Harper's Young People, May 11, 1880 Part 5

Do let me take that hateful bag away!"

"No, my dear," said Miss Matilda, gently. "For three months you have disturbed the entire school with your perpetual chatter, and now for three months that bag is to hang over your desk. If by the end of that time you have learned to control your tongue, the bag shall be removed--not otherwise."

But it was strange to see how the three months changed her. Miss Matilda never again needed to say one word to her about talking: one glance at the bag was more efficacious than a dozen scoldings had been formerly.

Moreover, when her grandmother met her teacher, she said, "Oh, Miss Matilda, how Anna Maria has improved of late! She used to be such a terrible chatter-box; we sent her to school when she was only three years old, because we could not endure the noise of her tongue, but now she is growing so pleasant and sensible that we all enjoy her company."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LITTLE PEACE-MAKER.

"Come, now, oove dot to behave oorselves; oo mus' tiss and be friends."]

THE WAYWARD DONKEY.

BY W. H. BEARD.

There was once a little donkey who gave his poor mother no end of trouble, he was so stubborn, unreasonable, exacting, and dreadfully saucy. Why, when angry, he didn't hesitate at all to call his mother an old donkey, right out. One day, when crossed in some particularly absurd desire, he declared he would run away. Immediately putting his threat into execution, off he trotted, heedless of his poor fond mother's entreaties. Away he went, sustained at first by his temper and pride.

But as the day wore on, he became weary, faint, and hungry. The matter of food and shelter became a question of serious alarm, and how to obtain them was a problem too great for his little donkey brain to solve. He now remembered that he had never had to trouble himself with all this before, all the needs and comforts of life having been provided for him without thought or care on his part.

The land over which he was travelling was quite poor, and only afforded a few little stunted thistles, which seemed to consist more of p.r.i.c.kers than anything else, which pierced his tender little nose, and made it bleed. He saw plenty of oats and other grains, as well as nice vegetables, growing in fields, but so well guarded by high fences that he could not hope to get at them. Many times, when hunger and fatigue had subdued his pride, would he have returned home; but he had wandered so far that he had not the least idea which way he had come. To add to his distress, he saw the sun was fast declining. Already he felt the chills of evening. But there was no use bemoaning his fate, and he must make the best of it.

At length, too weary to travel farther, he was forced to lie down to rest, and selected for the purpose an unfenced overgrown piece of ground of considerable extent. Here, as he lay among the weeds, nothing was visible of him above their tops but his two ears, which might easily have been taken for two stakes, or the roots of an upturned stump. As he lay shivering in the damp gra.s.s, he felt anything but comfortable. The sun went down, the moon arose and shed a cold light over the face of nature, which made him feel lonely indeed.

Suddenly there appeared above the gra.s.s several other pairs of ears, bobbing about, quite like his own. The sight thrilled him with something akin to pleasure, for he asked himself, "To whom can such ears belong but to little donkeys? and if young donkeys are around, they must have mothers, or a mother, near by, who, no doubt, would be very glad to adopt such a fine specimen of the race as I." The reader has already seen that he was a conceited little donkey.

So saying, he arose quickly to his feet; the others stood up also, though not as he did on their four feet, but on their hind-legs--that is to say, they stood up on their haunches--and looked at him in blank amazement; but as he approached them they bounded away so fast that it was useless to try to overtake them. When he stood still, they also stopped, and again stood upon their haunches, and peered at him over the tops of the weeds. Master Donkey did not try again to go to them, but expostulated with them upon their ill-breeding and unkind behavior, called them cousins, told them he was tired and hungry, and asked for food and shelter. This touched their tender little hearts, and they cautiously drew near, and made the acquaintance of their supposed cousin.

On a close scrutiny, however, they doubted his claim to relationship, and flatly told him so. But they good-naturedly said if he was hungry, it was no more than common humanity to first relieve his wants, and discuss the question afterward. Even murderous man would do as much as that, so they brought him carrots and other vegetables in abundance from a farm garden near by, from which they were accustomed to supply their own wants.

When his appet.i.te was satisfied, his humility, such as it was, oozed out, and he became as arrogant as ever, and stoutly claimed that he was their big cousin, though, he said, he was not particularly anxious to be acknowledged by such a pack of little dwarfish thieving creatures as they were, who would steal through the farmer's fence to purloin vegetables for a cousin whom they impudently refused to recognize.

Their spokesman retorted, and said they claimed a right to a share, sufficient for their needs, of whatever grew upon the earth. To be sure, they were obliged to obtain it stealthily at night, as man claimed it all for himself, and it would be almost certain death to be found by him within his inclosure. Indeed, many of their unfortunate fellows had already suffered death for the exercise of this natural right. If, however, he regarded their act as a crime, he was himself a criminal, inasmuch as he had accepted the fruits, and profited by the act, knowing how the food had been obtained. To this the donkey could make no answer; at least he did not think it prudent to try, as night was still before him, and the question of shelter still unsolved.

Good-nature was soon restored, and the discussion renewed. The rabbits could see many points of difference, but two only of resemblance. It certainly could not be denied that the ears were remarkably like, and the complexion was very nearly the same; but the hard feet were so widely different from their own soft paws! And the tail, too, long and dangling like a cow's--what a tail for a rabbit! Then, again, they had observed that he _stood_ while eating, whereas a true rabbit always crouched comfortably near the ground while taking his food. In the matter of voice, too, they flattered themselves there was a _wide_ difference. However, all this might be changed or improved by judicious training, except the feet. The hoofs they despaired of. The tail they proposed to nibble off at a proper length from the body. This operation the donkey positively refused to submit to, but finally consented to hold his tail up over his back as much like a rabbit as possible, and, moreover, would at once set about his lessons to learn their ways, so that he might the sooner adapt himself to their habits, and become one of them.

