THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES AN BY MARY S. PEERING PORTLAND, ME.: PUBLISHED BY DRESSER, McLELLAN & CO. BOSTON: HENRY A. YOUNG & CO. Copyright secured by DRESSER, McLELLAN & CO 1876. ToM. 622712 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Fourth of July is Coming, - 7 CHAPTER H. Is Here, -------- - - 25 CHAPTER HI. Rob's Birthday, - - - ' - -- - - -40 CHAPTER IV. Midsummer Maying, --------49 CHAPTER V. Surprising Mamma, --------69 CHAPTER VI. Helping Pack, 90 CHAPTER VH. Summer Days, .-------- 104 CHAPTER VIH. Prodigies, Fanes, and a Zoological Matinee, - 115 CHAPTER IX. Public Speaking, ------ - - 131 CHAPTER X. The Very Last Day, --------149 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION, CHAPTER I. FOURTH OF JULY IS COMING. pLLEN street was short and not in fflP] any way remarkable so far as looks go. But it was an extraordinary street in point of boys. It was an extraor- dinary street, too, as regards the way of looking at boys. There are the nicest of people, who hold the opinion that boys are disagreeable facts, and that while there 7 8 AS AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. must be boys of course, there must also be ways to keep them out of sight and hearing, arid to prevent the neighbors from suffering in consequence of the boys' ex- istence. But Allen street sentiment was different. There were quiet houses that sent out no boys to swell the whoop which, be the day fair or foul, never failed to rise at intervals from some yard or lane or side- walk ; and there were a few houses in which little girls gave a different air to household affairs. But the quiet houses were those that had once held boys whose voices the years had subdued, or had forever silenced ; and memories like this do much to tone down the disagreeable noise of neighbors' boys. Probably no thought of reproof or frown from any old gentleman looking on at his pranks, ever cast a passing -cloud over the spirit of an Allen street boy. A smile of half encouragement or at worst, of pa- FOURTH OF JULY IS COMING. 9 tient endurance, was all that he expected or received. So Allen street neighbors were all that could be desired, while, as to numbers of his own kind the most social boy's heart must have been made glad. There were boys of every age, condition and com- plexion, from six weeks old to sixteen years r in every stage of mental and moral growth ; boys short and tall ; boys stout and slender ; boys with black eyes and boys with blue. Every pair of legs was stout and active ; ev- ery pair of lungs was strong and practised. Allen street fathers and mothers held these prancing creatures with a rein tight enough when need demanded, but when the road was clear and no harm seemed likely to result, the reins were left loose. When every boy knows that at home retributive justice sits at the fireside or at the back- parlor register, a boy or two more or less is, 10 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. of little consequence as regards confusion. But when every boy feels that what he does matters little so long as he doesn't get " in the way," one boy becomes a host in himself at whose advance any family may well be dismayed. The morning on which I introduce to you the young gentlemen of Allen street, is a warm Saturday morning late in June. Over a low wooden fence four boys, of about four years old, swing their feet rather listlessly. Three others, a little older, swing their feet from gate posts near by. Another, still a year or t\vo older than these, looks down from a tree which over- hangs the fence. His thoughtful face is more than usually thoughtful, his elbows rest upon a convenient branch, and his chin is held tenderly in both hands. Not a word is spoken for several minutes. Clearly, a cloud hangs over the group. FOURTH OP JULY IS COMING. 11 " They're twenty cents a bunch," said Phil, at length. Every face was instantly turned up toward the tree. "Are they, really?" said Rob. "What do big ones cost?" " Oh, there's ten-centers and five-centers, and I've seen twenty-centers, 'n' every- thing. If you've got lots of money you can get boss ones, but when you haven't, you've got to take the best you can get," answered Phil, from the tree. " Char- lie White's got two dollars to spend." A short pause. " Well," said Rob, " anyway, we fellows shall have more than that by the time we get all our money together, 'n' there'll be just as much noise, exactly, if three fellers spend two dollars in fire crackers as if one spent it all. Or torpedoes, either ! " he added positively. 