The Story Hour: A Book for the Home and the Kindergarten — John Shaqi
The Story Hour: A Book for the Home and the KindergartenWiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
General
The Story Hour: A Book for the Home and the Kindergarten
Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith
Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Short stories
“Tell me, my Moufflou, how you ever came back to me, over all the
rivers, and all the bridges, and all the miles of road?”
Moufflou can never answer him, but I think he must have found his way
home because he loved his master so much; and the grown people always
say, “Love will find out the way.”
BENJY IN BEASTLAND.
ADAPTED FROM MRS. EWING.
“With the genuine story-teller the inner life of the genuine listener
is roused; he is carried out of himself, and he thereby measures
himself.”--FROEBEL.
Benjy was a very naughty, disagreeable boy! It is sad to say it, but it
is truth. He always had a cloudy, smudgy, slovenly look, like a slate
half-washed, that made one feel how nice it would be if he could be
scrubbed inside and out with hot water and soap.
Benjy was the only boy in the family, but he had two little sisters who
were younger than he. They were dear, merry little things, and many boys
would have found them pleasant little playmates; but Benjy had shown how
much he disliked to play with them, and it made them feel very badly.
One of them said one day, “Benjy does not care for us because we are
only girls, so we have taken Nox for our brother.” Nox was a big curly
dog, something like a Newfoundland.
Now Benjy was not at all handsome, and he hated tubs and brushes and
soap and water. He liked to lie abed late in the mornings, and when he
got up he had only time enough to half wash himself. But Nox rose early,
liked cold water, had snow-white teeth and glossy hair, and when you
spoke to him he looked straight up at you with his clear honest brown
eyes. Benjy's jacket and shirt-front were always spotted with dirt,
while the covering of Nox's chest was glossy and well kept. Benjy came
into the parlor with muddy boots and dirty hands; but Nox, if he had
been out in the mud, would lie down when he came home, and lick his
brown paws till they were quite clean. Benjy liked to kill all kinds of
animals, but Nox saved lives, though he often came near losing his own.
Near their home was a deep river, where many a dog and cat was drowned.
There was one place on the bank of this river where there was an old
willow-tree, which spread its branches wide and stretched its long arms
till they touched the water. Here Nox used to bring everything that he
found in the river.
I must tell you that Benjy did not like Nox, and with very good
reason. Benjy had had something to do with the death of several animals
belonging to the people in the neighborhood, and he had tied stones or
tin cans around their necks and dropped them into the river. But Nox
used to wander round quite early in the morning, and very often found in
the river and brought out what Benjy had thrown in, and this is why he
did not like the brave dog.
There was another dog in the family, named Mr. Rough. His eyes had
been almost scratched out by cats, his little body bore marks of many
beatings, and he had a hoarse bark which sounded as if he had a bad
cold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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