The First Little Pet Book with Ten Short Stories in Words of Three and Four Letters
TekstBEN AND SUE, AND THE SEE-SAW
Can you go out to the see-saw to-day?" Sue did say to Ben.
"O yes, yes! Let me see if mam-ma will let us. Yes, we can go: so you put on a hat, and let me get my cap, and we can run all the way."
Ben got his cap off of the peg, and Sue got her hat out of a box; and the two ran off. Tip, the big dog, ran too.
On the top of the see-saw sat an old cat; she sat on it, to try to spy out a rat, who had hid. The cat did not see Tip; and, I am sad to say, he was now a bad dog; for he ran at her, and bit her in the leg.
The cat put up her paw to hit Tip, and Tip bit her in her ear; and the cat had to run off with a m-e-w! O my! was not Tip a bad dog?
And now Sue and Ben got on the see-saw. Sue did go up, up, up, and Ben did go up, up, up. And it was fun! Was it not?
Tip had his fun too, for he saw the rat. It had hid in a box by the see-saw, and the cat did not see it; but Tip did; and oh! how he did fly at it! He got it in his paw and bit it, so it did die. The rat did not say it was fun to be out at the see-saw, as Ben and Sue did. O no! It was no fun at all to be bit, and to die. Was it?
And now the sun was hot, and Ben and Sue got off the see-saw and ran up to the old red cow, to see her eat hay, and out to the pig sty to see the old fat pig, who ate all day.
"O my!" Sue did say, "see how fat the pig is! All she can do is to eat all day. I can not eat all day; can you Ben?"
"Why, no," Ben did say, "but I can eat one big pie in a day."
"Oh! so can I! Let us go in and ask mam-ma for a pie to eat now."
So the two ran, and Tip ran. And mam-ma had a pie; she cut it up for Sue and Ben to eat, and they did hop for joy and eat it all up.
"Did they? No! I can not say so, for Ben gave Tip, the dog, a big bit; and Sue did too. Ben was not a pig, and Sue was not a pig. So, you see, the two did not eat as the pig did; no! for Tip had his bit too.
Out on the log
The sly old cat
Did sit all day,
To get a rat.
But Tip, the dog,
Did run at her,
And in his paw
He got her fur.
She had to fly,
The sly old cat;
And now the dog
Has got the rat.
THE HEN AND FOX
My own fat hen
Did go one day
Out in the lot,
An egg to lay.
The day was hot;
A cow sat by,
And in her ear
Was a big fly.
"Buz, buz, buz, buz,"
The fly did go,
In the cow's ear,
And bit it so.
The cow did say,
"O moo! O moo!
Do go a-way,
O do! O do!
"Go to the pig,
You bad old fly,
Get out! get out!
O moo! O my!"
It did not go,
The bad old fly;
And now it lit
In the cow's eye.
Up she did hop!
And ran a-way;
And now my hen
Her egg did lay.
But oh! oh! oh!
A sly red fox,
Who was all hid
In an old box,
Did get my hen
And get her egg,
Tho' she did cry,
And she did beg.
But the red fox,
O me! O my!
He bit and bit,
So she did die.
He ate her up
In his old den:
He ate her up,
My own fat hen.
And I so sad
All day, did spy
To see the bad
Red fox go by.
I set a net,
And oh! I saw
The bad red fox
Put in his paw.
Now he did cry,
And he did beg,
But no! I had
Him by the leg.
To let him go
Was not to be,
And our old Dan
Did say to me:
"O the bad fox!
As I say 'one,'
I'll hit him – pop!
Out of my gun."
The fox did die,
And my new hen
Can lay an egg,
Or two, or ten.
For now no fox
Can eat my hen,
Or get her egg,
Or two, or ten.
BEN AND BOB
One day Ben did go up to his pa-pa, and say: "O pa-pa! my cap is so old, it is not fit to be put on; do buy me a new one!"
His pa-pa did say: "If you are not bad all day, I can say 'yes' to you, but if you are bad, the old cap will do for a bad boy."
