แ "It is a little bird," said the dear little fellow; or perhaps the bread sings when it bakes as the apples do?" "No, indeed, my little friend!" said the baker's wife; "those are crickets. They are singing in the bakery, because we are lighting the oven, and they like to see the fire." Crickets!" said the child. crickets?" "Are they really Yes, to be sure," said Mrs. Armstrong. The child's face lighted up. I should like to have a cricket," said the boy. "A cricket!" said the baker's wife, smiling. "What in the world would you do with a cricket, my little friend? I would gladly I would gladly give you all there are in the bakery." Oh! give me one, only one, if you please!" said the child, clasping his little thin hands under the big loaf. "The song of the crickets may cheer my poor mother, who has so much trouble, that she is crying most of the time," said the boy. Why does your mother cry?" said Mr. Adams. "On account of her debts, sir," said the little fellow. "Father is dead, and mother works very hard; but she cannot pay them all." Mr. Adams took the little boy in his arms and kissed him. Meanwhile the baker's wife, who did not dare to touch a cricket herself, had gone into the bakery. She made her husband catch four crickets and put them into a box with holes in the cover, so that they might breathe. She then gave the box to the child, who went away very happy. Poor little fellow!" said Mr. Adams when he had gone. Then the baker's wife took down her account book and, finding the page where the mother's charges were written, wrote at the bottom of "Paid! the page Mr. Adams, meanwhile, had put into a little box all the money he had in his pockets. He begged Mrs. Armstrong to send it at once to the mother of the cricket-boy, with her bill receipted. In the box, Mr. Adams had placed a note, in which he told the mother that she had a son who would one day be her joy and her pride. Mrs. Armstrong gave the box to her son, and told him to make haste, so as to get to the mother's house first. The little boy with his big loaf, and his four crickets, could not run very fast, so that, when he reached home, he found his mother, for the first time in many weeks, with a smile of peace and happiness upon her lips. The boy thought that it was the coming of his four crickets which had made his mother happy. - From the French of PIERRE J. HETZEL. NOTES AND QUESTIONS Why did Mr. Adams like the little boy who came to the bakery? Was Mrs. Armstrong kind to the boy? Why did the boy want a cricket? Did the crickets make the mother happy? Who made the mother happy? Have the children reproduce or dramatize this story. THE CHILD'S WORLD isles Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful world, The wonderful air is over me, And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree You friendly Earth, how far do you go, With the wheat fields that nod and the rivers that flow, With cities and gardens, and cliffs and isles, Ah! you are so great, and I am so small, "If the wonderful World is great to you, And great to father and mother too, You are more than the Earth, though you are such a dot! You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!" WILLIAM B. RANDS. NOTES AND QUESTIONS Who made the wonderful world? How is the world dressed? What does the wind do? Name some of the many things in What does the child think about the earth? the world. does the mother say about it? What This is a good place to introduce an elementary geography lesson. William B. Rands (1823-1882), an English writer and poet, was born in Chelsea, England. A PRISONER TO A ROBIN Welcome! welcome, little stranger! Happy child of liberty! - JAMES MONTGOMERY. |