Kate Tannatt Woods

“ ITTLE MAY is Toots' own cousin, and one of the dearest little girls you ever knew!
She is a tender-hearted child, and, like Toots, very fond of pets. Once on a cold winter day she found a poor little dead bird which the snow storm of the night before had killed. She brought it to cousin Toots, and together they buried it under a snowbank in the garden. ”

“ One day Toots did not come home from the Kindergarten as usual. His favorite car driver shook his head as he passed the house. Toots had not come out to ride home with him. Grandma was much worried. "Never mind," said mamma, "he is quite safe, perhaps they are all out for walk, or studying the trees or flowers in the garden; he will come in the next car, for his teacher always puts him on herself." ”

“ He never lets a poor bird or cat have any rest where he is, and he is prying about everywhere. I am sure he took your bird-house."
Cousin Hattie said, "Never mind, cook; he will never do it again; perhaps he will earn a new name and a better one." After he had eaten his lunch the young lady took him out into the garden and told him the story of her birds—how much she loved them, how her papa put up their house, and how sorry she was to have them disturbed. ”

“ HOW TOOTS WENT TO BED. TOOTS is our baby. He is a queer one too; up early, and always in dread of bed-time. One morning, not long ago, we heard him singing, and on looking for him, found the little rogue in the very middle of our best bed in the guest chamber, where he was playing hand-organ with a long hairpin put through the pretty pillow covers which had just come home from the laundry. There he sat singing a droll medley of "Uncle Ned," "Blessed Desus," and "Down in the Coal Mine." He had been watching two soldiers with a hand-organ, and Toots likes to do everything he sees done. ”

“ The twins' papa was an old classmate of Toots' papa, and as soon as the baby girls came he wrote a very funny letter telling all about them. He said they were both like little rosebuds, and he was puzzled to know what to call them, so he simply nicknamed them Bud and Bunnie until the mamma could decide upon a name.
"They are dear little bits of womanhood," he said, when the children were three years old, "and I am ashamed to say that we still go on calling them by the old pet names. It would please you to see them at play, they are so very happy. ”

“ Daddy looked knowing, but still stood firm. Other soldiers came and they tried, but Daddy would not yield even after hard whipping. Then the colonel came out and told them what to do, but Daddy winked at the colonel as if to say, "I like this place very much and I will not go even for you."
When all efforts had failed the colonel's wife said,
"Let me try; we cure horses of ill-temper by feeding them sugar."
"Nothing will cure Daddy," said her husband, "but you may try." ”

“ Block building, song singing, and drawing with pretty things in needlework, and forms in clay, not only teach the children to think but to do, and good thinking must always come before well doing, Toots' mamma knew a kind German lady who understood teaching the little ones, and after some delay a school was opened and Toots was a pupil. ”

“ COMMISSARY is one who furnishes supplies of food to an army or body of men, but I dare say you never heard of a dog commissary. He lived at the boarding-school where Toots' mamma went when a little girl, and his owner was the lady who kept the school. Her son brought him home one day and taught him many tricks. Every day he went to market for the family, and it was great fun for the younger girls to see "Captain Com" go out with his basket in his mouth. ”

“ Toots and his friend learned many things. They caught hermit crabs, and were told how they stole shell houses to live in. They found star fish, and horse-shoe crabs, and beautiful sea anemones, and sometimes a kind old sailor would tell them about trawls, lobster traps, nets, and the queer tricks of the various fish they caught.
Away out on a point of rocks near the water lived some very bright little boys who often came to play with Toots. One day their parents were invited to visit a beautiful yacht lying in the harbor. ”

“ One summer when Toots was quite small and not very strong, our family doctor said, 'Couldn't you go and camp out in the pine woods somewhere for a few weeks?' At first it seemed quite impossible to take all the family, but Button Blue was so active and helpful, and the cook said she would like the fun of it, so at last we went, taking care to be near a house where we could get pure water. ”

“ Bunnie, who is a little more gentle than her sister, often gives up to her in their sports; and yet Bud is never cross. She takes the lead because she is fitted for it, while Bunnie nestles down and is content to do as she is told. They are into mischief every hour in the day—good-natured mischief of course. Sometimes we find them dressed in their mother's clothes, sometimes in my coats.
"Not long ago my wife and I determined to send a hamper of good things to her old nurse, who has been very unfortunate. ”

“ LIVER TWIST was the name of a fine rooster or gamecock which belonged to Toots' grandpa, and many were the stories told of him. He became quite famous in the family, and out of it, and none of the children wanted him killed or sold even if he grew too old to walk. When grandpa bought Oliver he carried him home between his knees in the carriage, while he drove Frisk, the pony. Toots' mamma sat by his side with a huge basket in her lap containing a fine old mother hen with ten little chicks. They were all going into grandpa's coop at the farm, and then he would take care of them for Toots. ”

