E-text prepared by David Edwards, Carla Foust, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/americana) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 32581-h.htm or 32581-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/32581/pg32581-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32581/32581-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/littlealiensmyra00kellrich Transcriber's note: Minor changes have been made to punctuation. Printer's errors have been corrected and are listed at the end. LITTLE ALIENS by MYRA KELLY Author of "Little Citizens," "Wards of Liberty," "The Golden Season," Etc., Etc. Illustrated [Illustration: Together they retrieved it] New York Charles Scribner's Sons 1910 Copyright, 1910, by Charles Scribner's Sons Published April, 1910 [Decoration] To D. M. R. CONTENTS PAGE "EVERY GOOSE A SWAN" 1 "GAMES IN GARDENS" 25 "A BRAND FROM THE BURNING" 63 FRIENDS 107 THE MAGIC CAPE 143 "BAILEY'S BABIES" 163 "THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" 195 THE ETIQUETTE OF YETTA 227 A BENT TWIG 261 ILLUSTRATIONS Together they retrieved it _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE "I guess games in gardens ain't so awful healthy for somebody," said Yetta 32 "I never in my world seen how they all makes" 60 "I must refuse to translate it to you" 70 She staggered back into a chair, fortunately of heavy architecture, and stared at the apparition before her 140 Patrick was making discipline impossible 178 "What you think we got to our house?" 198 Rosie threw herself into a very ecstasy of her art 246 "EVERY GOOSE A SWAN" An ideal is like a golden pheasant. As soon as the hunter comes up with one he kills it in more or less bloody fashion, tears its feathers off, absorbs what he can of it, and then sets out, refreshed, in pursuit of another. Or if, being a tender-hearted hunter, he tries to keep it in a cage to tame it, to teach it, to show it to his friends, it very soon loses its original character so that beholders disparagingly exclaim: "Why, it's only a little brown hen! Hardly worth the trouble of hunting."