_Page_ How the New Year Knows When to Come 9 About the Telegraph 12 How the Military Salute Came 14 Candlemas Day 16 Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday 18 About Valentines 21 Why We Celebrate George Washington’s Birthday 24 About Boy Scouts 26 St. Patrick’s Day 28 Lent 31 Palm Sunday 32 The Story of the Bible 33 Good Friday 35 About Easter 37 Trailing Arbutus or Mayflower 39 About Pearls 42 About Mr. and Mrs. Pelican 44 Indian Day 47 About Hats 49 Mother’s Day 51 About Forks 53 About Silk 54 All We Know About Strawberries 57 Children’s Day 59 About Carrier Pigeons 60 About Coal 62 Flag Day 65 The Sea-gull Monument 67 Fourth of July 69 Mr. Irish Potato 72 Old Abe, the Wisconsin War-eagle 75 About Clocks 77 About Cotton 80 About Coral 82 The Star-Spangled Banner 84 About Umbrellas 87 Hallowe’en 88 About Wolves 89 How Thanksgiving Came 91 Christmas 93 The Boy named Billy There was once a boy named Billy, who spent a summer in the woods with Somebody. Somebody had expected to have a wonderful time telling him stories; but it turned out that the boy named Billy did not care for made up stories. He would listen, if they were sufficiently exciting, but even stories of wolves and bears and tigers were not very much worth while unless they were _really so_. He wanted to know about the beginning of things, and what certain days meant, and who started customs, and ever and ever so many things that you’d never suppose a small boy would be interested in.