Our Charlie And What To Do With Him (1859) (Paperback)

CONTENTS . OUR CHARLEY. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 WHAT IS TO BE DONE WITH OUR CHARLEY 17 TRE HAPPY CmLD. . . . . . . . . . . 2 7 LEAVES FROM THE LIFE OF A FAIRY. . . 4 0 UNCLX JERRYS DREAM. . . . . . . . . 61 TAKE CARE OF THE HOOK. . . . . 79 FAIRY TALES. . . . . . . . . . . . 85 A TALK ABOUT BIRDS . . . . . . . . . 94 OUR CHARLEY. WHEN th e blaze of the wood fire flickers up and down in our snug evening parlor, there dances upon the wall a little shadow with a pug nose, a domestic household shadow-a busy shadow - a little resb less specimen of perpetual motion, and the owner thereof is a Oza Oharley. Now, we should not write about him and his ways, if he were strictly a peculiar and individual existence of our own home circle but it is not so. Our Charley exists in a thousand, nay, a million fam ilies he has existed in millions in all tirne back his name is variously rendered in a11 the tongues of the earth nay, there are a thousand synonyines for him in English - for indisputably our . No Inan is inore pressed with business, and needs more prudence, energy, tact, and courage to carry out his schemes, in face of all the opposing circumstances that grown people collstailtly throw in his way. Has he not ships to build and to sail and has he not vast cngi ieerings to make ponds and docks in every puddle or brook, where they shall lie at an chor Is not his pocket stuffed with material for sails a. nd cordage And yet, like n Inan of the world as hc is, all t, his does not content him, but he must own railroad stock too. If he lives vhere a steq. rn vliistle has vibrated, it has amkened an unquiet yearning within him, and some day hc harnesses all the chairs into a train, and makes alocoinotive of your work table and a steam whistle of himself He inspects toy-shop vindows, gets up flirtations with benevolent shop . men and when he gets his mouth close to papas ear, reveals to him how Mr. Soand-so has a locomotive that will mind up and go done-so cheap too-cant pa pn, get it f hrim And so papa all papas do goes soberly down and buys it, though he knows it will be broken in a week. Then what raptures The dear locomotive the darling black chimney sleeps under his pillow that he may feel of it in the night, and be sure when he first wakes that the joy is not evaporated. He bores every body to death with it as artlessly as grown people do with their hobbies but at last the ardor runs out...