The Kelp Maid's Song
I’m a little kelp maid.
In kelp all arrayed.
And once lived on the billowy wave
Where from morning till night
Through days long and bright
I rode on the crest of the wave.
The smooth rolling crest of the wave.
On a kelp bed at night.
In the soft moonlight.
Sweet lullabies soothed me to sleep.
And through nights beyond compare
Mermaids combing silken hair
Sang lullabies to sooth me to sleep,
Tender lullabies to sooth me to sleep.
But I yearned for the land
With its shores of yellow sand
With a restlessness born of the sea.
As I watched the distant shore
I longed to go there more and more
With that restlessness born of the sea,
That awful restlessness born of the sea.
Till one momentous day
A wave carried me away
To the land where I had always longed to be
To the strip of yellow sand
On the border of the land
The dry land where I’d always longed to be,
The dry land where I’d always longed to be.
But I am not happy yet.
Now I long for the wet.
For the soft soothing dampness of the waves.
My gown once soft and fair to see
Is now as dry as dry can be
Which makes me sigh for the dampness of the waves,
The soft soothing dampness of the waves.
On a bit of kelp I stand
Ever reaching out my hand
Toward the kelp beds so far out at sea
And for the mermaids’ song
I listen all night long
For the songs of the mermaids at sea.
Round the kelp beds far out at sea.
Though I am doom’d to stay
On this dry land far away
My heart ever turns toward the sea
For my awful discontent
My life in dryness must be spent
While my heart ever turns toward the sea,
Turns longingly out toward the sea.
Morning-Glory Ladies
MORNING-GLORY ladies were made by slipping a flower cup upside down over the stem of a seed pod, leaving the pod for a head. Morning-glory ladies always died young. Indeed, they hardly lived at all.
The spirits of these lost flower children were not only seen in the sunset skies but in the rainbow, too. And when the little Wests saw the great, beautiful bow in the sky, they always repeated the words of old Nokomis to Hiawatha:
“’Tis the heaven of flowers you see there,
All the wild flowers of the forest,
All the lilies of the prairie,
When on earth they fade and perish
Blossom in that heaven above us.”
Jack O’Lanterns
THE children planted pumpkin seeds early in the season and hoed and cared for the vines themselves, that they might have their own pumpkins for Hallowe’en, and what fun they had with them! And how delightfully scarey they were, when made into Jack O’Lanterns! Some one said they were pumpkin ghosts.
Two dreadful ones were placed on the gate posts to frighten Papa when he came home after dark. He guessed right away who had put them there.
Others were carried about on poles with sheets hanging about them, in solemn procession.
Pumpkin Pies
NOT all of the pumpkins were used for Jack O’Lanterns, though. Some were given to Mamma to make into delicious pumpkin pies.
Poor little Tom ate too much of the pies, and his greediness made him have frightful dreams and a terrible pain in his stomach.
The verses Cousin Charlotte and the others made about his dream made greedy Tom feel very much ashamed.
Jack O’Lantern Dreams
Once a greedy little boy
Ate too much pumpkin pie at night,
And the awful dreams he had
Made his hair stand up in fright.
Dreadful grinning pumpkin faces
Crowded all around his bed,
And every grinning pumpkin face
Showed a fire inside the head.
“We are ghosts,” the faces shouted,
“Of the pumpkins in those pies,
If you had not been so greedy,
We would not before you rise.”
Then the dreadful firelit faces
Faded slowly out of sight,
But the awful pain inside him
Lasted nearly all the night.
Rastus Prune
RASTUS was a peculiar looking negro, with wrinkled face and goggle eyes.
Paper teeth with a red lip line running around them were fitted into a wrinkle of his prune face and fastened by a touch of mucilage. His paper eyes were fastened on in the same way.
With a light paper vest neatly fitted over his prune body and a paper collar round his peg neck he was as neat a colored gentleman as could be found anywhere.
Then his chamois-skin suit with hat to match, gave him such style as any one might be pleased to copy.
His checked trousers were his special pride, for they never bagged at the knees or got out of shape in any way. On this account he was perfectly satisfied to be a peg-leg.
His feet, though, gave him some trouble. They were always getting out of shape. Being made of raisins, an ordinary step was likely to make them swing round and look as though they would prefer to take him the other way.
But Rastus smiled on, thinking, no doubt, that this apparent deformity would prove a great convenience when it came to dancing a “backstep.”
Dinah Prune
DINAH, the mother of Rastus, was just a plain sensible colored woman, wearing a dark gown, and a bandana head dress.
Like most colored women of her age, she always wore a neat kerchief folded across her breast, and a large apron to protect her gown.
Though she was no beauty, she was good. All who knew her liked her, and the same might be said of her son.
Like him, she was made of prunes and toothpicks, and stood on raisin feet.
Pipe Dolls
Not all the dolls made by these children were of fruits, flowers and vegetables. In fact it was a poor scrap that they could not make into a satisfactory plaything. And not only the little Wests enjoyed them but Mamma was just as much interested in the making as were the children themselves.
One evening a little party of friends was gathered together at Hollyhock Place and for amusement Mamma gave each a clay pipe, a lead pencil, a square of white and a square of colored tissue paper and requested each guest to dress the pipe for a doll.
To some this, at first, seemed impossible. One or two gentlemen asked to be excused, but when they saw the others meeting with such success they, too, became interested and went to work. Nearly all used needles and thread, but a few were most successful with mucilage to hold their materials together.
It was funny to see the different expressions on those pipe faces. No two of them looked the least bit alike.
The minister’s wife did not use her colored paper at all, but from the white she made a long baby dress with a big bow in the back and a white cap with another big bow was made to cover the head. This baby had the tiniest little eyes, nose and mouth you could imagine.
Another lady made a clown of her pipe, using orange paper for his clown suit and pasting white circles all over it. This was a neater clown than one ever seeks in a circus, for he wore the freshest of white ruffles at his neck, wrists and ankles. The bump at the bottom of the pipe made the funniest of chin whiskers for this queer creature who could not keep from laughing at himself—and no wonder.
One of the ladies made her pipe into an old lady doll with folded kerchief and great tall cap. In this one the bump at the bottom of the pipe served as a nose—a large, ill shaped one to be sure, but a very good nose for all that.
A very dignified gentleman who was present said he always liked to see a lady wear a sun-bonnet, so he drew a face inside of his pipe and made lines outside for “slats” that used to be put in old fashioned sun-bonnets. A woman who would wear a sun-bonnet would, of course, wear an apron, so a large white apron was put on this doll. Her face was a pretty one, but her hands were large and clumsy, showing that she had done hard work in her day.
These last two dolls wore several full petticoats which enabled them to stand up like real people.
There were a number of other good ones, but why tell you about them, for I am sure you can make some just as good as the best of these.