Our Young Folks, Vol 1, No. 1: An Illustrated MagazineVarious
General
Our Young Folks, Vol 1, No. 1: An Illustrated Magazine
Various
Children's literature -- Periodicals
And having made up this story, he searched for such a stone as Joe would
be apt to throw, and, having found one, placed it on the pantry floor,
to appear as if it had fallen there after passing through the glass.
These accidents made him dislike his bow, and he hung it up in the
wood-shed. Then he made a lasso of a string, and caught the cat by
throwing the noose over her head. But Puss did not like the sport as
well as he did, and gave him such a scratch that he was glad to let her
run off with the lasso. Then he thought he would plague the old sow by
getting one of her little pink-white pigs; but the instant he had caught
it up in his arms, it began to squeal; and the mother, hearing it, ran
after him with such a frightful noise, throwing up her great, savage
tusks at him, that he dropped it, and ran for his life. She stopped to
smell of Piggy, and see if it was hurt; and so he got away, though he
was terribly frightened.
Then Andy thought of his toy ship; and having stopped the holes in the
sink, and pumped it full of water, he called it his ocean, and launched
the "Sea-bird." With a pair of bellows he made wind, and with a dipper
he made waves; and by placing a kettle bottom upwards in the middle of
the sink he made an island; and the good ship pitched, and tossed, and
rolled in a very exciting manner. At length he resolved to have a
shipwreck. This he managed, not by putting the ship on a rock, but by
putting a rock on the ship. He used for the purpose the stone Joe Beals
did not throw through the pantry window, and the "Sea-bird" went down,
with all her crew on board. He then opened the holes in the sink, and
the tide, going out, left the vessel on her beam-ends, stranded.
It would have been well for Andy if he had been contented with such
innocent pastimes, without doing mischief to the cat, or chickens, or
pigs, or trying to shoot the pretty birds that fly about the orchards,
singing so sweetly, and eating the worms that destroy the trees.
But nothing satisfied him; and to have some better fun than any yet, he
determined to stand in the door and scream, "Fire!" He could not imagine
greater sport than to see the neighbors come running to put out the
fire, and then laugh at them for being duped. He did not consider that
they would have to leave their work, and run a long distance, till they
were quite out of breath; or that his laughter would be a very mean and
foolish return for the good-will they would show in hastening to save
his father's house; or that, in case the house should really take fire
some day, and he should call for help, people might think it another
silly trick, and stay away.
He stood in the door, filled his lungs with a long breath, opened his
mouth as wide as he could, and screamed,--"Fire! fire! fire!"
Three times. He thought it so funny, that he had to stop and laugh.
Then he took another breath, and screamed again, louder than
before,--"Fire! fire! fire! fire! fire!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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