"Only you were so stupid you couldn"t understand. Fairyland is just wherever there are birds and flowers and sunshine-and, now that you"ve bathed your eyes with dew from a four-leaved clover, you will be able to see us and work with us, and be a sort of fairy, too. "The little goblin lived on in his cottage in ButtercupMeadow, very happy and contented. The fairies often came to take tea with him in his little house, and then the little goblin would tell them all about his tremendous search for the four-leaved clover, and how disappointed and despairing he was when he thought he would never be able to find the way to Fairyland after all. "And just fancy! " he would say when he came to the end of his story, and the fairies were listening hard, "just fancy! I spent three years searching the world for a four-leaved clover, and all the while it was growing beside my own front door! "From Tiny Tots
About the Author.-The author is not known.
About the Story.-How many characters are mentioned? What is a goblin? Is there any difference between elves and fairies? Why is it hard to find a four-leaved clover? Make up a play about the good little goblin and act it in class. A "common" is land owned by all the people in a village. Anyone living in the village may graze animals there.
Lesson 14
THE pEDIAR"S CARAVAN
I wish I lived in a caravan,
With a horse to drive, like a pedlar-man! Where he comes from nobody knows, Or where he goes to; but on he goes!
His caravan has windows two,
And a chimney of tin, that the smoke comes through;He has a wife, with a baby brown, And they go riding from town to town. Chairs to mend, and brooms to sell! He clashes the basins like a bell:
Tea-trays, baskets ranged in order,
Plates with the alphabet round the border!
The roads are brown, and the sea is green, But his house is just like a bathing-machine; The world is round, and he can ride, Rumble and splash, to the other side!
With the pedlar-man I should like to roam, And write a book when I came home;All the people would read my book, Just like the travels of Captain Cook!
-William BriGhty Rands
About the Author.-William BriGhty Rands was an English writer who was born in 1823; he died in 1882. He wrote a charming book of stories called Lilliput Legends, as well as many short poems. He wrote chiefly for children, and all his thoughts are wise and good.
About the Poem.-How does the pedlar-man earn his living? Make a drawing of his caravan. Which verse describes the caravan?
Suggestions for Verse-speaking.-Divide the class into two parts. One part speaks the first two lines and the other the second two lines in each stanza. All join in the last stanza.
Lesson 15
TOm AND THE LOBSTER
Tom was going along the rocks in three-fathom water when he saw a round cage of green withes, and inside it, looking very much ashamed of himself, sat his friend the lobster.
"What! Have you been naughty, and have they put you in the lock-up? "asked Tom.
The lobster felt a little indignant at such a notion, but he only said, "I can"t get out. ""Why did you get in? "
"After that nasty piece of dead fish. "
"Where did you get in?"
"Through that round hole at the top. " "Then why don"t you get out through it? ""Because I can"t, " and the lobster twiddled his hornsmore fiercely than ever, but he was forced to confess.
"I have jumped upwards, downwards, backwards, and sideways at least four thousand times, and I can"t get out. "Tom looked at the trap, and, having more wit thanthe lobster, he saw plainly enough what was the matter. "Stop a bit, " said Tom. "Turn your tail up to me, andI"ll pull you through hindforemost, and then you won"t stick in the spikes. "But the lobster was so stupid and clumsy that he couldn"t hit the hole. Tom reached and caught hold of him; and then, as was to be expected, the clumsy lobster pulled him in headforemost.
"Hullo! Here is a pretty business, " said Tom. "Now take your great claws and break the points off those spikes, and then we shall both get out easily. ""I never thought of that, " said the lobster.
But they had not got half the spikes away when they saw a great dark cloud over them, and, lo and behold, it was the otter!
How she did grin and grin when she saw Tom! "Yar!" said she, "you little meddlesome wretch, I have you now!" And she crawled all over the pot to get in.
Tom was horribly frightened when she found the hole in the top and squeezed herself right down through it, all eyes and teeth. But no sooner was her head inside than Mr. Lobster caught her by the nose and held on.
And there they were all three in the pot, rolling over and over, and very tight packing it was. And the lobstertore at the otter, and the otter tore at the lobster, and both squeezed poor Tom till he had no breath left in his body; and I don"t know what would have happened to him if he had not got on the otter"s back and out of the hole.
Drawn by Miss E. H. Rix
"Tom reached and caught hold of him. "
He was right glad when he got out; but he would not desert his friend who had saved him, and the first time he saw his tail uppermost he caught hold of it, and pulled with all his might.
But the lobster would not let go.
"Come along, " said Tom; "don"t you see she is dead?" And so she was, quite drowned and dead.
And that was the end of the wicked otter. But the lobster would not let go.
"Come along, you stupid old stick-in-the-mud, " cried Tom, "or the fisherman will catch you! " And that was true, for Tom felt some one above beginning to haul up the pot.
But the lobster would not let go.
Tom saw the fisherman haul him up to the boatside, and thought it was all up with him. But, when Mr. Lobster saw the fisherman, he gave such a furious and tremendous snap that he snapped out of his hand, and out of the pot, and safe into the sea. But he left his knobbed claw behind him; for it never came into his stupid head to let go after all, so he just shook his claw off as the easier method.
Tom asked the lobster why he never thought of letting go. He replied very firmly that it was a point ofhonour among lobsters.
From The Water-Babies, by Charles KinGsley.