Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1892 — FOR OUR LITTLE FOLKS. [ARTICLE]

FOR OUR LITTLE FOLKS.

A COLUMN OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO THEM. (That Children Have Done, What They Are Doing, and What They Should Do to Pass Their Childhood Days,

A Tittle Girl as a Rainmaker. A little girl in St. Lucia has the faculty of making smart showers of rain fall from the ceiling of rooms. This little girl after making it rain in every room in succession was ultimately taken into the garden in the hopes that she would make it rain on the vegetables. But unfortunately she could only make it rain in bedrooms and kitchens. Kitty's Bed. Kitty was lost. Bob and Trudyhad looked upstairs and downstairs, and In the closets and under the beds, but she could not be found. Buff was her name because she had such a pretty yellow color. Buff ate her supper an hour ago, and now it was time to put her to bed in the barn, “Puss,' puss, puss! Kitty, kitty, kitty!” Bob and Trudy called. ' Then they listened and waited, hoping to hear her say, “Meow!” and to see her come trotting along in her soft, downy slippers. Bob put on his rubber boots and his overcoat and cap and mittens, and lighted his little lantern, and went outdoors to look for her. He looked in the woodshed and under the bushes, but no kitty was there. “Did you find her?” said Trudy, when Bob came in. “No; 1 can’t find her,” Bob said, “Oh! where is our dear little Buff?” said Trudy. “Maybe that big dog that we saw to-day ate her up and killed her.” “P’raps that tramp carried her off,” said Bob. Trudy went and looked out the window. She heard the cold wind blow, and the ground was white with snow. Then Trudy began to sob and cry and say: “Poor, poor Kitty! She will have to stay out all night. She will freeze her toes. Oh, dear!” Bob’s round eyes looked very big and sad, hut he said, like a brave boy: “Don’t you cry, Trudy. I’ll find her ’fore I sleep. ” Bedtime came, and Kitty was not found yet. Mamma said: “Come, dears, go to bed. I think puss will be here when you wake up jn the morning.” “Please let us stay up and watch for her,” said Bob and Trudy, both at once. But mamma said, “No.” They started to go up-stairs to bod, but stopped in the parlor to say “Good night” to everybody. Aunt Jane was there. She had come just before tea from Cranberry Creek to make a visit. Her muff lay on one of the easycliairs. The big people were all talking and laughjpg,'and,they had not seen anything queer about that muff. But Bob’s sharp eyes did. Ha went over to the chair and gave one look. Then he called, “Trudy, come here, quick!” And what did Trudy see but Buff’s yellow head poked out from Aunt Jane’s yellow muff. “.Didn’t I tell you I’d find her?" said Bqb. “Suoh a nice warm bed as it is!” said Kitty to herself, as Bob carried her off to the barn, “I wish I could stay there. ” —The Pansy.

As You Would Be Done By. Three little girls, Nan, Alice, and Grace, were having a little sewing society of their own in the room next to the “big society” where the ladies were making clothing for a podr family that had lost everything in a fire. As the little women were sewing on their dollies’ dresses and hats and beautiful aprons, Alice suddenly said: “Do you suppose their dolls were burned?” “Yes,” said Nan, “for mamma said ‘everything.’ ” “Oh, how dreadful!” said Grace, “just think what if our dollies were burned?” And then they all thought afew minutes and worked in silence. Then looking up, they caught each others eyes, and each saw her own there, too, and with one consent they all three went over to the row of dOlls lying on the table. “As you would be done by,” Nan said, and picked up the prettiest doll of them all. “Yes,” said Grace, though h«r lips trembled. And they took the best hat and best apron and best dress, thinking, “As you would be done by” all the time, and quietly tiptoed out into the hall and laid the dolly safe among the other things in the big box.

