Our Boys. Various
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Название: Our Boys

Автор: Various

Издательство: Bookwire

Жанр: Языкознание

Серия:

isbn: 4057664601025

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СКАЧАТЬ he find her footprint on the sand?

      Or would she come to his blithe "hello,"

      Red as a rose, or white as snow?

      Ah no, ah no!

      Never can Teddy see Echo!

      MRS. CLARA DOTY BATES.

       Table of Contents

      

ix merry stockings in the firelight,

      Hanging by the chimney snug and tight:

      Jolly, jolly red,

      That belongs to Ted;

      Daintiest blue,

      That belongs to Sue;

      Old brown fellow

      Hanging long,

      That belongs to Joe,

      Big and strong;

      Little, wee, pink mite

      Covers Baby's toes—

      Won't she pull it open

      With funny little crows!

      Sober, dark gray,

      Quiet little mouse,

      That belongs to Sybil

      Of all the house;

      One stocking left,

      Whose should it be?

      Why, that I'm sure

      Must belong to me!

      Well, so they hang, packed to the brim,

      Swing, swing, swing, in the firelight dim.

      'Twas the middle of the night.

      Open flew my eyes;

      I started up in bed,

      And stared in surprise;

      I rubbed my eyes, I rubbed my ears,

      I saw the stockings swing, I heard the stockings sing;

      Out in the firelight

      Merry and bright,

      Snug and tight,

      Six were swinging,

      Six were singing,

      Like everything!

      And the red, and the blue, and the brown, and the gray,

      And the pink one, and mine, had it all their own way,

      And no one could stop them—because, don't you see,

      Nobody heard 'em—but just poor me!

      "All day we carry toes,

      To-night we carry candy;

      Christmas comes once a year

      Very nice and handy.

      Run, run, race all day,

      Mother mends us after play,

      We don't care, life is gay,

      Sing and swing, away, away!

      "Boots and little tired shoes,

      We kick 'em off in glee;

      It's fun to hang up here

      And Santa Claus to see.

      Run, run, race all day,

      Mother mends us after play,

      We don't care, life is gay,

      Sing and swing, away, away!

      "To-morrow down we come,

      The sweet things tumble out,

      Then carrying toes again

      We'll have to trot about.

      Run, run, race all day,

      Mother'll mend us after play,

      We don't care, we'll swing so gay

      While we can—away, away!"

      MARGARET SIDNEY.

       Table of Contents

      

t was a thoroughly disagreeable March morning. The wind blew in sharp gusts from every quarter of the compass by turns. It seemed to take especial delight in rushing suddenly around corners and taking away the breath of anybody it could catch there coming from the opposite direction. The dust, too, filled people's eyes and noses and mouths, while the damp raw March air easily found its way through the best clothing, and turned boys' skins into pimply goose-flesh.

      It was about as disagreeable a morning for going out as can be imagined; and yet everybody in the little Western river town who could get out went out and stayed out.

      Men and women, boys and girls, and even little children, ran to the river-bank: and, once there, they stayed, with no thought, it seemed, of going back to their homes or their work.

      The people of the town were wild with excitement, and everybody told everybody else what had happened, although everybody knew all about it already. Everybody, I mean, except Joe Lambert, and he had been so busy ever since daylight, sawing wood in Squire Grisard's woodshed, that he had neither seen nor heard anything at all. Joe was the poorest person in the town. He was the only boy there who really had no home and nobody to care for him. Three or four years before this March morning, Joe had been left an orphan, and being utterly destitute, he should have been sent to the poorhouse, or "bound out" to some person as a sort of servant. But Joe Lambert had refused to go to the poorhouse or to become a bound boy. He had declared his ability to take care СКАЧАТЬ