Sandman's Goodnight Stories
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| Publié par | nesor |
| Publié le | 08 décembre 2010 |
| Nombre de lectures | 20 |
| Langue | English |
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The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sandman's Goodnight Stories, by Abbie Phillips Walker, Illustrated by Rhoda C. Chase
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at.wwwrebnetuggg.or Title: Sandman's Goodnight Stories Author: Abbie Phillips Walker Release Date: April 2, 2007 [eBook #20962] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SANDMAN'S GOODNIGHT STORIES***
E-text prepared by Al Haines
Sandman's Goodnight Stories
By Abbie Phillips Walker
Illustrated by Rhoda C. Chase
Harper & Brothers, Publishers
SANDMAN'S GOOD-NIGHT STORIES Copyright, 1921, by Harper & Brothers
To My Sister MARY P. BABCOCK I Lovingly Dedicate These Little Stories
CONTENTS
THE EATYOUP THE TELL-TALE GOBLIN DAME CRICKET'S STORY THE PLAYROOM WEDDING MORNING-GLORY THE PEACOCK BUTTERFLIES THE REVENGE OF THE GNOMES THE LITTLE CHINA SHEPHERDESS HOW THE BUTTERCUP GREW YELLOW WAS IT THE FIELD FAIRY? THE FROGS AND THE FAIRIES JACK THE PREACHER MR. CROW GOES AND TELLS DISCONTENTED DEWDROP INQUISITIVE MR. POSSUM WHAT THE FLOWERS TOLD MARTHA WHEN JACK FROST WAS YOUNG THE REVENGE OF THE FIREFLIES SALLIE HICKS'S FOREFINGER THE RAIN ELVES MR. FOX'S HOUSEWARMING LITTLE PITCHER-MAN THE WIND-FLOWER'S STORY PUSSY WILLOW'S FURS ORIANNA OLD NORTH WIND MR. FOX CUTS THE COTTONTAILS LITTLE NEVER-UPSET
THE EATYOUP
The Eatyoup
Dicky Duck was a very wise young fellow. He swam about the pond alone long before his brothers left their mother, and such worms and bugs and things of that sort as he found made all the other young ducks quite green with envy.
But one day Dicky Duck almost lost his life by thinking he was so wise, for he was swimming around the pond when he came to the woods where Mr. Fox was hiding back of some bushes. Dicky did not go near enough for Mr. Fox to catch him, but Mr. Fox could see that he was a nice plump duck and it made his eyes shine with longing to look at him. "Ah me," he sighed as Dicky swam by, "if only I knew some wise creature to ask! I am far too dull to know anything myself." When Dicky heard the word "wise" he felt sure that meant him, for was not he the wisest duck of his size and age? So he stopped swimming and looked around. Mr. Fox had hidden himself well under the bushes now. Not even the tip of his nose could be seen and he made his voice sound very weak, as if he were a very small animal. "Who is it that wants to know a wise creature?" asked Dicky Duck. "Oh, a poor little animal called Eatyoup," answered Mr. Fox, laughing so at his joke that he could hardly speak. "I am very stupid and do not know much and I have no wise friends." Dicky Duck had never heard of an Eatyoup, but he had no intention of letting anyone think there was anything he did not know, so he swam nearer and said, "Well, I am wise, and if you wish to know anything ask me. Come out where I can see you and we can talk to each other better." He was trying all the time to get a glimpse of the new animal, but Mr. Fox was a wise creature himself and he had no intention of being seen. "Oh, dear! I should hate to show my miserable little self to such a big, fine-looking creature as you are," he said. "It is bad enough to have you know I am stupid, but if you will come closer I will tell you what it is I want to know." Dicky Duck by this time was very brave, for what had he to fear from so small a creature as the Eatyoup. So he swam right up to the side of the pond and out bounced Mr. Fox and almost caught him. If Dicky had not used his wings as well as his feet he would not have escaped, but he was in the middle of the pond, swimming for dear life, by the time Mr. Fox was in the water, and as the farm was not far off Mr. Fox decided not to risk his life. When Dicky Duck reached the barnyard he told all the fowl about the strange animal he had seen, called an Eatyoup, and that, while he had a very weak voice, he was almost as large as big Rover, the dog. Of course everyone thought Dicky wiser than ever when he told this, but for all that he was very careful not to swim near the woods again, for, though he had told the fowl he had seen an Eatyoup, he was pretty sure in his own mind that he had met Mr. Fox.
THE TELL-TALE GOBLIN
The Tell-Tale Goblin
Once upon a time there was a Little Fairy who loved to wander by the river, and as the Fairy Queen does not like her subjects to go too near the water, the Little Fairy had to steal away.
Always when they held a revel this Little Fairy would fly away from the dance and wander down by the river to watch the ripple of the water as it flowed over the pebbles and stones.