12 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. " Oh, yes ! torpedoes ! " chorussed the four on the fence. " Torpedoes are fun," said Rob, the solemnity of his face relaxing a little. "Don't you remember, all of you, when we were poppin' *em last Fourth, and the boys were all over here in our street 'n nobody dared to go through with horses, 'n' the man got so mad 'n' papa stopped us doin' it ? Oh, that was fun ! " Sometimes Rob's g's dropped off very fast. " It was fire crackers that the man was so mad about, though," said Phil ; " and it did scare his horse. The big cheesits '11 be after us this year if we fire too many crackers." (A cheesit is a policeman.) "But there's no flash to torpedoes and not so much fun." " How's rockets ? " said a newly-arrived boy. This arrival had a bat in his hand, and as he went by the fence an adroit FOURTH OF JULY IS COMING. 13 turn of his wrist brought the bat whizzing close to the four little faces. The whole row winced, but said nothing. " That's enough of that, Joe ! " said sharply, Phil and Rob, together. " Take a fellow your own size." " What do rockets cost ? " continued Phil. " We want the most fun for our money. How much money you got to spend ? " " Wheels 'n' triangles 'n' rockets are the fun ! " said Joe, enthusiastically. " Haven't got any money yet, but my father always gives me some for Fourth July. I never got as much as I wanted though, 'n' I mean to get a lot of fellows to make a club and put in together, 'n' get a pile of fireworks. 'LI you join ? " " Oh yes ! " shouted Rob, taking fire, in a moment. " 'N' who else ? There's Phil 'n' I're one, 'n' you're two " 14 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. " 'N' we're free ! " chirped an anxious voice from the fence. " No, no, you can't earn any money I " cried Rob. " We big boys can sell news- papers and old iron and do errands, and save up all the cents that people give us." "That'll do for awhile after dark," said Phil, cautiously, dropping from his tree and continuing the conversation with Joe. "But suppose we put in with you, who's going to have the say of spending the money? We want some fire crackers V things, ever so many bunches, but we don't want many rockets. You seem to want more fireworks than anything else. The city government always fires off rockets ; we might as well buy bells to ring as to buy rockets." "Well," said Joe, "we shaU all have some money of our own and we can spend FOURTH OP JULY IS COMING, 15 that as we want to. But s'pose now, as a club, we get our money first and vote how to spend it after wards. We can get together and fire off things that belong to the club, and then we can stay round in the same place and fire off the things that we buy for ourselves. That way they'll last all day." " Yes," said Rob, " there'll be plenty of rockets in Deering's pasture, and all the little chickens on the fence will have lots of torpedoes, and we've all got tin horns, and I've got a drum lots of boys 've got drums 'n' there isn't so much fun in anything 's there is in crackers I " During this rapid speech three or four boys from neighboring streets had silently added themselves to the group, all anxious as to the coming celebration, and excite- ment was soon at fever heat. A- " com- pany" was formed, shutting out the four 16 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. little people and including the seven " big boys." Phil, being made president, took his seat on a post, and the others gathered about him. Louis, Carl, Rex, and Jamie tumbled down from the fence and stood on the outside of the group. Since they couldn't " belong," they'd look as large as they could, and to this end they put their hands in their pockets and swaggered when they walked, in a way that would have done no discredit to a hotel waiter on a Sunday afternoon. The "company" went on with the dis- cussion of ways and means. " Newspapers bring seventy cents a hun- dred," said Joe, "and our house is full of 'em. People buy 'em to tie round things at stores." " Seventy cents is a good deal," said Rob ; " and then there's old iron. They give two cents a pound for old iron or FOURTH OF JULY IS COMING. 17 else it's two pounds for a cent. There's as much as ten pounds in the cellar, Phil." " Old iron don't weigh so much at the shop as it does when you're carrying it there," observed Phil, sarcastically. " I'm going to sell my stilts and turn 'em into fire crackers." " When the Free Street steeple was taken down the other day, Charlie White got ten pairs of pigeons, and sold 'em for twenty cents a pair, so he's ready for the Fourth. But then nobody else wants, pigeons, and nobody is going to take down, another steeple." " Mamma always gives me something when I do errands for her," said Rob,, "and there's always errands to do." " Why don't you get a hand-organ ? "" put in Jamie. "All the boys would give- you cents when you grinded." " And get a monkey," added Carl, " and 18 AN AVEEAGE BOY'S VACATION. when he wasn't at work we could play with him." " Why don't you did deens to sed ? " asked Rex, whose pronunciation would not come out straight no matter what his ef- forts. " Of course we shant dig greens to sell nor get a hand-organ," said Phil. " That wouldn't do ; but we could have a store a boss store." "And sell boats!" " And guns, wooden ones." "And books!" " 'N' old diaries ! " This was Rob. " 'N' bats ! " "'N' balls!" "'N' pencils!" " 'N' paper caps I " "'N' dolls for the girls!" " I'll put in my kitten ! she's got fits ! " " I've got a bird's nest ! " FOTJETH OF JULY IS COMING. 