Loe raamatut: «Dew Drops, Vol. 37, No. 17, April 26, 1914», lehekülg 5
ON ACCOUNT OF THE BUNNIES.
BY EMMA C. DOWD
Pauline looked through the picket fence and scowled.
"Oh, those poor little rabbits!" she whispered to herself. "I don't believe that boy has fed them this morning. And now he's gone off to play ball. It is a shame!" She glanced under the grape arbor, where some chickweed was growing luxuriantly, and for a minute she hesitated. The next, she was down among the chickweed, pulling it up by the handful.
She approached the fence again, looked cautiously around, to make sure nobody was in sight, and then thrust the green stuff between the pickets.
That first time of Pauline's feeding the rabbits was followed by a second and a third, and finally it came to be a common thing for her to peer through the fence to see if they were supplied with food, and if not to carry them a good meal.
One morning Pauline was feeding them with celery tips, and, having become a bit careless, stopped to see them enjoy their feast. When she looked up she was disconcerted to see their owner watching her—only a few feet away.
"I beg your pardon," she began, hesitatingly, "but I just thought I'd bring your rabbits a little celery." And she turned to go.
"Oh—I say—wait a minute!" he returned, as her foot touched the fence. "So it's you that's been feeding them, is it? The fact is, I—forgot, you know."
"I did feel sorry to see them hungry," confessed Pauline; "and I love pets."
"Say, you may have a couple of 'em, if you want," he said generously.
"And I'll help you fix a pen," he added.
"Oh, thank you! I'd like them ever so much!" beamed Pauline. And there was the beginning of a firm friendship between the small neighbors.
Pauline was to be satisfied with no such little makeshift as John gave his own pets. Only the biggest sized dry-goods box would do for the house itself, and the yard that he helped to fence off with wire netting made him look disgustedly upon the tiny space allotted to the bunnies on his side of the pickets.
When at last, Pauline's rabbits were in their new quarters. John gazed at them thoughtfully.
"Say!" he suddenly burst out. "I'm going to have just such a place for mine—big yard and all!"
"Oh, and I'll help you!" cried Pauline.
The new pen brought about other improvements. Tangled weeds and rubbish heaps seemed most unsuitable surroundings for so dainty a little maid as Pauline Randall; so John cut down the weeds and mowed the grass. He raked up the brush and rags and tin cans. Pauline gave him slips from her own geraniums, and he made a flower bed to put them in.
"Mother says she's awfully glad you fed my rabbits," he confided to Pauline, one day, "for if you hadn't our yard would probably be the same old place it has been for all these years."
Pauline looked up from the baby bunny she was petting. "I'm glad, too," she smiled. "If I hadn't, we might never have been friends."
SERVING THE QUEEN.
BY MARY E. JACKSON
"Once upon a time, there was a brave little worker bee, who lived in a big hive. She was strong and willing, and was ready to do anything. And what do you think was the only thing required of her? She and a dozen other bees were placed at the door of the hive, and were told to keep their wings in motion, so as to send a steady current of air into the inner cells of the hive where the queen was. The little worker bee was disappointed, for she had wished to do some great service for her queen.
"She could see other workers hurrying about and doing such important tasks! Some were making wax, and building the comb inside the hive; others were providing food for the young bees, and still others were feeding honey to the queen herself!
"Day by day the little worker grew more discontented, until one day the queen sent a message to the tireless workers at the doorway. 'Tell them,' she said, 'that they are doing me a wondrous service. Without the air they are sending me, I could never live.'
"When the little worker heard this message, she took courage, and her wings whirred as never before."
—Selected.