One night a Goblin, who always watched the fairies, happened to be sitting under a bush and saw the Little Fairy.
"What is she doing here all alone?" he said to himself. "She has run away from her sisters, and I am quite sure the Queen does not know where she is. I'll watch her, and if she is up to mischief I'll tell the Queen. Maybe she will give me a new red coat for telling her."
Now, this little tell-tale Goblin began to watch, and pretty soon he saw a mist rise from the river; then it looked like foam, all silvery, in the moonlight.
And then suddenly as he watched, the goblin saw a handsome youth rise from the river and hold out his arms to the Little Fairy standing on the bank.
"Ah-ha!" said the Goblin. "She has a lover, has she? Well I'll tell the Queen and I guess these midnight meetings will be stopped, and I am sure now I shall get a new coat for telling."
The River Youth called to the Fairy just then, and the Goblin forgot the red coat to watch what happened.
"Come, my love," called the White Youth, "take the willow path and you will be safe from the water."
The Little Fairy flew to the willow tree beside the river and tripped lightly along a slender bough which dipped its tip into the water.
When she reached the end the White Youth was there to take her in his arms. He carried her to the middle of the river, where there was a little island, and the watching Goblin saw them sit upon the soft green grass in the moonlight, but he could not hear what they said.
"I'll run and tell her Queen and let her catch them," said the Goblin, and, forgetting that his red coat could be plainly seen in the moonlight, he jumped up and ran along the river bank toward the dell.
"Oh, oh!" cried the Little Fairy, with alarm, when she saw the Goblin, "whatever will become of me? There is a Goblin, and I am sure he has seen me and is going to tell the
Queen. Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be banished." The River Youth, who really was a River God, reached for a horn of white shell which hung from his shoulder by a coral chain, and blew a shrill blast, and the Goblin fell upon his face on the ground. "Rise!" called the River God, "and tell me where you are going?" "Oh! Your Majesty," said the sly little Goblin, "I was about to go to the Fairy Queen and tell her one of her fairies was being carried off, but of course I shall not do so now. I see whom she is with. I thought it was old Neptune himself and he might change her into a mermaid " . The River God knew the bad little fellow was telling him a wrong story, but something must be done, so he pretended to believe the Goblin, and said: "Well, now you know the Fairy is safe, what can I do for you if you keep our secret?" "Give me a silver cap," said the Goblin, quickly. "Very well. Come here to-morrow night at midnight hour and you shall have the cap if you have not told the Fairy Queen what you have seen," said the River God. The Goblin promised and off he ran to his home in the rocks, and the River God took the Fairy back to the willow tree. "Come tomorrow without your wand, my love," he said; "we must not delay, now that the Goblin has seen us, for he cannot be trusted after he gets the silver cap." The next night the Goblin was by the river waiting when the Little Fairy arrived. Where is your wand?" he asked, for he saw at once she did not have it. " Before she could reply there was splash in the middle of the river and out of the mist and foam the River God lifted his head and called to the Fairy. At the same time he held up a little silver cap to the Goblin. The Little Fairy went to her lover by the same path as before, but she took from his hand the little silver cap and tossed it to the Goblin before she flew into her lover's outstretched arms. "Now tell him where your wand is," said the River God. "I have left it behind me in the dell," she said, blushing and hanging her head. "What! are you not going back to the Queen?" asked the Goblin, in astonishment. "Are you to become a river sprite?" "You have guessed it," said the River God. "This night we are to be married at the bottom of the river. Farewell, you little tell-tale Goblin. I hope your silver cap fits your peaked little head." The Goblin watched the Fairy and her lover as they slowly sank from sight, and then he ran off as fast as he could to the dell to tell the Queen what he had seen. "I'll get a red coat, too," he said. "I did not promise not to tell to-night." The tell-tale Goblin was so bent on telling the Queen what he knew that he quite forgot his new silver cap until he reached the dell where the fairies were dancing; then throwing away
his old cap, he clapped the silver cap on his head so hard he cried out with pain.
For a second he saw stars, and the cold silver felt very different from his soft, warm peaked cap which he had tossed aside.
The little fairies, seeing the Goblin hopping about in the moonlight, called to the Queen: "Oh, look, dear Queen. Drive away the Goblin; he acts quite mad and may mean mischief. "
The Queen, knowing that Goblins, when they were quite sane, were not friendly to her fairies, held up her wand and cast a ray of light straight into the Goblin's eye. "Leave our dell," she said, "or something will happen to you that you will not like."
"Oh, wait, wait and hear what I have to tell!" called the Goblin. "I know a secret you must hear."
"Oh, don't listen to him, dear Queen!" said all the little fairies. "It is wrong to tell secrets. Go away, we will not listen."