19 " I've got a one-bladed knife I " All right, then ! " "All right!" " Hurrah ! come ahead on ! " And away went the seven, tumbling over each other as they went, hurrahing, shriek- ing, and shouting, and followed closely by Rex, Carl, and Jamie, crying : " det on ! det on ! do ahead I all yite ! " Louis, who never hurried, came up in a dignified way, softly whistling America. " I've got a cart, you know, to take the bundles home in, and we little fellers'll be your errand boys," he said briefly to the president as he approached that dignitary. "All right!" said the president. An hour later, in a neighboring yard, the store was in full operation. Two boxes on end were bridged by a board. On this board was temptingly displayed the stock in trade to which as first proposed, had 20 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. been added refreshments. Hard bread, gin- ger snaps, sugar cookies, and sponge cake, were invitingly arranged, and a coat or two of dust mattered little to the average cus- tomer. "There's nothing here for less than two cents," was the first announcement. But, though " runners " were sent out by the firm, and customers flocked in from neigh- boring streets, business didn't thrive. It was found that boys can't always com- mand two cents at so short notice ; no more can girls. So it was decided that nails and pins should be legal tender, ten of either being equal to two cents. " We've got to make sales anyway," argued the seven proprietors. Then, indeed, there were sales. The clerks were frightfully busy. There were loud cries of "cash here!" The four little errand boys deserted the cart and took to FOURTH OP JULY IS COMING. 21 their feet, carrying home paper boats, wooden guns, jack-knives without any springs, and tops without any strings. " So cheap ! " said the little customers to themselves and to each other, as they unrolled the papers. At the end of half an hour the board was swept clean. The store was closed, and the " company " sat down on the counter to reckon profits. " Ten's an easy thing to divide by, ain't it ? Two hundred nails and three hundred pins same as a dollar," said Rob, briskly. "Well, not exactly," said Phil, "be- cause we haven't any money." "Let's divide 'em any way," said Rob, undaunted ; " perhaps somebody '11 give us some money for 'em." He had in mind the mamma at home whose sympathy with such enterprises was far reaching. " It's fun to have a store, ain't it ? " 22 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. continued Rob. "And the money don't make so much difference. Of course we always have some for Fourth July, any- way." That night a long conversation on busi- ness took place between Phil and his father. " I never shall keep a store," said Phil. "You can't tell whether you'll make any- thing. And I shan't be a lawyer ; it takes too long to get started in business. Nobody is obliged to carry a case to a young law- yer. But if I should be a doctor and there was a baby within two doors sick with croup, nobody would wait to think how old I was. They'd just run and get me and I should save the baby. Then I'm all right!" " That's so ! " said Rob, admiringly. " But if I'm a lawyer," continued Phil, "I might starve before I got any cases. What could I live on ? " FOURTH OF JULY IS COMING. 23 " Oh, you know," broke in Rob, " that's easy enough ; you could live on food." "That's too silly, Rob," returned Phil. " Where is the food to come from ? " " I'll give you all the money in my bank," said Rob, promptly ; " and there's seven dollars and a half, I believe. You could empty it all into the big bank and let it draw interest, or you could buy food with it. You can do just as you've a mind to about that." " What will you do without it ? " asked Phil, looking, as usual, at both sides of the question. " You'll be getting into business about the same time." " Oh, I shall drive a hack. You drive a man to the station in the morning and there's fifty cents to pay for your breakfast. Then you drive a man from the station to a hotel, and there's your dinner. If your passenger don't pay, you can keep him in 24 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. the hack. I went down to the depot to-day with Johnny Lyman, a hackman 't I know, and he let me take the thing that he wears on his hat it says hack on it and I put it in the band of my hat. 