THE WIND AND THE LEAVES
1.
“Come, little leaves,” said the wind one day.
“Come o’er the meadows with me, and play;
Put on your dress of red and gold
Summer is gone, and the days grow cold.”
2.
Soon as the leaves heard the wind’s loud call,
Down they came fluttering, one and all;
Over the brown fields they danced and flew,
Singing the soft little songs they knew.
3.
“Cricket, good-by, we’ve been friends so long;
Little brook, sing us your farewell song,–
Say you are sorry to see us go;
Ah! you will miss us, right well we know.
4.
“Dear little lambs, in your fleecy fold,
Mother will keep you from harm and cold;
Fondly we’ve watched you in vale and glade;
Say, will you dream of our loving shade?”
5.
Dancing and whirling, the little leaves went;
Winter had called them, and they were content.
Soon fast asleep in their earthy beds,
The snow laid a coverlet over their heads.
George Cooper.
MAMMA’S PRESENT
1. Jessie played a good joke on her mamma. This is the way she did it.
2. Jessie had gone to the woods with Jamie and Joe to get green branches to trim up the house for Christmas. She wore her little cap, her white furs, and her red leggings.
3. She was a merry little girl, indeed; but she felt sad this morning because her mother had said, “The children will all have Christmas presents, but I don’t expect any for myself. We are too poor this year.”
4. When Jessie told her brothers this, they all talked about it a great deal. “Such a good, kind mamma, and no Christmas present! It’s too bad.”
5. “I don’t like it,” said little Jessie, with a tear in her eye.
6. “Oh, she has you,” said Joe.
7. “But I am not something new,” said Jessie.
8. “Well, you will be new, Jessie,” said Joe, “when you get back. She has not seen you for an hour.”
9. Jessie jumped and laughed. “Then put me in the basket, and carry me to mamma, and say, ‘I am her Christmas present.’ ”
10. So they set her in the basket, and put green branches all around her. It was a jolly ride. They set her down on the doorstep, and went in and said, “There’s a Christmas present out there for you, mamma.”
11. Mamma went and looked, and there, in a basket of green branches, sat her own little laughing girl.
12. “Just the very thing I wanted most,” said mamma.
13. “Then, dear mamma,” said Jessie, bounding out of her leafy nest, “I should think it would be Christmas for mammas all the time, for they see their little girls every day.”