LITTLE NEVER-UPSET

LITTLE NEVER-UPSET

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Little Never-upset was a roly-poly fellow, with weights in his little body so placed that no matter how he was treated or tumbled about he always bobbed up smiling.

His face was a jolly little round one, with a smile that could not be rubbed off, and no matter how the other toys fussed or disputed among themselves, Little Never-upset did not take a part.

One night when the clock struck the midnight hour Miss French Doll and Miss Calico Doll began to fuss.

"You treated me very badly," said Miss Calico Doll. "When we were in the carriage riding in the park one would have thought we did not live in the same playroom."

"Why do you not have something to wear besides that old calico dress?" asked Miss French Doll. "I never was so disgraced as when we met Miss Marie Doll in her beautiful clothes. I am sure she wondered who you were."

"Anyone would think you never had a broken arm and had to go to the hospital," replied Miss Calico Doll. "You were a sorry-looking sight without your hand and part of your arm, but I did not feel ashamed of you when we sat in our chairs on the front porch."

"That is a very different thing," said Miss French Doll, with a toss of her head. "I could not help having an accident."

"I cannot help wearing this calico dress," said Miss Calico Doll. "It is painted on me just like my face."

"My goodness!" exclaimed Jack-in-a-box, jumping up with a spring, "whatever is all the trouble? A body cannot get an extra wink for you two fussing."

"Bow-wow-wow!" barked little Dog-on-wheels, "why don't you scare a body right out of his skin, Jack? I was asleep right beside your box."

Teddy Bear began to growl. "Anyone would think this was a menagerie instead of a playroom," he said.

"Yes, they would," said Calico Cat, with a spiteful twist of her tail. "Your growl helps me to make it real."

Calico Cat humped her back ready to spring at Teddy if he answered, and Little Dog-on-wheels barked, ready to jump at any one who gave him the least cause.

Jack-in-a-box quivered on his spring with anger because French Doll told him he had no legs and he better keep quiet, while Miss Calico Doll tried to think of something spiteful to say to Miss French Doll.

It was this very moment that Little Never-upset, who was listening to all the fussing from the shelf where he was sitting, set a good example to the playroom toys.

"Get off my shelf!" said old Elephant, who always stood there and thought he owned it, and as he spoke he gave Little Never-upset a bang with his trunk and over he went on the floor, right on his head!

All the toys stopped fussing to watch, and quick as a flash up jumped Little Never-upset on his feet and rolled from side to side with laughter.

"You are the best-natured fellow I ever saw," said Teddy Bear. "Don't you feel like paying Elephant back for doing that?"

"Not a bit," answered Little Never-upset; "life is too short to quarrel. Think of all the fun you lose taking time to wrangle."

"You are right," said Teddy Bear. "What was all the fuss about, anyway?"

No one could say just what began it, and in a few minutes everybody was laughing and having a good time, and all because Little Never-upset had bobbed up smiling.

Old Elephant took time, however, to lean over the shelf and call to Little Never-upset. "Say, old fellow, I am sorry I was so rude," he said. "Come up again and stay as long as you like."

And Little Never-upset nodded his head and said he would, smiling as if he never had been tumbled off the shelf.

MR. FOX CUTS THE COTTONTAILS

MR. FOX CUTS THE COTTONTAILS

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Mr. Fox decided that the only way to get all the wood animals to have a good opinion of him was to give a big dinner, for he had somehow got rather a bad name among the animals for being so tricky.

So all day long he went about telling all the animals that when it was dark—quite dark—they were to come to his house and dine.

There were the Squirrels and the Coons, the Possums and the Bear family and all the Rabbit family, including Susie Cottontail and her brother Jimmie and many others.

You may be sure that no one ate any dinner that day. They all saved their appetites for Mr. Fox's night-time feast, for, as Mr. Coon expressed it, "we should be very ungrateful to Mr. Fox if we did not take to his dinner our very best appetites; therefore our stomachs should be empty."

As soon as it was dark, so that Mr. Dog could not see them, all the animals began to slowly creep toward Mr. Fox's home.

Mr. Fox let them in one by one and was careful to draw all the shades and stuff the keyhole so the light would not show outside if anything happened that Mr. Dog should be roaming through the woods.

At last all the animals but Jimmie and Susie Cottontail were there, and everyone began to wonder where they could be and what kept them so late.

It happened that Jimmie and Susie Cottontail were not at all sure they would enjoy Mr. Fox's dinner, and they had run over to the farm on the hill to have a dinner of some garden stuff of which they were fond.