'N' I went into the depot and hollered 'hack here ! hack here, sir ! Any part of the city, sir ! ' 's loud 's I could. And do you believe, a gentleman and three ladies en- gaged me, and went and got into the hack, and the gentleman gave me. a nine cent orange ! Thai's the boss business, you'd better believe. Anyway, we can divide my seven dollars and a half." " But you know I've got more than that in my bank," said Phil. " All right ! " said Rob, cheerfully ; " then we can divide yours just as well." CHAPTER II. IS HERE. |LANG ! go the bells ; boom ! go the guns ; snap ! go crackers ; pop ! go torpedoes ; out of bed ! fly the boys ; Fourth of July is begun. Rob tiptoes into his mother's room, looks out under the curtain, tiptoes to the side of the bed, and says in a loud whisper : " Louis 'd better not wake up, 'cause he might asturb you, mamma." " Whoop I " says a voice outside the window. 25 26 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. Yes, in a minute ! " shouts Rob, with a jump, and in a voice that fills not only the room but the house. " In an instant Louis comes to the sur- face wide awake, and with his clothes in his arms save such as he has dropped on the way. " Dress me ! dress me quick, mamma ! " he cries in a frenzy, dancing about the bed. Rob makes a little heap of his clothes in the middle of the floor, and begins putting on one thing after another, but everything goes on wrong side up or wrong side out. " Go fire a cap-pistol in Phil's ear to wake him up ! " suggests Rob to Louis, but both are too busy to carry out the proposal. Meantime, Phil has kept steadily on with the work of dressing, and just as Rob IS HERE. 27 notices that both his feet are in boots without stockings, Phil gives a shout out- side. Then a chorus of whoops rises from as many as half a dozen voices. " Yes, yes, I'm coming ! " shouted Rob, in despair, breaking his boot lacing. " Yes, we're coming ! " echoed Louis, slipping his face from under the sponge in his mother's hand. How the dressing was at last accom- plished in the midst of flying hands and feet, and confusion of little white heads and blue eyes and pink cheeks, nobody but the mother could ever tell. How much of her careful warning as to gunpowder and matches and snapping- crackers, took effect upon the two little men who went scampering out with each a bunch of crackers and matches enough to burn up Allen street, nobody but the boys could ever tell. 28 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. "She didn't tell Phil so," said Louis to Rob, as they went over and over each other on the way down stairs. " Oh, no, nothing'll happen to him ! " answered Rob ; " nothin' ever does ; it's you little fellers she's worried about." "Rob, is there any danger 'bout powder 'n' matches ? " asked Louis, confidentially, implying by his tone all the distrust of his sex in a woman's estimate of gunpow- der. " Yes, sir," answered Rob, in a tone that carried conviction. "It's the boss stuff to blow yourself up with ; I heard of a man once. You'd better do just as she tells you, I tell yer ! An' don't keep too close to me 'cause I might blow you up, you see, by accident." " Do you s'pose you shall ? " asked Louis, anxiously. "Oh, no, I guess not, only don't stay too close, 'cause I'm careless, mamma says." IS HERE. 29 Shouts were redoubled as the two ap- peared ; several crackers went off in their honor, and in reply Louis tooted his tin horn which had hitherto been held sacred to Washington's birthday. A hint is enough. The little group quickly scattered in all directions, and in three minutes every boy was back at his place with a horn at his lips. Toot toot pop snap bang snap bang pop pop POP POP POP!!! Over and over the din died out, rose again, swelled, and died out ; but when, at half past seven o'clock, breakfast bells began to ring, there was no sign of weariness nor lack of supplies. " It's worth savin' up for, isn't it, Phil ? " asked Rob, at breakfast. Rob had saved seven cents during the last three months. Phil wished he had been " saving up " ever since Christmas. 30 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. " Bet ten snap crackers you don't know what Fourth of July is about," said Phil, by way of keeping up the conversation. " Oh, I do ! " said Rob, indignantly. "It's all about George Washington, and that's why there are horns. I saw a magic- lantern picture of Bunker Hill and the death of Bunker. That's why they fire crackers ! " he added conclusively. Explanations followed, but the .history lesson took little effect, owing to constant efforts of the students to look out of one window or another, as well as the frequent excitement produced by the explosion of a fire cracker, and the plain inference that there were boys free from the necessity of coming to breakfast on Fourth of July mornings. "Put 'em in a tin pan and shut down the cover, and you