Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (of 17): Fun and Thought for Little FolkVarious
General
Boys and Girls Bookshelf; a Practical Plan of Character Building, Volume I (of 17): Fun and Thought for Little Folk
Various
Children's literature
When he was dressed, he came down-stairs, and Aunt Polly gave him his
breakfast. He had new milk in a blue bowl, and johnny-cake on a little
blue plate. These he always carried out onto the door-step because he
liked, while he was eating and drinking, to see the green grass bending
in the breeze, and the yellow butterflies dancing here and there in the
sunshine.
"This is the creamiest milk I ever saw," said Little Boy Blue.
"That's nice," said Aunt Polly. "Do you want some more?"
"Yes, please," said Little Boy Blue. So Aunt Polly brought the blue
pitcher, and poured more creamy milk into his little blue bowl, and
Little Boy Blue said: "Thank you, Aunt Polly."
When Little Boy Blue could eat no more golden johnny-cake, and drink no
more creamy milk, he jumped up from the door-step.
First he put his arms around Aunt Polly's neck, and gave her a hug and a
kiss. Then he went into the house to get his horn. The horn was a little
blue one, and it hung on a peg near the kitchen door.
What do you suppose the horn was for? Why, Little Boy Blue watched the
cows and the sheep. Then if they got into the wrong places, and trampled
on the crops, Little Boy Blue blew the horn. One of the men always heard
the horn, and came to help drive the cows or the sheep back where they
belonged.
All this was very pleasant. But one day--what do you think? The sheep
ran away, and jumped over a stone wall into the meadow, and the cows got
into the corn. Nobody knew how it happened. Little Boy Blue had gone out
that morning, just as he always did, to look after them; and no one had
heard any horn. At last Towzer ran up to the barn, barking loudly. That
was to give the alarm--about the sheep and the cows.
"How queer!" said Aunt Polly, who was in the barn-yard feeding the
chickens.
"How strange!" said Uncle Ben.
"Where's Little Boy Blue?" asked the men.
[Illustration: "'HE'S UNDER THE HAYCOCK, FAST ASLEEP!'"]
"I'll call him," said Aunt Polly. So she walked, and she walked, all
around the farm. As Aunt Polly walked she looked here, and she looked
there. And she called:
"Little Boy Blue! Come blow your horn.
The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn."
Where do you think Aunt Polly found him? When the head-farmer asked her,
"Where's the little boy that looks after the sheep?" Aunt Polly said:
"He's under the haycock, fast asleep."
"Shall we go wake him?" said the head-farmer.
"No, no; let him lie," said Aunt Polly. "For if we should wake him,
'he'd cry, cry, cry.'"
You see Little Boy Blue got up so early, he grew sleepy. And the sun was
hot. And the haymow made a soft pillow. So he fell sound asleep, and
dreamed about the woolly white lamb.
But on the day after that, Little Boy Blue took a nap, first, so that
when he looked after the cows and the sheep he could keep awake. He
never again had to be told to blow his horn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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