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Chapter I

FUN AND FROLIC

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED.

EDITED BY

E. T. ROE

HOW GRANDMA SURPRISED ELSIE.

GRANDMAMMA WONDERS IF SHE CAN'T MEND IT.

Elsie Dean was four years old when she was invited to her first party. It was Dollie Blossom's fifth birthday, and Dollie's mamma had arranged for a little party in honor of the event. Of course Elsie's mamma was perfectly willing she should go to the party, for the Blossoms were very nice people, and Mrs. Dean was always glad for an occasion of enjoyment for her little daughter. But alas, on the day before the party was to occur, Elsie went to a picnic, and was so unfortunate as to tear her dress—the only one she had which her mamma thought was suitable for her to wear to the party. "I am afraid you cannot go to the party, my dear, for now you have nothing fit to wear," said Mrs. Dean to Elsie. The little girl's eyes filled with tears, and her Grandmamma seemed to feel almost as bad about it as Elsie. But she did not wish to make the little girl feel any worse over her disappointment, so she made light of it and told her that there would probably be another birthday party soon, and by that time she would surely have a suitable dress to wear. Elsie was

finally comforted, and went to bed in good spirits after kissing mamma and grandmamma good night.

What was Elsie's surprise next morning, to find that her picnic dress had been mended "good as new." She did not need to ask who did it, for she felt certain that it was grandmamma's work, and so it proved. Grandmamma remembered that she herself was a little girl once, and that blessed memory brought her into close sympathy with the grief and joy of her little granddaughter. And so Elsie, thanks to her grandmamma's tact and tenderness, went to Dolly Blossom's birthday party.

GOING TO BED.

GOING TO BED.

T. HOOD.

THE CAT AND THE PARROT.

POLLY PLAYING OFF A TRICK ON PUSS.

A lady who lived in New York City owned a pet parrot and a large house cat. The parrot was just as full of mischief as could be. One day the cat and parrot had a quarrel. I think the cat had upset Polly's food, or something of that kind. However, they seemed all right again. An hour or so after Polly was on her stand, she called out in a tone of extreme affection, "Pussy! Pussy! come here, Pussy." Pussy went and looked up innocently enough; Polly with her beak seized her tin of food and tipped its contents all over the cat, and then chuckled as poor Puss ran away half frightened to death.

THE CAPTAIN'S DAUGHTER.

SHIPWRECK ON THE AUCKLAND ISLANDS.

J. T. FIELDS

FUN FOR THE KITTENS.

FUN FOR THE KITTENS.

TOMMY GREEN AND TOMMY RED.

PAINTING TOMMY'S FACE.

Tommy Green was a little boy only eight years old when his parents sent him to "boarding school," where he was thrown into the company of boys older than himself. It is strange how most all boys enjoy teasing those who are younger than themselves.

At Tommy's boarding school all the boys slept in one large room, on cots conveniently arranged. Tommy was a heavy sleeper. One morning he awoke with a strange feeling of stiffness about his face, and no sooner did he sit up in bed than a laugh rang around the whole room.

"What are you laughing at?", he asked, but the boys only laughed the harder at his confusion. At last one little boy named Frankie Jones cried out "Tommy, it's your face."

Tommy rushed to a looking-glass, and found on his forehead and on each cheek an enormous dab of red paint.

"Halloo, Green?" shouted one of the boys, "You're red now, ain't you?"

Tommy was greatly teased for a while, but kept his temper, and it was not very long before he was joining with his school-mates to tease some other small boy in a similar manner.

Such things are provoking, but it is best to treat them good-naturedly, as Tommy did, and not lose one's temper.

FOND OF CATS.

EGYPTIAN SAVING HIS CAT.

Pussy has always been a favorite in the East, but the country where she was held in the highest estimation, and treated with the greatest respect, was Egypt.

The fondness of the Egyptians for their cats is shown in some of their ancient paintings where the cat is frequently seen by the side of its master whilst he entertains company. When a cat died the whole household shaved off their eyebrows in token of mourning; and its body was sent to the embalmers, and there made into a mummy, and afterwards buried, with great lamentations, in the cat-sepulchre adjoining the town.

Heredotus, the Greek historian, who had himself spent some time in Egypt, and witnessed the customs of the natives, tells us that when a house caught fire the only care of the Egyptians was to save the lives of the cats, utterly regardless of the destruction of their property.

Bubastis was the sacred city of cats, and there was the temple of the goddess Pasht, whose statue appeared with the head of a cat. There the cats reveled in luxury, for they were looked upon as living representatives of the divinity. The punishment for killing any sacred animal was death; but woe to the luckless person who even accidentally killed a cat? for he was set upon by the infuriated people, and torn to pieces without trial.

THE CAT'S QUESTIONS.

"ARE YOU FRIEND OR FOE?"

LUCY LARCOM.

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