ought to hear 'em rattle ! " said Rob musing. IS HERB. 31 " I wish I had a thousand billion of snap crackers " began Louis. " Hurt yourself better have torpedoes," put in Rob, with his mouth full. " No crackers ! " insisted Louis. " I wish I had a hundred trillion bunches of crackers, and there'd be a quadrillion thou- sand and eighty-four in every bunch. How many would that make ? " " Oh, that's a vigintillion," said Rob, learnedly, " but then you haven't got 'em." " School committee and all the teachers couldn't do that without a slate and pen- cil," said Phil. "Hear that!" he shouted, as a whole bunch of crackers went off un- der the window. " Oh, mamma, do 'scuse us all!" Phil seldom clipped his words but excuse takes more time in pronunciation than most boys can afford to spend when fairly ready to leave the table. 32 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. Away they went, and the popping began again. A large drum was heard. A broken violin was added to the celebration prop- erty. A flag appeared. There were a great number of horns and a " real fife," Rob said; "honest truly, black and bluely, lay me down and cut me intwoly." A procession formed. Foreign population stopped on its way home from church, and all under fourteen years old joined the pro- cession. The violin plajed nothing, the drum beat nothing, and the fife made no attempt at a tune, but there was a glorious noise. The procession, including in its ranks a great many members ragged enough to have made good fantastics, marched several times through the street, into a lane and out again. Carl, Rex; Louis, and Jamie followed in the rear, shouting with all the might of IS HERE. 33 their shrill voices, but holding tightly by each other's hands, half afraid of the raga- muffin force in front of them. At last, as the motley procession straggled by, four mothers advanced upon this rear guard and carried them all off. There wasn't so much excitement as suits; the Irish American mind, so the foreign element gradually grew less. A base ball match drew off the head drummer, the violin was tired, and the fife out of breath,, and the originators of this great civic dis- play found themselves sitting upon the fence in a dusty, draggled, forlorn condi- tion. There was silence for several minutes,, broken only by a fire cracker in some back yard. A string of explosions made a slight, sensation, and two boys proposed going to see about it. " It's only some girls somewhere," said Phil ; and silence fell again. 34 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. " Don't you wish we had some lemmunade cold with ice in it? and some pine apples ? and some oranges ? " " Too early for lemonade. Never have it till noon ; but there's a game 'of base ball on the promenade." "Who plays?" " Reserlutes." " Derrygoes." " Bet the Andrew-scoggins could beat 'em all, with one hand." " Well, let's go up ; " and away through dust and heat went the tired little crowd to sit in the sun for two hours. Think you that they came home tired and feeling as anybody but a boy would have felt ? Not at all. Two hours of rest acted like a charm, and by the time that the " lemmunade " had been disposed of, and dust, powder and lemon had been all washed off together, cleaner boys were never seen, IS HEBE. 35 nor those more ready for whatever the afternoon might offer. A fresh supply of crackers and torpedoes was brought out by every boy ; mothers, with great misgivings, doled out matches ; adjacent streets sent delegates to attend the festivities, and the celebration began again. All the large crackers had been saved, till afternoon. " Ten-centers " and " twenty- centers" were common. What in the morning had been a pop was now a bang ; what had been a bang was now a crash. When the Allen street supply gave out there were plenty of boys to supply the lack. What was wanting in crackers was made up in noise and boys. Upon the whole this afternoon perform- ance was more dignified than that of the morning, just as an occasional crash is always more telling in its general effect than a frequent pop. 36 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. Fireworks pin wheels, triangles, some rockets and a few fiery serpents were sent off in Allen street quite early. They were sent off before dark, in fact ; because there were to be rockets in Deering's Pas- ture that evening, and, moreover, Carl, Rex, Jamie and Louis going in to the house at seven o'clock, it was thought fair to give them the benefit of the whole proceedings. To be quite truthful, the fireworks were all over before supper. They would have looked better by night, I daresay, but the boys found them very satisfactory by day- light. There was not a cracker left, and I don't suppose a torpedo could have been found from one end of the street to the other. Now and then some ragged little fellow