and bright in their white cambric dresses,
their flower-garlands, their pleasant play,
and beside, there were plenty of straw
berries and cream to come.
The group looked as if they didn’t
want to be hindered, though, to go on the
errand down to the spring-house under
the hill.
Quick as thought, little Mignonette
stepped out of the circle, she
always was, caught up the cedar pail
with its burnished hoops, and went laugh
ing away. I can almost see her now,
with her meek brown eyes and cherry
cheeks, her feet looking like pink wax,
beneath her short dress, as she tripped
along. Down she went, over the sloping
green, sprinkled with dandelion and but
tercups till it looked as if a shower of
gold had fallen there.
The children went on playing at
“ Thread the Needle” and “Hunt my
Lady’s Slipper. ” When Mignonette
came back they were to have the garden
gates and the strawberry beds opened to
them ; but they little thought what was
going on with their absent playmate all
that time.
The spring bubbled up beautiful and
clear, and there was a grey stone house
built over it.
Here “Grandmamma,” as all the vil
lage children used to call her, kept her
BTJRKE’S WEEKLY.
milk and butter cool and sweet. There
was green velvet moss on the rocks that
lay around and in the stream that flowed
from the spring, and there was an honey
suckle twined on an oak that grew be
side the door ; so, altogether you may see
it was a very enchanting place.
The children knew the spot well, in
deed they had been there once to-day to
play, but now that it looked like work,
and those pleasant games were going on
in the yard, it was another thing to leave
them and go.
That’s the reason they didn’t look will
ing (they didn’t refuse,) when “ Grand
mamma” wished the water brought.
How do you think the old lady knew
Mignonette would go cheerfully to do her
bidding? Just because Mignonette had
never been known to refuse any kindness
to anybody, when only her own personal
convenience was to be consulted.
Well, in that pretty retreat I have told
you about, the little girl had filled her
pail with crystal water and was just go
ing to take it on her head, w~hen an invis
ible voice said softly, “Stop!”
Mignonette stopped sure enough, and
she looked up and down to see where the
sound came from, but could discover no
thing.
“Maybe they weren’t speaking to me,”
she said to herself; so she placed the
bucket of w r ater on her head and came
out from under the rock roof. Moving
off a step, she heard again, “Stop child.”
The tones were like music on little sil
ver bells, rung by the wind.
“ I called you just now,” the voice con
tinued, “to see if you would be obedient
to the last. I was more than pleased to
see you so prompt. I am the fairy w r ho
has attended you from your birth. You
have learned the right way, and now I,
having other work to do, must take my
leave of you. I shall give you a little
keepsake, w T hich, if you always wear in
your bosom, you will never depart from
the work begun in you.”
While she had been saying these words
Mignonette caught sight of a tiny figure
of a woman, (no larger sized, indeed, than
a large doll,) clad all in green, so that
Mignonette could, at first, scarce distin
guish her from the moss-covered stone
on which she sat. As tho little figure
rose up, however, there was an air of
majesty about it, and the lovely face was
surrounded with sunny curls that looked
like rays of light. Beautifully serene was
the countenance, and on the fairy head
gleamed a crown of minute diamonds that
sparkled and glowed as she now stood
fanning herselt with a honeysuckle blos
som.
“Bend down,” she said, for she had
beckoned Mignonette to her.
The child knelt while the fairy lifted a
spray, (it was as much as she could lift,
but only an ordinary sized cluster of
flowers, such as one would wear,) and
clasped them fast on her bosom.
“It is the little flower Goodness,” she
said, “cherish and guard it well,” and
she disappeared.
Mignonette looked around a little and
almost thought she had been dreaming,
but she bore in mind that the water was
being waited for and now hurried along
with her “good-luck” piece in her bosom.
What was her surprise, and that of the
other children, and all who saw her as
she w T ent back up the hill and to the
house, to see the birds come down off the
bushes to meet her and sing their blithest
songs along her path ! More than this,
the flowers all bowed and nodded on their
stalks, and gave out sweeter and sweeter
perfume at every motion. And for pretty
Mignonette, there was a brighter lustre
still on her face, and she looked so lovely
and calm the children all cried out —
“ Some day Mignonette will have a pair
of wings grow out and fly clear away
from us, up to the land of the sun and
blue sky.”
All this came of wearing the little
flower that wasn’t showy at all, but
which gave out a great deal of fragrance
and beauty, too, indeed. Its blossoms
were the purest, fadeless white, and its
leaves evergreen, but at times, when the
wearer was much animated, planning or
performing some kind or merciful work,
the delicate petals glowed like some hon
est living face all a-flame with deep feel
ing.
Mignonette grew to womanhood, and
never ceased to wear the fairy gift in her
bosom, so that I wouldn’t w T onder if the
childrens’ prophecy had been fulfilled,
and a pair of wings had taken her up to
the far-away land of blue sky and sun
shine before now.
Will not tho readers of this story seek
to gather (for they can) and adorn them
selves with the little flower Good
ness ?
Norfolk, Va.
♦#«-
Contraries.— People say they shell
peas when they unshell them; that they
husk corn when they unhusk it; that
they dust furniture when they undust it,
or take the dust from it; that they skin
a calf when they unskin it; and that they
scale fishes when they unscale them. —
Many men say they are going to weed
their gardens, when thoir gardens are
weedy enough already.