“ AX was not one of Toots' "really truly friends," so Toots said, but mamma and cousin Hattie were kind to Max. He needed friends badly. He had no mother, and his father was a cruel, wicked man. One day when Toots and his mother were spending the day with cousin Hattie, the latter said, "I have some very bad news to tell you. Some wicked boy has torn down my little bird-house which papa put in the maple tree for me, and my dear little birds have gone away." ”

“ LOSSIE helps ever so much," said Toots, one day—"she dusts the chairs in her mother's room, waters the plants, and holds her auntie's worsted. Her auntie is knitting a new rug for the phaeton."
"Little hands should always help," said mamma, "they were made to be useful, and I know Flossie is happier when she is doing something to make home pleasant. One day I heard Flossie saying, "Oh dear! I wish I had something to do. I am tired of my dollies, I don't want to read, and there is no one here for me to play with." I said, "My dear little girl, your mamma has too much to do ”

“ No boy ever dared to meddle with Com, and although he went five blocks to market no one ever tried to get his note out of the basket. Every morning he waited until madam consulted with cook and wrote down the order, and then when it was put into his care he would trot away in a very happy frame of mind. "Com" was very good to the younger pupils. He would let them drive him in a little cart, or play tag with them by the hour. Once in the vacation, when nearly all the pupils had gone home, madam said: "We will not send an order to the butcher to-day; it is so warm, we will have a light lunch." ”

“ Then Toots' parents travelled nearly all the time, and their eldest boy saw a great deal of this busy world. All the soldiers in his father's regiment called him "Button Blue," for when they first saw him he wore little dresses with a good many buttons on them. After that he had a jacket and pants, or, as he called them, "Bocker-nickers." He was a droll little fellow, and always managed to twist words about. The soldiers were very fond of Button, and made him many presents. They taught him games of all kinds, and here we see him showing the major's little daughter how to play cat's cradle. ”

“ Suddenly Elfie remembered that people used to bring her mamma pretty flowers when she was ill.
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Perhaps she might carry Toots some flowers; her auntie was fast asleep and the nurse was out. Yes, she would go into the garden and get the prettiest flowers there for poor Toots. She had no shoes—auntie had put them away—and no stockings; but it would not matter; plenty of children never had shoes or stockings, and it could not hurt very much, for they could run. ”

“ P at grandpa's farm the chicks were very happy since the old fox was killed, and as Toots wanted some more cunning little ones to play with and feed when he went up for a visit, grandpa decided to put some eggs under Mrs. White. Now, Mrs. White was a very fine hen, and although she had never raised any chicks of her own, she seemed so kind and gentle that grandpa was sure she would make a kind mother. ”

“ After a time poor Benjamina grew well enough to sit in a chair at the window, and Major would sit outside on the piazza and look at her. They really seemed to understand each other perfectly. If anything went wrong in the street Major would run down the steps and attend to it, and then come back to his station before the window. At last Bennie was taken out for a drive and Major ran all the way by the side of the carriage, barking with pleasure. ”

“ Jamie had once been a very active boy and a good scholar, but his back was injured by a blow given him by a thoughtless playmate, and ever since he has been a great sufferer. It is a dreadful thing to injure any one for life, and boys cannot be too careful when playing with each other. I am sorry to say that the little boy who hurt Jamie does not seem to care for the terrible ruin he has wrought ”

“ His mamma bought him a pretty lunch basket and put in it some little cakes for his lunch, and then they rode away in the horse car to the schoolroom. After the first day Toots was always ready to go. "It is only play," he said. But it was more than play, for every night Toots had something new to tell; sometimes he had watered the plants in the school-room, sometimes he talked of cubes and triangles, sometimes he sang a little song. Toots was learning without knowing it, and all the time he was very happy. ”

“ O wise person ever expects children to be perfect—grown people are not—still all can try to overcome their faults and grow wiser day by day.
Although little May was a very sweet child, as she grew older she began to fret about little things, and one day when she was urged to learn her lesson in arithmetic she said, "I wish I never had to see another old arithmetic ”

“ No one else ever had such a party before. Large tables were covered with books and toys, all manner of games were waiting to be played, and in one corner of the children's play-room was a table with bowls, plates, and pipes, and all the children were invited to blow bubbles. ”

“ When play-time and work-time are past."
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A FOUR-FOOTED FRIEND.
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LL Toots' playmates among the boys and girls knew how very fond he was of his four-footed friends, and the children were very fond of watching him when he made his pets perform all sorts of tricks. Poor Toots was nearly ill one day when one of his pet cats was found dead in the stable. He cried and would not be comforted, but his mamma said that poor pussy had not been well for a long time, and she probably died in a fit. ”