coming through the street, stopped among ^^V4ofcy;i^pjj-',*J -C ' CHAPTER X. THE VERY LAST DAY. fT was Sunday afternoon. The boys had been to church in the morning, but the day was so warm that their mother, after dinner, put them all into light linen suits and begged them to keep as quiet and as cool as possible. Rob had a " show " out in the shed in one corner. There were three shelves decked with scalloped paper, and over the shelves hung a little curtain. Above the curtain was fastened a long strip of paste- board on which Rob had printed, 149 150 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. KNOXES CURIOSYTYS ADMISSION 2 PINS. The curiosities were chiefly of paper, and of Rob's own making, the fruit of his rainy day labors. " Can't I go out to my curiosities ? '. asked Rob, on this Sunday afternoon. " No. Sunday could be better spent in another way." " But," urged Rob, " you see I don't want to play with the curiosities, nor have the other boys conie into 'em ; I jest want to go out and hang round. That wouldn't be wicked, would it ? " But mamma was inflexible. He might go and read. No. He might go and ask Phil to tell him some stories. No. Lie down on the bed beside mamma, and take a nap. THE VERY LAST DAY. 151 No, no ! couldn't he go to walk ? The thermometer stood at ninety, so he couldn't by any means take a walk ; but mamma was always ready Rob might come and sit beside her and learn a Sab- bath School lesson. This was very hard, Rob thought, but the decree had gone forth and there was no chance for discussion. Ananias and Sapphira came next on the lesson papers, mamma thought, so Rob, Bible in hand, spelled out the story word by word. Then his mother read it to him smoothly and correctly. Rob yawned a great many times, took a vast number of uncomfortable positions in various parts of the bed, looked out of the window at the blue sky and trees and grass, and nearly broke his neck in an attempt to see, with- out getting down from the bed, whether Phil was in the hammock. Mamma made 152 AN AVERAGE BOZ'S VACATION. Rob tell her the story, which he did with great correctness as to facts. Then all proper questions on the subject were gone through with and admirably answered. Rob was getting very anxious to join Phil and Louis. "You may go in a minute," said his mother ; " as soon as you tell me just what this lesson seems to you to be about." "Why," said Rob, surprised, "it's about a man and woman that sold their field. And they didn't get so much money as they ought to for it, and when Saint Peter asked them about it they were so ashamed they died both of 'em." It was sometime before Rob went out of doors, after all, because this moral had to be pointed. But he did go at last, tired and ready to be entertained. " Tell us a story, Phil ! " he cried, burst- ing into the yard under the locusts. THE VERY LAST DAY. 153 " Oh bother ! " replied Phil, briefly. "Read one." "I've jest read one," answered Rob, " and it takes so long when you have to spell out the long words. Tell us about the Red Shoes that danced with the little girl, and she couldn't help it, over field and meadow in rain and sunshine by night and by day, but it was far worse by night." " Oh, no," said Phil, sleepily. " Tell about the snail, then, that lived in a forest of burdocks, and how the other little snail came and married him 'cause he had a burdock forest and she had only a bush." Phil didn't answer. " Tell 'the most extra ordin ary thing' then that's a boss story. "He's a hateful, sleepy old thing; tell it yourself ! " suggested Louis, from the grass. 154 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. "Oh, I can't half remember it. There was a king " " Is it Hans Andersen's ? " asked Louis. " Yes ; and the king said that anybody that would do the most extra ordin ary thing should marry his daughter. One man drank himself to death trying to do it, and two men ate themselves to death, but that wasn't it. Some boys tried to spit on the small of their own backs. They thought that was very remarkable." " Did they do it ? " asked Louis, eagerly. " Don't know ; story doesn't say. Another man made a clock with Moses, and the Gar- den of Paradise, and a cuckoo, and a grass- hopper, and a spectacle maker, and a watch- man with a long cape, and a cook, and a stork's nest, and a crow." "Oh, my!" said Louis. " And another man knocked the clock to pieces, and he married the king's daugh- THE VERY LAST DAY. 155 ter. But the things in the clock all came to life, and the watchman in the cape came out and struck this last man on the head, and Tie married the king's daughter ; so the man that made the clock came out ahead, you see, after all. And the candles in the church were flowers of light, and the gilt stars on the ceiling of the church grew into real stars, and the organ played with- out anybody to play