I put my feet into the stirrups, shake my bridle-reins and cry, “Get up, General!”
The bough would sway a little, and I and the birds would be off together, swinging and singing, up in a fair green world where there was no one to disturb nest or little rider! The birds would sing to me, and I would sing to them, and which of those little singers was the happiest, I do not know!
But I do know that my little heart was full of glee and joy to the brim!
SHE WISHED TO BE A PRINCESS. _A True Story._
Little Mary had had a volume of Hans Andersen’s Fairy Stories given her at Christmas. The story she liked best was “The Princess and the Pea,” for, like all little girls, little Mary had a natural desire to be a Princess.
When she went to bed at night with her doll little Mary would think to herself, “Oh, how beautiful to be a real princess of such very fine blood as to feel a little bit of a pea under twenty mattresses!”
One morning a comforting idea came to little Mary. “Who knows,” she said to herself, “with all my very many great grandfathers and grandmothers, but p’raps I am related to some King or Queen way back?”
Thereupon, she went to her mother’s pantry and took a bean from the jar—as large a one as she could find—and, going to her room, put it carefully under the hair mattress. That night she went to bed happy, with joyful hopes.
In the morning little Mary’s elder sister found her with her head buried in her pillow crying. “Oh,” little Mary sobbed, “I did think I might have just a little speck of royal blood in my veins, but I couldn’t feel even that big bean under just one mattress!”
Nothing would comfort little Mary until her mama explained to her that even princesses were not happy unless they had good hearts; and _she_ could have, if she tried, just as good and royal a heart as any Princess under the sun.
Out in the pasture, was a little pond. This little pond was quite deep in the time of the spring and autumn rains. At such seasons Myra and I would take our little raft made of boards, and by means of some stout sticks would push the raft around on that little pond for hours. The wind would raise little waves, and these waves would splash up against the sides of our little raft with a delicious sort of noise.