They had stayed longer than they had intended, and when they started for Mr. Fox's house were not as cautious as they usually were about throwing Mr. Dog off their track.

Just as they were entering the wood who should come bounding after them but Mr. Dog, who had followed them from the farm, and off ran Jimmie and Susie Cottontail looking for a hole in which to hide.

Mr. Fox's house was the first refuge they came to, and in the door they burst, with Mr. Dog at their heels.

Of course there was no dinner and the party was spoiled, for everybody ran, and Mr. Dog, not knowing which one to chase when he saw so many, went home without having caught anyone.

The next day Mr. Fox was talking with his friend, Mr. Coon. "No one of the animals would have gotten us into such a fix but those Cottontails," he said.

"In the first place, their ears are so short they never heard quickly like some others of that family, and then those tails—why they can be seen for yards and yards. I should have known better than to ask them.

"And everyone knows they have no sense. The Cottontails run into the first opening they see and never keep on running as their cousins do. I have had my lesson. I shall cut them off my visiting list from now on."

And that is the reason the Cottontail family are never invited to any dinners that the wood folk give—their trails can be too easily followed by Mr. Dog.

OLD NORTH WIND

OLD NORTH WIND

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Old North Wind lived away up in the North Pole Land in the winter, and there her children, the Icebergs, grew.

Old North Wind was very proud of her huge children, and when the long, cold winter was at an end she said: "My big, strong children, come with me. We will float away from this land where there is no one to see your beauty and go to the seas where the ships are sailing.

"Of course, you all cannot go, but I will take the three big brothers because they are the strongest, and show the old South Wind and the Sun we are stronger and mightier than they."

So the three largest of the icebergs broke away from their brothers and sailed away with old North Wind, who blew her chilling breath on them as they went along.

"Ah, my beauties," she said, "I will make you so strong that no breath of harm can come to you, and you shall crush the big ships and make all who see you tremble with fear."

The Icebergs believed old North Wind, for they had never been away from North Pole Land and did not know anything about the warm South Wind, or how warm and melting Mr. Sun could be.

So they sailed and sailed until they came to the big ocean where the ships had to cross as they went from one land to another.

Old North Wind kept close to her big children, but one day old South Wind saw them.

"Oh, ho!" he said, "there is old North Wind with three of her sons. She is up to some mischief, I'll be bound; so I will ask Mr. Sun to keep his eye on them."

"I have been watching them for many days," said Mr. Sun, "and with all of old North Wind's cold breath I have warmed her sons more than she knows."

At last one morning bright and early old North Wind espied a ship sailing right in their path.

"Now, my beauties," she said, with a shrill laugh, "show your strength and crush the ship that dares to sail in your path. We are the rulers of the sea by right of might and we must show our strength."

Blowing and shrieking, old North Wind hastened her sons toward the ship, and she was so intent on working destruction that she did not feel the warm breath of old South Wind or the rays of old Mr. Sun.

Suddenly she saw her huge sons shiver, and before she could blow a chilling blast upon them they swayed, and with a plunge sank from sight, and the water closed over them.

Old North Wind howled and blew, but the Sun and old South Wind drove her back toward her North Pole Land until the ship was safe from her wrath.

"You wait," she shrieked as she ran away from Mr. Sun and old South Wind. "I'll come again next year with bigger and stronger children and you shall learn who rules the seas."

"Remember, North Wind," said old South Wind in soft, gentle tones, "might is not always right, and while you can make much more noise than I can or old man Sun, we can always melt your children; so keep to your North Pole Land if you wish to keep them."

Old North Wind bustled away with angry shrieks, but she knew full well the power of South Wind and Mr. Sun, but, like many people, she wanted to believe in her own strength and power; and so she roared louder and louder as she blew back to her cold homeland in order to convince herself of her might.

ORIANNA

ORIANNA

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Bunny White, one night when the Fairies were holding a revel, peeped out of his window to see the frolic, for Bunny and the Fairies were the best of friends because members of Bunny's family had for ages drawn the carriage of the Queen.

But to-night Bunny saw a stranger in the midst of the Fairy group, tiny like the others, but very differently dressed, and the Fairies were all listening to what she had to say, rather than making merry, as was their custom.

"Who can she be?" thought Bunny White, and, being a very inquisitive creature, he ran out of his house and over to the carriage of the Fairy Queen to ask her about the little stranger.

"Oh, that is our dear Orianna, the Indian Fairy," answered the Queen, "and only once in a while does she come to visit us"; and then because Bunny White was so interested the Queen told him all about Orianna.

