Child-Garden of Story, Song and Play Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 Excerpt: ...very happy for a long time. The little birds sang their sweetest songs to me, and I really had nothing to do but to make pictures of the things I saw around me. What fun that was And I know the pictures in my waters were beautiful, for the moon always smiled so pleasantly when she saw her own sweet image in my depths. Then the little stars, the Queen Moon's courtiers, blinked in such a happy way when they looked down, and saw their own twinkling reflections What fun I had making pictures of the fleecy white clouds You see they sailed through the sky so fast that I had a bit of hard work to keep up with them. Speaking of hard work reminds me of how hard I had to work, truly, when the wind elfins came along with their tiny trumpets and bellowsThen I had a time; why, the faintest ripple they raised on my surface blurred the pictures, and I was often obliged to make them all over again in the evening when the sun disappearedYes, these elves were full of mischievous pranks, but good, merry little fellows, for all that; and for all the work they caused me, sometimes I was glad enough to see them, when I felt a bit lonely. 338 A RIVER'S STORY. I often did feel lonely in those days, until the Indians came along; then my old-time happiness returned, for the Indians gave me a new kind of work, which kept me very much interested; they gave me their canoes to carry. Did you ever see an Indian canoe, children? Ah, but they were pretty, as they glided swiftly over my surface; and as they were so very light, it did not seem like work at all to carry them. I grew to love these Indians, and I think they were very fond of me, too; for every Summer they returned to put up their wigwams on my shores. They used to call me Shatemuc, and I always regretted that my name had bee...