Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

"Stop, brother!--oh, stop!" cried poor Mary. "A bramble* has caught my jacket! Set me free— oh, set me free!"

The only answer which came was a bellow from the cow, which made Alfred run the faster, and so alarmed Mary that she pulled away her jacket by main force, leaving half a yard of lace on the bramble!

Panting,* she reached the stile; and, scrambling over in a moment, joined her brother on the safe side. The ill-tempered cow gave another bellow, seeing the children beyond reach of her horns.

"What does she mean by that roar?" cried Alfred, shrinking* back at the sound; for, however brave he might be against absent robbers, he was mightily afraid of a cow.

"I suspect," laughed Mary, who had got over her fright, "that her bellow means much the same as the whisper of the bear to the traveller in the fable— 'Let courage be proved by deeds-not by words!""

A. L. O. E.

QUESTIONS.-What did Alfred say to his sister? What did Mary remember? What did Alfred do when he saw the cow? What did he do when his sister was in trouble? What did Mary say the cow's last bellow meant?

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

"Their graves are green, they may be seen,” The little maid replied,

[ocr errors]

'Twelve steps or more from my mother's door, And they are side by side.

[merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Together round her grave we played,
My brother John and I.

"And when the ground was white with snow,
And I could run and slide,
My brother John was forced to go;

And he lies by her side."

[blocks in formation]

THE GATE WITHOUT A LATCH.

As-sist', help.

Colt, a young horse.

Hue-and-cry, chasing and shouting
O-bliged', forced.

[at once.

Proverbs, well-known truths.

THERE was a farmer, who

Re-sult', what followed.

Re-turned', went back.
Scorched, burned on the outside.
Ut-ter-ly, altogether.
Ver-i-fied, shown to be true.

had a little gate, which a field. This little gate

opened from his yard into wanted a latch, and therefore could not be fastened. When he passed through the gate, he was very careful to pull it after him; but other people were not always so mindful. Even with all his care, the wind would often blow it open again after he had closed it.

The result was, that the gate was generally either flapping backwards and forwards in the wind, or standing wide open.

In this way the poultry were always getting out; and the sheep and lambs were always getting in. It took up half the children's time to run after the chickens and drive them back into the yard, and to send the sheep and the lambs back into the field.

The farmer's wife was always telling him that he ought to get the latch mended; but he used to say that it would cost sixpence, and that it was not worth while. He said that the children might as well be driving the sheep and the poultry in and out of the yard and the field as be doing nothing. So the gate remained without the latch.

One day a fat pig got out of its sty, and, pushing open the gate, ran into the field, and thence wandered

« ForrigeFortsett »