Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1880 — THE LAND OF SHORT MEMORIES. [ARTICLE]

THE LAND OF SHORT MEMORIES.

George meant to be a good boy, but he very seldom did anything; that he was told to do. He nearly always forgot it. Once, when his sister May was very sick, he was sent after some medicine for her. So he started in a great hurry; but he met Fred Smith with his dog, and Fred coaxed him to go and coast “ iust once” down the long Red Hill. Then he forgot all about May and the medicine until it was quite dark, and he felt so sorry and ashamed that he ran home and crept up the back stairway to bed, hungry and lonely and cold. By and by, he fell asleep, and when he awoke he was in a new and strange place. He found himself in a house which was only partially covered by a roof, and the rain came through the uncovered part and dropped upon his bed. Georgie sat up and looked around him. There Was a fire-place in the room, besides some wood and kindlings, which the poor, shivering little fellow eyed very wistfully, thinking that some one might perhaps light a fire. It was very chilly, and his teeth chattered. There was a wee old woman sitting in the chimney-corner, and Georgie spoke to her.

“What is it you want, Jimmie?” she said. “ Will you please tell me what your name is, and where lam?” he asked. “ My name—well, really, I forget it just now,” she replied, “ but you are in the Land of Short Memories—that, I am aware of!” “ But what shall I call you?” asked Georgie. “ Oh, call me Mite! That will do as well as any other name till vou forget it, Henry.” “ My name is Georgie.” “Is it? Well, I win try and recollect it. ‘Tom,’ you said it was, didn’t you?” “No, I didn’t!” retorted Georgie, Setting cross with the old lady, for he lougnt she meant to tease him. “There, there!” cried Mite; “the doctors said you must not get excited, or else that you must. I forget which. Do you want anything to eat?” “Yes, I should like to have some gruel.” “ I will make you some,” said she. “ I have a nice fire here, or 1 should have, only that I seem to have forgotten to light the kindlings.” While she was bustling around, busy with the gruel, Georgie lay quite still, looking out where there was no roof, at the Dlue sky, which he could now see, for it had" ceased raining. “ Why don’t you have the roof cover the whole of your house?” asked Georgie of the old lady. “ The rest of the roof is somewhere around,” said she. “I guess the workmen forgot to put it on. Now, here is your nice gruel already for you.” “ Why, it is cold!” exclaimed the disappointed Georgie, who was quite hungry. “Sure enough; I forgot to boil it!” said the old lady. “ And I don’t see anything in the bowl but waterf* “ Dear me! Dear me!” said Mite. “I must have forgotten to. put any meal in it!”

Georgie now began to cry. “Don’t cry, don’t cry, Johnnie,” said Mite, “I will boil a chicken for you by and by, if I don’t forget it. Here are the doctors coming to see you now, and yon must sit up and talk with them.” Pretty soon two doctors came in, and one of them asked Mite if she felt better to-day. “Yes, I think I do,” said she. “Did you take the medicine I ordered for you?” asked the other doctor. “I suppose I did, but I don’t remember,” answered Mite. Then the doctors felt her pulse, looked at her tongue, and said she must take some salts, and went away. When they had gone, Georgie began to cry more loudly than .before. “What is the matter, Fred?” demanded Mite. “My name is not Fred, I tell you!” screamed Georgie. “Never mind; I always foiget your name, so I call you by anything 1 can think of. But tell me what makes you cry.” . s , “Why, lam sick, and I' thought the doctors were coming to see me!”

"Bless my stars!” exclaimed the old lady, " sure enough, I was not the ono that was sick! I meant to have remembered and told the doctors that they came to see yon; but I forgot it when they looked at my tongue. I’ll run after them and call them back!” So, away went Mite, and was gone ever So long. When she came back, she said she could not find the doctors anywhere, and everybody had forgotten where they lived, so that no one could go after them. “I’m sorry,” said Mite, "but it can’t be helped, for you know we live in the Land of Short Memories.” Then Georgie cried still more bitterly. " I wish I could go home,” he said. “I am sure I shall die here! I wish I could go home! I would never forget to mindmother again!” As soon as he had saiathis, he heard a familar voice pleading, "Ma, mayn’t I go for Georgie’s medicine? I won’t forget to bring it!” Georgie turned slowly in his little bed and saw his sister May. Next, his eyes rested on his mother, who looked very pale and thin, but sweet and smiling. “ Oh, ma, have I come back to you?” he cried, with a sigh. “ We hope so, Georgie,” replied his mother. " You have had a bad fever, just like May’s, and been very sick, but you soon will get well now.” “ Did May die, because I forgot her medicine P” “ No. Father came home and got it for her; she is well now, and has helped take care of you.” “ Mother,” said Georgie, very earnestly, "I am going to try not to forget things any more!” And Georgie did try. When he became well, and was sent upon errands, he always thought of Mite, and the gruel, and the doctors, and the Land of Short Memories, where he went in his fever-dreams, and he was cured of the very bad habit of forgetting Jiis duty.— S. S. Colt, in St. Nicholas.