But the Goblin would not go; he wanted to win a red coat, and he was sure the Queen would give it to him for the secret he could tell.
"If you will give me a new red coat I will tell you something about one of your fairies you would like to know," said the Goblin.
"Oh, what a funny head he has!" said a fairy as the Goblin lifted off the silver cap, because it was so uncomfortable.
All the fairies began to laugh, and on his head he clapped the cap again to hide his queer peaked head, and again the cap made him see stars until he jumped with pain.
"Oh, he is quite mad, you may be sure!" said the Queen.
"I am not mad. Listen and I will tell you the secret, and you will know then I am very clever to have discovered it," said the Goblin. "But first I must know if you will give me the red coat. I shall not tell you if you do not."
The tell-tale Goblin did not think for a minute the Queen of the fairies would refuse to pay to hear a secret, and when the Queen told him he was a bad, mad fellow and to be off, he was quite surprised.
"You will be sorry," he said as he hopped away, and then he thought he would tell it, anyway, for what was the use of knowing a secret if you did not surprise others by showing how much you know.
Back he ran, but the fairies and their Queen put their fingers in their ears and ran away, so they could not hear. The telltale Goblin, however, was bound to tell, and he ran until he was near enough to shout: "She has married a River God and she left her wand in the dell; they gave me this silver cap not to tell. "
When the Queen and the fairies heard this they stopped and the Goblin thought they wished to hear more, so he went to them and said he would help them hunt for the wand, if they would come to the dell.
The Queen put her finger on her lips to warn the fairies not to speak, and back they went to the dell, following the Goblin, who was hopping and jumping along before them.
"Here it is," he said, stooping to pick up a little gold wand. "Hold!" cried the Queen; "do not touch it. I will pick it up, and now that you have told us the secret you shall have your reward." The Goblin hopped with delight, for he was sure the Queen would touch him with the wand and he would have a new red coat at once. "You shall wear the silver cap the rest of your life," she said, and before the Goblin could jump away the Queen tapped him on the head, and in place of the tell-tale Goblin there stood a silver thistle, all prickly and shining among the leaves and bushes. "Your sister has left us, and we must forget her," said the Queen as the fairies followed her home. "Let her be forgotten by you all; her wand shall be saved for a more worthy sister." The Little Fairy never regretted marrying her River God, for she lived happy ever after, and sometimes when they come up from the river bottom to sit in the moonlight she will say to the River God: "What do you suppose became of the Goblin? Do you think he ever told the Queen?" "Of course he did," replied the River God. He ran as fast as he could to the Queen, but " the silver cap was so uncomfortable for him to wear that I am sure he has discarded it long before this. So he gained nothing for playing the spy." "Perhaps his conscience pricked him and he is sorry," said the Little Fairy. The Little Fairy was right. The Goblin was sorry when it was too late, and the silver thistle swayed in the breeze. It tried to tell the breeze it was sorry for telling tales, but even the breeze did not wish to listen to a prickly thistle, so there it had to bloom unloved and alone the rest of its life.
DAME CRICKET'S STORY
Dame Cricket "Come, children, it is time to get up," said Dame Cricket to her ten little crickets. "Hurry, now, and take your bath and put on your little black caps and your little brown suits. The sun has almost gone down over the hill and the birds will soon be asleep." But the little crickets snuggled under the bedclothes just as if they did not hear their
mother's words. "Come, come," she said, a few minutes later, "you will sleep all night if you don't hurry. Some of our cousins are already singing, and it will soon be dark." "Oh dear! why do we have to get up?" said one little cricket, poking his head over the clothes. "Lots of bugs sleep all night " . "Yes, but they are up all the daytime," answered Dame Cricket, "and they run a great risk, I can assure you, my dear. Our family used to sing in the daytime, but if we had kept on there would be no cricket family. There is a reason for our sleeping days and singing at night." "Oh, mother, is it a story?" asked all the little crickets, jumping out of bed with a bound and gathering about their mother.
"Yes, there is a story about our family, and if you will all hurry and dress I will tell it to you," she said.
Very quietly all the little crickets began to dress, and their mother began the story: "Once, long, long ago," she said, "our family sang in the daytime and slept at night; but one day the Great-grandfather Cricket noticed that our singing was not as loud as usual, so he called all the children, big and little, about him and looked at their throats. "'Strange, strange!' he remarked. 'You all have fine-looking throats, as fine as ever crickets had, and yet our singing is very faint; there is not as much volume to it as in the old days. I will call on Doctor Frog this very day, and see what he thinks about it.'
"Doctor Frog thought awhile and then he asked, 'How many have you in your family, now, Mr. Cricket?' "Great-grandfather called us all about him and began to count, and to his amazement he found our family was only about half the size it should be.
