Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories, American; Fantasy literature; Short stories, American
It was morning when he waked again--Christmas morning--and as he opened
his eyes he found himself back in his little crib, pondering over the
mysterious experiences of the night. His heart was strangely light and
happy even for him, especially when he thought of the little orphan
children, and tried to imagine their happiness on waking and finding the
extra toys--his toys--in addition to their own; and as he thought about
it, his eyes wandered to the chimney-place, and an unexpected sight met
his gaze, for there stood the much-wished-for velocipede, and grouped
around it on the floor were a beautiful set of choo-choo cars exactly
like those he had left with the sick boy, and a duplicate of every one
of the extra toys he had left at the asylum for the orphans.
"They must have been playing a joke on me," he cried, in delighted
tones, as he sprang out of bed and rushed over to where the toys lay. "I
do believe they left them here while I was in the asylum.
The--dear--old--things!"
And then Jimmieboy was able to measure the delight of the orphan
children and the little sufferer by comparing it with his own; and when
he went to bed that night, he whispered in his mamma's ear that he
didn't know for sure, but he thought that if the orphans only had a papa
and a mamma like his, they would certainly be the happiest little
children in all the world.
II
THE DWARF AND THE DUDE GIANT.
The day had not yet dawned, but Jimmieboy was awake--wide awake. So wide
awake was he, indeed, that the small bed in which he had passed the
night was not broad enough by some ten or twelve feet to accommodate the
breadth of his wakefulness, and he had in consequence crawled over into
his father's bed, seated himself as nearly upon his father's neck as was
possible, and was vociferously demanding a story.
"Oh, wait a little while, Jimmieboy," said his father, wearily. "I'm
sound asleep--can't you see?"
"Tell a story," said Jimmieboy, poking his thumbs into his father's half
closed eyes.
The answer was a snore--not a real one, but one of those imitation
snores that fathers of boys like Jimmieboy make use of on occasions of
this sort, prompted no doubt by the maker's desire to convince a
persistent enemy to sleep that his cause is hopeless, and of which the
enemy is never to be convinced.
"Tell a story about a Giant," insisted Jimmieboy, a suggestion of tears
in his voice.
"Oh, well," returned the sleepy father, sitting up and, rubbing his eyes
vigorously in a vain effort to get all the sleepiness out of them. "If
you must have it, you must have it, so here goes. Let's see--a story of
a Giant or of a Dwarf?"
"Both," said Jimmieboy, placidly.
"Dear me!" cried his father. "I wish I'd kept quiet about the Dwarf.
Well, once upon a time there was a Giant."
"And a Dwarf, too," put in Jimmieboy, who did not intend to be cheated
out of a half of the story.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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