it." "Oh, my!" said Louis, again. "That's all there was to it," finished Rob, " but I wish I knew some more." The day was very sultry. Great hot waves of air came sweeping around the corner of the house into the yard where the children were. The broad street that creeps under the trees, through the village, and goes climbing up a hill away at the end, lay white and still in the heat. The great elms overhanging the street on either 156 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. side drooped their leaves white with dust. The still air was yellow with sunshine ; now and then an insect hummed out a sleepy story, but the birds among the branches gave no sound. The little white vestry over the way glistened like a china tea cup. Doors and window-blinds were closed and, save these children, the whole village seemed asleep in the sunshine. Phil began : " Hans Anderson says, too, that in the hot lands the sun burns sure enough." " This must be one of 'em," broke in Rob. " No, the people there are mahogany brown, and in the hottest lands they are all burnt to negroes. Everybody has to stay in all day, and the -streets are narrow and have high houses built, so that the sunshine falls straight into them from morning till night. People grow thin with it ; it's just like a glowing oven." THE VERY LAST DAY. 157 " Oh, dear I " said Rob ; " don't you know any better story than that. That's too hot." "Well, he tells one about a Snow Man, with two three-cornered pieces of tile in his head for eyes, and his mouth made of an old rake so that he had plenty of teeth." " Yes, I know ; he quarrelled with the Yard Dog. I don't care about hearing that one." " Then there's the Snow Queen." " Boss ! " said Rob. " Go ahead on that one ! That's cool ! " " Once there was a little boy named Kay, and a little girl named Gerda ; and they were very fond of each other, till one day Kay got a piece of glass in his eyes out of a magic mirror. Then everything looked horrid to him. He said Gerda was ugly, and he laughed at her picture books, and made fun of his own grandmother. 158 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. One day he went out to slide with the other boys, and they were all having the fun, and Kay tied his sled to one going by. It was a large sleigh that he tied it to, painted white, with somebody driving in a rough white fur coat, and a rough white fur cap. And Kay rode and rode and rode, and by and bye he couldn't untie his sled. Then he felt dreadfully and wanted to go back; but nobody would hear him, and he was awfully frightened, arid the snow storm drifted right in his face. He tried to say the Lord's Prayer, but he couldn't; all he could do was to say the multiplica- tion table." " Well, I declare ! " said Rob ; " that was funny, anyway." " And the snow flakes grew larger and larger till they looked like great white hens. By and bye, the man that was driv- ing stood up in the sleigh, and he was a woman 1 " THE VEEY LAST DAY. 159 "Ho-o-o!" said Rob. " Yes, disguised, you know. She was the Snow Queen. She was white as snow, and her coat and cap were snow, and when she took Kay into the sleigh to ride with her, he felt as if he was sinking- in a snow wreath." "Oh-h-h! how cool I feel! go on!" said Louis. " The Queen carried him up to her palace, way up in Finland. The walls of the palace were made of driving snow, and the windows and doors were made of sharp, cutting winds ; and when the winds blew the snow about it made great halls. There were polar bears and lots of little white foxes outside, but none of them ever came into the palace. And Kay was awful lonesome. He was blue with cold, too, almost black, but he had got to liking the Snow Queen, and he didn't 100 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. know how cold he was. His heart, you see, was a lump of ice. In the middle of the biggest hall of all was a frozen lake cracked in a thousand pieces, and when the Queen was at home she sat in the middle of that." " I sh'd thought sh'd broken through," said Louis. " Well, she didn't ; and all the fun Kay had was making puzzles out of flat pieces of ice just like our Chinese Puzzle. He was always trying to make the word Eter- nity out of them, and he never could. But the Snow Queen told him that if he would do it he should be his own master, and she would give him the whole world and a pair of new skates besides. One day she went away for a visit to the warm countries and left Kay all alone, and he thought and thought about the blocks of ice till his skull was almost- THE VERY LAST DAY. 161 cracked. And, do you believe, Gerda came in! " She had followed him every where to brink him back. She floated down a river in a boat till she came to a beautiful gar- den. She asked the flowers about Kay, and they couldn't tell her, and she asked. a raven ; and the raven took her