"You see," said the Queen, "all children are afraid of Indian dreams, so I had to have a Fairy who would make the Indians kind and loving to the 'Pale Face,' as the Indians call the white folk.

"Orianna lives near the Indians in a forest, and when you see a tall tree with an opening at the bottom like the door of a wigwam you may be sure that it is one of Orianna's homes.

"Did you notice her pretty costume?"

Bunny White told the Queen he had not had a very close view of Orianna, so the Queen told him to run over to the Fairies and see the pretty dress she wore.

Orianna wore the dress of an Indian girl, tiny moccasins on her little feet and two tiny black braids, one over each shoulder, but the thing that attracted Bunny White the most was her wings.

They were not at all like those of the other Fairies. Orianna's wings were feathers of an eagle.

Her wand, too, was different, for instead of a wand she carried a tiny silver bow and arrow, the tip of the arrow being of gold.

Bunny ran back to the Queen and told her he thought Orianna the very prettiest of all the Fairies. "But what is it that shines so on the tip of the arrow?" she asked.

"Oh, that is the love she shoots straight into the hearts of all the Indians," replied the Queen.

"Orianna flies up through her tree house to the tallest branch and shoots her love-tipped arrow straight into the heart of all Indians, and so you see the children need never be afraid any more of dreaming of Indians, for all Indians are good and Orianna is always on the lookout from the top of one of her homes, and that is the reason she so seldom comes to visit us."

Just then Orianna came to bid the Queen good night, and Bunny White ran off to his home, but the next morning he was up bright and early to look for the wigwam trees.

But not one did he find, for the Fairies are very clever, and who ever did find the places where they live; but for all that we know, there are Fairies, and now that Orianna is taking care of the Indians no little boy or girl need ever be afraid of Indian dreams, because the Fairy Queen has given them a Fairy.

PUSSY WILLOW'S FURS

PUSSY WILLOW'S FURS

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Miss Pussy Willow put on her furs one day in March and stepped out into the sunshine; but, while the sun was warm, March's breath was cold, so she hugged her furs closer about her and sat on a swaying bough.

It was early and Miss Pussy knew it, but what cared she, dressed in her furs; she knew that her silver-gray dress was very much admired, and while she was modest she was not above caring for admiration.

Pussy Willow had no trouble until all the spring and summer flowers arrived in their gayly colored gowns and then, though she did not in the least envy them, she did not like to hear the scornful remarks about her furs, and sometimes she wished that under her fur coat she had a pretty colored gown.

"It is really too bad," said one Red Flower. "Poor Pussy Willow! I do feel so sorry for her; she wears that fur coat all the year round."

"You know why, my dear, do you not?" asked a tall Blue Flower growing near.

"I suppose she has no other," said the Red Flower.

"I think it is because she has on an old dress," answered tall Blue Flower; "she never takes off that fur coat, you notice, and, of course, these hot days she would if she had a new dress. Don't you think I am right?"

"I should not wonder if you were," was the reply, "but let us ask Mr. Poppy what he thinks."

"Oh, what is the use of asking him. He is asleep half the time. I do believe he never sees our pretty frocks at all," replied Blue Flower. "Let us ask Miss Thistle; she sees everything and she may have asked Miss Willow before this why she never takes off her coat; you know Thistle cares nothing for the feelings of others."

Miss Thistle said she did not know, but that she would ask Miss Willow right away, "for why in the world she wears that fur coat all summer I cannot think. She really is the only one around here who does not give attention to her clothes. I think style means more than color," said Miss Thistle, with a toss of her head.

"I can tell you what you wish to know," said Lady Bug, alighting on a bush near the gossips.

"Oh, do, dear Lady Bug!" said Blue Flower. "You travel and know the styles. Now don't you think blue is ever so much better style for summer than any other color?"

"Yes, I do travel," replied Miss Lady Bug, without replying to Blue Flower's question, "and I see the styles, as you said, and that is the reason I can tell you the truth about Pussy Willow. She is the only one among you who really is in style."

"In style with that fur on!" said Thistle, all prickly with anger. "Why, where have you been, Lady Bug? Up to the North Pole?"

"No," calmly replied Miss Lady Bug. "I have been everywhere that fashionable folks go, and everybody is wearing furs, no matter how hot the weather; and so I tell you again that the only one who is in style is Miss Pussy Willow with her silvery fur."

Miss Pussy Willow did not let the flowers around her know that she heard what Lady Bug had said, but she felt very happy and no longer did she wish that under her fur she had a dainty colored gown.

She behaved in a modest manner and put on no airs, for did she not know that she was dressed in the latest fashion?