A Short Feast. There was once an old rat that lived in a garret. He had begun life there, and having now a large family, he found it inconvenient to move. But the garret had one drawback as a place of residence. It was a long distance from the kitchen, and tl>e rat, having to go so far to forage for food, found It not always easy to supply the needs of his growing family. One night he started down the garstairs to find something for sup-

per. Any one listening could have hearS the patter of his Zeet through the hall. But everybody was fast asleep. The sitting-room door stood open. As the rat passed he glanced in, and noticed a queerly shaped bag lying on the table. He went nearer to investigate, and found a bag of fresh lovely biscuits—at least two pounds. Here was a treasure indeed. “Aha!” said Mr. Rat, smacking his lips; “I shall not go down to the kitchen for supper to-night.” He reflected upon what he had better do. He could not carry the whole bag up-stairs; if lie took the biscuits one at a time he would not be able to secure all of them before he was discovered. Must he lose this feast and lie content with the two or three he could eat before morning? He looked about the room, and his eyes fell upon the open grate, bare and tireless. It was only used in the coldest weather. “Just the thing!” said the wise rat. With the biscuit in his mouth ho ran up the flue and found there a splendid hiding place* The chimney was tilled with a bag of straw, and behind it he secreted the biscuits, making many journeys. The next morning there was a great outcry among the children. Some one had oaten the sweet biscuits. The bag was empty. “Mice!” cried Aubrey. “Nonsense!” said nurse. “Nomouso —no, nor ten mice—could eat all of those biscuits in one night.” But nobody solved the riddle. Tho old rat and his family lived high for a week, and Mr. Rat grew fat from finding continual suppers at such short range.

At the end of the week there came a big snowstorm,' and then a hard frost. The house was very cold. Mamma decreed extra tires, and Nancy came upstairs to build a tiro in the sitting-room grate. “Don't forget the straw bag, Nancy,” said the nurse. “It’s put in tho chimney to keep out the wind, but you must take it down before you start I*he Are.” Nancy put her arm up the chimney to pull down tho straw hag. One end seemed quite loose, hut the other was wedged in tightly. She gave a hard tug, and the bag came away so suddenly that she tumbled over backward. “My goodness!” cried Nanoy. Dor after the bag followed a shower of soot, and then a shower of curiously shaped objects which had once been white, but had grown gray, and then black in their hiding place. But the parties feasting upon them had never hesitated on that account. When she had examined them, Nancy oalled nurse, who was duly surprised, and then she called the children, who added “Ohs!” and “Ahs!” to suit the occasion. “Jt’sthcm lost biscuits, to be sure,” pronounced nurse. “And it’s that old garret rat that’s done it —the wretch! I hear him come thumpin' down those garret stairs every night." Presently the fire blazed and roared up the chimney, and threw flashes of light into the farthest corners. That night when the old garret rat came down and saw it hit heart sank Into his toes. He knew he would have to go all the way to the kitchen again to find a supper.— Harper’s Young People.

Stories of Children* Little Edith (suddenly, but not seriously)—“Mamma, do you think I shall get welly" Mamma —“Of course you will, darling.” Little Edith—“l don’t think I shall, mamma; and I guess it’s best I shouldn’t. Being under 5 perhaps I could get Into heaven for half fare.”—Exchange. ' “Pa, jou are going to take me to the circus aren’t you?” “Yes; if you are a good boy.” “Well, I’ll try. to be good, because If you can’t take me to the circus you won’t have any excuse for going yourself, and I know that would disappoint you very much.”— Omaha Bee. Smith’s Monthly vouches for this: Day—“ This allowing a baby to nurse a bottle after he is old enough to vote is played out.” Weeks—“ What is the matter?” Day—“l was taking my night cap last night, when the baby sat up in bed, lifted the bottle and called out: ‘Here’s looking at ’oo, papal’ ” r Mas. G. was much interested in a mission Sunday school in one of our large cities, and spent an hour or two every Sunday afternoon with a class of little girls—poor street waifs that had been gathered in. Upon one occasion, when the last lesson had been about the ten virgins, five of whom were wise and five foolish, the teacher asked, as was her custom, who in the class could tell anything about the lesson of the previous Sunday. One little girl, who had never been in a Sunday school in her life until the week before, was on her feet in an instant, and said; “Please, mum, I ken. It was a weddin’ and there was ten on ’em.” And there the child stood, a touching little picture, with ln*r pinched figure and povertystricken dress, telling in her street drateet the whole story, no point of which she lost. Pathetic as it was, it was irresistibly funny when she by saying, “And them as hasn’t got no oil in their lamps says to them as haS to ‘give ’em some;’ and them as has got oil in their lamps says to them as hasn’t ‘Be off wid yez, and go to the grocery and git yer own kerosene.’ ”