"'Just as I thought,' said Dr. Frog, 'the voices are as good as ever, but there are not so many of you, and, of course, the singing is not so loud as it was once.
"'Shall I tell you the reason for this?' asked Dr. Frog. "Great-grandfather said that was why he called on him, so Dr. Frog told him that the birds were eating our family, and if they kept it up we soon would be out of existence. "'Horrors! horrors!' chirped Great-grandfather Cricket. 'Whatever will we do to preserve the family?'
"'Easy enough to do that,' said Dr. Frog. 'Sleep days and sing at night as our family do; little chance we would have if we came out and sang in the daytime.'
"So that is the reason we sleep days and sing nights, so the birds and chickens and bug-eating animals cannot catch us.
"Of course, sometimes they do get a cricket, but it is always one who has stayed out too late or gotten up too early, usually a very young cricket who thinks he knows more than his mother or father. "But the good little crickets who mind and get up when they are called are pretty sure to
live to a good old age." When Madam Cricket stopped talking all the little crickets stood looking at her with very curious expressions on their faces. "We are good little crickets, aren't we, mother?" they asked. "Of course you are. Here you are all ready to go out and sing and the sun has just dropped behind the hill," she said. "Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp," they sang as they scampered after their mother out into the night.
THE PLAYROOM WEDDING
The Playroom Wedding Paper Doll had been the maid of honor, but she did not at all approve of the match. "It will never be a happy marriage," she told Teddy Bear the night of the wedding. "Such marriages never are. How I should feel married to a man who wore dresses." Yes, he did look as if he wore a dress, for he was a Japanese gentleman doll, you see, and when he came to the playroom to live everybody, including French Doll Marie, thought he was very queer looking. But after a while they became used to Takeo, for that was his name, and when the little mistress announced that Marie was to marry Takeo she did not make the least objection. "What difference does it make?" she said to Frieda, the Dutch doll, who lived next to her. "I suppose I shall have to marry someone, and truly I could never live with Jumping Jack; that fellow makes me so nervous." "He seems very quiet," said Frieda Doll, meaning Takeo, "and perhaps you can get him to dress in men's clothes after you are married." "Yes, he is quiet and I cannot understand a word he says, so we shall not quarrel," said Marie Doll. And so they were married. Jack-in-the-box was the minister, because the little mistress thought he stood better than anyone else. She put a black cape on him and a white collar, and Jack behaved in the most dignified manner.
Little Paper Doll wore a dress that quite outshone the bride's dress, only no one noticed it; but it was all lace and had tiny little pink buds caught in the flounces, and she wore a beautiful hat with white feathers. The bride wore a white dress and a long white veil, and there were tiny white flowers all around her head which held the veil in place. But Takeo was far from looking the bridegroom, to Paper Doll's way of thinking, though Marie Doll gave him no thought at all, for she thought the bride was the important one, and as she told Frieda Doll, "You have to have a bridegroom to be a bride, of course; but really he is not of any importance that I can see." They had been married a week, and, while Marie talked to Takeo, he, of course, did not take the least notice of what she said. "Poor fellow, he cannot understand," said Marie Doll. "He won't be any trouble, though, because I shall be able to do as I like. He cannot tell me not to." "These foreigners, my dear," said Paper Doll, "are sometimes unpleasant to live with. I cannot see how you came to marry him. Do make him wear men's clothes." "Oh, I think he looks quite out of the ordinary, and everyone stares at him when we go out riding in the park with the little mistress," said Marie Doll. "As I am French, you see we both are foreigners, so that does not matter; and then, dear, Takeo is so comfortable to live with. He is no bother at all." But one night Marie Doll awoke to find her husband quite a different man from what she thought, for beside her sat two little Japanese dolls. When the clock struck twelve Marie Doll called to everyone: "Come quick and see my baby girls!" "Oh, dear! they look just like Takeo," said Paper Doll. "This place will be filled with foreigners. It is too bad." "I shall change their clothes at once," said Marie Doll. And then it was Marie Doll and all the toys got the surprise of their lives, for from the corner where he sat came Takeo, and when he stood in front of his wife, he said, "Madam will not change the clothes of our sons." When Marie recovered from her surprise, she gasped: "Sons! They are daughters!" "They are sons, madam, and sons they will remain!" said Takeo, looking at Marie very steadily. "I thought you could not understand or speak our language," said Marie, while all the others stood looking at Takeo in astonishment. "I was made in this country, and so were you; but I was made to represent a Japanese gentleman and I intend to live the life of one. As for speaking, we Japanese never speak unless we have something to say. I had something to say, and I said it. You heard me, madam. Those children are our sons and you will not change their clothes." Takeo turned around in a very sedate manner and returned to his corner and sat down.
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