[Illustration: Woman, Man, and two children] HELEN’S BABIES _by_ JOHN HABBERTON _Illustrated by_ Tod Dwiggins GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY GROSSET & DUNLAP _HELEN’S BABIES_ _All Rights Reserved_ _Printed in the United States of America_ Dedication Everyone knows that there are, in the World, hundreds of thousands of fathers and mothers, each one of whom possesses the best children that ever lived. I am, therefore, moved by a sense of the eternal fitness of things to dedicate this little volume to The Parents of the Best Children in the World with the reminder that it is considered the proper thing for each person, to whom a book is dedicated, to purchase and read a copy. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS _Page_ “We Call ’Em the Imps” 5 “Here’s My Grass-Cutter” 7 “Wheels Go Wound” 11 “I Believe You Arranged the Floral Decorations” 15 Dropping Them Into the Bathtub 17 Budge’s Idea of Jonah and the Whale 25 “We Hope He’s Got Lots of Candy” 29 I Encountered a Door Ajar 35 The Dolly Found 37 “Papa Don’t Whip Us With Sticks” 41 An Amateur in Packing 45 “I Hunged Over More Than Toddie Did” 58 “We’ve Got an Umbrella” 67 “When I Was a Soldier,” Remarked Toddie 71 “Kish My Dolly, Too” 79 Two Little Savages 85 My Nephew Budge In His Best 91 Putting an Extension on the Afternoon 97 “I Was All Ate Up By a Lion” 103 Toddie Investigating a Hornet’s Nest 109 “But Let’s Hurry Home” 113 “Oo-Ee! Zha Turtle On My Plate” 125 Acting Upon Budge’s Suggestion 133 To Skip All Love Talk in Novels 139 The Goat, the Carriage, and the Boys 143 “An’ Wawtoo to Make Mud-Pies” 151 “Wantsh Dancin’ Tune” 157 Two Great Hands Seized Toddie 163 “He’s Got a Dead Mouse to be Jonah Now” 165 Holding Over His Head a Ragged Umbrella 177 “I Didn’t Hurt De ’Ittle Mousie” 181 A Tribute to Mothers 185 I Shouted “Hurrah” 191