RAINDROPS
Little Pit and Little Pat
Come out in stormy weather;
They chase each other down the pane
And then run off together.
TOODLES' MISHAP.
BY ASTON MOORE
oodles was dreadfully meddlesome. He could not leave things alone. If you took the slippers away from him, he tried to eat the mat. If you put the mat outside the door, he tore the corner of the tablecloth. And when the cloth was folded up, he sharpened his teeth on the legs of the table.
One evening he learned a lesson which made him a better dog. He was shut in the kitchen, to keep him out of mischief. The plates and dishes were on the shelves out of reach. There was no carpet on the floor. And his sharp teeth could not do much harm to the plain deal legs of the chairs and table.
But there was a lighted candle in a tall brass candlestick upon the table. Toodles scrambled onto a chair, jumped to the table, and tried to bite the candlestick. He could not break or tear it, but he soon knocked it over, and the candle rolled to the floor, where it lay burning in a pool of grease. Toodles ran to play with the candle. Next moment, he was racing round the room, screaming with pain and fright. He had burned his paw.
If he is mischievous now, you have only to show him a lighted candle. It makes him quiet and good at once.
THE DOOR OF SPRING.
BY HELEN M. RICHARDSON
April unlocks the door of spring,
And soon you'll hear a robin sing.
A bluebird perched upon a tree
Will woo his mate. Perchance you'll see
An early redwing, if you go
Down to the swamp where catkins grow.
For April warden is, of all
The things that went to sleep, last fall.
Just where the field mouse and the toad
Have burrowed; where, beside the road,
The grasshopper and katydid
All winter have been safely hid;
And when the bumblebee will come
A-booming back with pleasant hum?
April can tell you, for 'tis she
Opens the door that sets them free.
ADOPTING A GRANDMOTHER.
BY MARY STARR CONEY
"Oh, Eloise! Where are you going?" Marjorie Blake rushed down the steps as she caught sight of her friend dressed in her very best clothes and carrying a small valise.
"Guess where! It's the best place in the whole world!"
"Away on the train?" questioned Marjorie eagerly.
"Of course. My grandma doesn't live here. Goodness! I told you!" laughed Eloise. "Would you have guessed?"
"No, for I didn't know you had a grandma."
"Why, of course, I have! Haven't you?"
"No, Eloise."
"How awful!" Eloise dropped the valise in her dismay. "Why, Fannie Green has two. I've only one, but she is the sweetest, beautifulest grandma you ever saw. I'm awfully sorry you haven't got one. But here comes mamma, so good-by."
After Eloise had gone away, Marjorie walked slowly back to the house. She had never felt the loss of a grandmother before, but now it weighed heavily upon her.
"If grandmas are so nice, it does seem as if I ought to have one," she said to herself, "'specially as some little girls have two!" Marjorie sat down on the steps and with heavy heart thought over the situation.
At last a plan suggested itself and she sprang to her feet.
"When Aunt Mary didn't have any little girl and wanted one; she went to an orphan asylum and adopted one. Why can't I adopt a grandma?" Marjorie asked herself excitedly. "I never heard of an asylum of grandmas, but that doesn't matter! I want only one, and surely somewhere there must be one for me."
The child looked across the street. The family in the third house were strangers who had moved in a few days before. Marjorie was playing in the yard when they came, and she remembered seeing an old lady go into the house. There weren't any children over there, she knew, for she had watched eagerly for some to appear, but none had. Maybe she could get this old lady to be her grandma.
The little girl rushed across the street and rang the door bell. Then her heart began a loud beating. S'pose the old lady shouldn't want to be adopted and should act cross? The child had half a minute to run away before anyone came to the door. But that would be cowardly and Marjorie detested a coward, so she decided to stand her ground.
At last the door opened, and Marjorie looked up eagerly, into the face of a kind grandmotherly looking old lady standing there.
"Good-morning!" The old lady smiled invitingly at the child, who stood there with flushed cheeks and happy brown eyes. "Did you want something of me, dear?"
"Yes'm," replied Marjorie, catching her breath, "I want to adopt you!"
"To adopt me! Why, dear child, what do you mean?"
"I want to adopt you for my grandma. You see, I haven't even one grandma and some little girls have two. I don't think that's fair, do you?"
"No, really that doesn't seem fair," answered the old lady, her eyes twinkling with amusement.