to a good Prince and Princess, and they gave her a beautiful carriage to go and find Kay. So> she started off in the beautiful carriage and a band of robbers took her carriage away from her, and gave Gerda herself to a little Robber Maiden. But the Rob- ber Maiden, instead of killing her, gave her a Reindeer to carry her to Finland- And he took her to an old woman in Lap- land, who said that Kay was really and truly at the Snow Queen's, and liked it very much because he had a splinter of glass in his eye and his heart, and if he; 162 AN A VT3RAGE BOY'S VACATION. didn't get them out he would never be like mankind again. " The Reindeer asked her if she couldn't give Gerda something to take the glass out with, and the old woman said that Gerda had something herself. What do you bet it was ? " " Bet it was a knife," said Louis. " Bet 'twas some kind of an instrument," said Rob ; " or maybe it was just a pin or needle or something." " No, it was only kindness just because she was sweet and good. And the Rein- deer carried her along to the edge of where the Snow Queen lived,' and set her down by a bush with red berries that stood in the snow. From there she had to walk in a snow storm, and all the flakes were alive ; some were like great porcupines, and others like snakes all knotted together, and others like bears ; but they were all white, of course. THE VERY LAST DAY. 163 " Gerda was frightened, but she said the Lord's Prayer " " Didn't she know her multiplication table?" asked Rob. " The story don't say, but that wouldn't have done, anyway ; she had to say the prayer, that's what helped her through. It was so cold up there that her own breath when it came out of her mouth, looked like smoke, and it changed into angels, and the angels drove away the snow flakes, and Gerda got on first rate after all. " When she came in at the palace door, there sat Kay on the ice, trying to make out his word in the puzzle ; and she said the prayer again and went in. But Kay didn't know her, and he didn't think who she was till after she put her arms round his neck and cried and cried till the tears reached his heart and thaWed the ice and eat up the glass splinter. Then Kay cried, 1G4 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. and that washed the splinter out of his eye, and he was all right again. And the pieces of ice just went together themselves and made the Eternity he had been trying to make so long just because he let them alone, you see, and because he loved Gerda again. "And they went away home together, and that's all." " It's nice and cool," said Louis, " but I don't understand it." "Why," said Rob, "it's to show what goodness '11 do for you." " And that you mustn't take up silly notions, mamma says ; that's what ailed Kay," said Phil. "And mustn't follow strange folks away," added Louis. " But it's gettin' awful dark ; what's the matter ? " " 'Most night, I s'pose," said Rob ; "you said you wouldn't tell a story, Phil, and THE VERY LAST DAY. 165 here you've been tellin' one all the after- noon. A boss one, too," he added, to make up for this thrust. It had thundered for sometime at inter- vals, but the boys had been too much ab- sorbed in their " cool story " to notice it. Great clouds hung low about the moun- tains, and grew heavy and heavier. Great sheets of fire flashed from the clouds, fol- lowed by peal after peal of thunder. The rain poured down in torrents; the long grass swayed to and fro ; the wind blew in great gusts ; the elm branches tossed fiercely about ; and the corn lay beaten to the ground. " Oh, dear ! " said Louis, " all uncle Tim's New Jersey cows are out! but I'm glad we got in the bat and ball, for that's a private bat and val'ble." In an hour the wind was soft and cool, "been washed," Rob said and, in place of the heavy black clouds, great white 166 AN AVERAGE BOY'S VACATION. heaps of fleece lay against the blue sky and hung lovingly about the mountains, Flies danced and buzzed in the warm sun- shine, and the great elm trees and the locusts stood glittering with water-drops. All the boys were barefooted to walk in the wet grass for the last time ; for this was the last day of vacation. " Oh, mamma," said Louis, wading through the tall grass to a mud puddle, and patting in one little bare foot after the other, over and over again, " Oh, mamma, if we only didn't have to read and spell, we could stay up here always, and go haying and things, and tell stories, and have showers, and never learn any- thing at all." But they did go home the very next day Phil and Bob went to school ; and if you care to hear from them again, look out for the next of the FOREST CITY SERIES. This book is DUE on the last date stamped below lOm-ll, '50(2555)470 THE LIBRARY DIVERSITY OF CALIFORNl ANGELES . U S yjHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000475441 2 PZ7 D36a