But Ben was not bad; so his pa-pa got him the cap. It had fur on it. Ben put it on; and as it fit him, he ran out in the air, and did cry as he ran: "See my new cap! see my new cap!"
Far off, by an old log, he saw a fat hen. She was by her nest. In it was an egg. Ben ran up to her, and he did cry, "Sho! sho! sho!" till she did fly off. So he got the old hen's egg, and put it in the top of his cap. As he did so a boy ran up to him. It was Bob. "Hal-lo," Bob did say. "How do you do, Ben?" and he hit him a tap on the top of his cap. He did not see Ben put the egg in his cap; and, O my! the egg did go pop!! and it ran in his ear and his eye, and all on him from top to toe. His new cap was all egg too.
So you see how bad it was in him not to let the old fat hen and her egg be.
But he did not care a bit; for he and Bob ran off to see the men mow the hay. It lay in the hot sun to dry.
Bob lay on the hay, and the sun was so hot, that the end of his nose got red, and a big dog who was by the men saw the end of his nose, and ran and made a snap at it to eat it. But Ben did hop up, and he and Bob ran off.
Ben did go in to his mam-ma and say: "O mam-ma! we are so hot and so dry! do let us get a pie to eat and a big tin mug of wa-ter; and oh! may we put a big bit of ice in the tin mug?"
His mam-ma did say, Yes; and so Ben and Bob did eat the pie and had a lot of fun; for Ben bit his pie to look like a cat who had one leg, and Bob bit his pie in-to a dog who had one ear. He ate it all up; and Bob did say he had a dog-pie, and Ben had a cat-pie. Was it not fun?
But his pa-pa did say to him: "Why, Ben, how did you get all the egg on you?"
O how red Ben was! But he did not say a lie. O no! He did say: "Pa-pa, I got an egg and put it in the top of my new cap, but Bob did not see it, and he did tap the top of my cap, and the egg did go pop! all on me, and the top of my new cap is all egg. How can I get it off?"
His pa-pa was full of joy, as his son did not say a lie, and he did try to get all the egg off of the new cap. And now Ben and Bob ran off, and Ben had a lot of fun, for he was not bad; O no! he was a boy who did not say a lie, and so he had joy and fun all day. If you are not bad, you can have joy and fun too. You are my pet, so I get all the wee wee w-o-r-d-s I can, to put in-to this book for you; and if I can see you one day and kiss you, I can have joy
Too, too, too;
If I can see you, you, you:
Will you come? Oh! do, do, do!1
I will let you hop, hop, hop,
Run or spin your top, top, top,
Get a gun and pop, pop, pop.
Go out in the sun, sun, sun,
With my kit to run, run, run:
Will we not have fun, fun, fun?
You can see my cat, cat, cat,
And her soft fur pat, pat, pat —
She is on the mat, mat, mat.
Out on the old rug, rug, rug,
Is my pet dog Pug, Pug, Pug —
Give him a good hug, hug, hug.
If you stub your toe, toe, toe,
When to him you go, go, go,
You will come to woe, woe, woe.
It will hurt you so, so, so,
You will cry: "Oh oh! oh oh!
Is my toe off?" "No, no, no;
"For I see it yet, yet, yet;
Here it is, my pet, pet, pet;
But your face is wet, wet, wet.
"O my dear! don't cry, cry, cry;
Kiss me now, and try, try, try
To be good as pie, pie, pie.
"I will wipe your eye, eye, eye,
Make it nice and dry, dry, dry,
Just like the blue sky, sky, sky.
"Do not look so shy, shy, shy,
As your hat I tie, tie, tie;
O dear me! oh! why, why, why
"Must you go? O my! my! I
Want you till I die, die, die.
Mam-ma, let me buy, buy, buy
"My dear pet." "O fie! fie! fie!
How you talk! Can I, I, I
Give her up, and hie, hie, hie
"To my home, to sigh, sigh, sigh,
With no dear pet nigh, nigh, nigh,
In my arms to lie, lie, lie?
"No; come, pet, be spry, spry, spry;
Give a jump up high, high, high;
Kiss, and say, Good-by, by, by."