Accordingly, one of the cleverest of their number was charged with his instruction, and immediately began with the important art of sitting on the haunches with his tail curled up upon his back. In this, though he strained every nerve to perform it, he made an ignominious failure. He could only maintain the position for a moment, and then pitch forward or fall backward, seeming to rock over on his curved tail, and cutting such a ridiculous figure that it made all the rabbits laugh. This made him very angry, and he began to use his heels in a most vigorous and unrabbitlike manner. All ran for their lives, but not all escaped unhurt. The "spraggly" forms of two or three of those nearest to him showed dark against the moon-lit sky before they limped off, and, joining their fellows, gathered in a little knot at a distance from their fractious pupil, and discussed his merits with great freedom. They voted him an ill-natured brute, a stupid dolt--in short, a perfect donkey. Scarcely had they arrived at this unanimous conclusion, when--pop! pop! bang! bang!--four loud reports, and four little rabbits lay in the agonies of death.

The farmer and his son, seeing by the moonlight strange movements in the field, had stolen upon them, in the unguarded moment of their excitement, with their double-barrelled guns, and, as the boy expressed it, bagged four rabbits and a donkey; for poor little donkey stood paralyzed with fear. He had never looked upon death before, and was an easy captive. Without troubling himself to inquire who the rightful owner was, the farmer took him for his own, housed him that night in a stall by himself, where he pa.s.sed almost the entire night, notwithstanding the fatigues of the day, in such reflections as he was capable of; and though he grew up to be a great donkey, to be sure, the lessons of that day were never forgotten by him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WAYWARD DONKEY AND HIS FRIENDS.--FROM DRAWINGS BY W. H. BEARD.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: OUR POST-OFFICE BOX.]

ROCK ISLAND a.r.s.eNAL, ILLINOIS.

I thought you would like to know how spring advances in this part of the country. There are a great many snowy little bloodroots in the woods on the island already (April 22), the mandrakes are coming up, and the spring beauties are in bloom. The snakes are here also, for a friend of mine and I saw a little garter-snake in the woods the other day. It hissed at us in a vicious little way.

Yesterday I saw some pretty b.u.t.terflies flitting about, and there are numerous graceful dragon-flies in the air. Last Sunday, just after a thunder-storm, I was on the front porch, and I saw about eighteen worms, most of them of a kind that is called "hundred-legs," but there were a few of another kind. They were crawling up on the porch to get out of the wet. The robins, bluebirds, cat-birds, woodp.e.c.k.e.rs, blackbirds, and others are here. This spring some of the gulls from the great lakes were fishing on the river. In YOUNG PEOPLE No. 24 Arthur L. H. wrote about his caterpillar that turned into a b.u.t.terfly, and I thought he might like to hear about ours. My brother found a caterpillar that had different-colored cross-bands on it, like a Roman sash.

He brought it home, and we fed it on leaves till it made a beautiful coc.o.o.n of a thin veil-like material of a pale sea-green color, with a line and a few dots of gold on it near the middle.

We expected from all this that it would be a very remarkable b.u.t.terfly; but it was only one of the common large brown b.u.t.terflies that we see almost every day in summer.

BESSY F.

WOLVERTON, ENGLAND.

I am seven years old. My grandpa and grandma live in Canada, and send me YOUNG PEOPLE. We have a donkey and panniers. My baby brother and sister ride in the panniers, and my other brother and I take turns in riding on the donkey's back. We call the donkey Jinny. I went on a visit to Canada when I was two years old. I would like to go again.

NONIE J.

CANONSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

I enjoy reading the letters in the Post-office Box very much. In No. 24 a little girl asks for some cooking recipes. I will send her a recipe for a very nice doll's cup-cake. My little sister and I make it often. We made it once when grandpa came to see us, and he liked it so much that he had to be helped twice. This is the recipe: One doll's cup of b.u.t.ter; two of sugar; three of flour; one of sweet milk; one egg; a few sc.r.a.pings of nutmeg; one salt-spoonful of baking powder. When well mixed, put it into a b.u.t.tered pan. When it draws away from the side of the pan, it is done.

BESSIE L. S.

STUYVESANT SQUARE, NEW YORK CITY.

Some other girls and myself have formed a Wiggle Club. We are going to get some papers printed with the heading, "Stuyvesant Square Wiggle Club," on which we will all send in our Wiggles, and we are going to have prizes for the best. The one of our Wiggles that is published in YOUNG PEOPLE will take the prize. We can not draw very well yet, but we will try to improve, and to be the champions. Our names are Bertha, Toonie, Sarah, Nonie, Blanche.

Unfortunately your drawings of Wiggle No. 10 came too late to be engraved. Your ideas were all excellent. In YOUNG PEOPLE No. 27 we gave you a new Wiggle, which you can practice upon, and send us what you make of it. The plan of your club is good, as it will afford you much amus.e.m.e.nt, and at the same time give you good exercise in drawing.

DIXON, ILLINOIS.

I like YOUNG PEOPLE very much. I can read the children's letters, and I thought I would write myself. I have got a great family of dolls--thirteen in all--and I like to look at the picture, on the first page of YOUNG PEOPLE No. 7, of the two little girls and the basket of dolls. My black cat is named Hippopotamus, but I call him Pot for short. My papa at Christmas-time was dressed up like Santa Claus, and brought us a bagful of presents. I did not know it was papa till weeks afterward. I am seven years old.

MARY H.

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.