Brenda's Easter Visit

        ''Her name is Brenda,'' said daddy, ''and when I saw her yesterday she told me that every year at Easter time she went to the head nurse of the big hospital and found out the names of all the children. Then she went shopping, and it took her a long time to pick out things for little sick children. She picked out for each child a big round chocolate egg which rattled, for inside it there were little sugar candies; also a chocolate chicken and a chocolate bunny. She always picked out ones that had lots of expression too. Around the egg she tied a big red ribbon, around the chocolate chicken's neck she tied a bright green ribbon, around the bunny's neck she tied a bright purple ribbon. Then she put them in a little box and wrote on the box the child's name.

       ''Last year Brenda went to the hospital the day before Easter. It was far from being a pleasant day. There was a cold wind in the air and no sun.

       ''She arrived at the hospital just as all the little children had had their wounds dressed. They were lying in their little white cots trying to keep back the tears that wanted to come.

       ''Brenda asked the nurse if she could go inside with the gifts.

        The child's name in the first cot,' continued the nurse very softly, is Elsa. She has hurt her back, and no one knows how long she will have to lie there.'

       '' 'Elsa,' said Brenda, 'happy Easter. A little chocolate bunny, a little chocolate chicken and a big chocolate egg all said they wanted to wish you a happy Easter.'

       ''Elsa opened her half shut eyes and clutched the box. She opened it eagerly. There they all were! And the chocolate bunny did have the funniest expression! He would have made any one laugh, and his purple ribbon bow was sticking way up on one side with such a saucy expression. Elsa burst out laughing. Afterward the nurse told Brenda it was the first time she's seen Elsa laugh since she'd been brought to the hospital.

       ''Then Brenda took the rest of her boxes around to all the other little sick children. And such happiness as there was in the ward!''

Winter Trees

        ''All the winter things,'' said daddy, ''such as the cold Winds, the Snow and the Ice told the Pine Trees and the Fir Treesand the Spruce Trees how much they liked them.

       ''I will tell you a secret,'' said the Pine Tree.

       '' 'Yes,'' said the Snow, as it nestled closer to the branches of the big tree.

       ''Years and years and years ago, I talked to my family about dropping off in the Winter-time. We never got any further than talking about it, for just as I had said, ''Well, and what do you think of the scheme?'' some of the Snow Flakes came and rested on our branches.

       '' 'Oh,'' they said, ''you're so much nicer than the branches without any leaves. There we have to fill up the corners, but with you we can nestle down.''

       '' 'The North Wind told us,' continued the Pine Tree, 'that it was such a joy to have a good strong tree around that wouldn't feel hurt if he played about and had a good time. And so we discovered how much the North Wind liked us.

       '' 'Then,' said the Pine Tree, 'we heard the Grown-Ups. They said what a comfort it was to have some green trees in the Winter and they said how horrible it would be if every tree were quite bare and ugly. And then came the Children. They walked through the woods one snowy day and they stopped to look up at us. 'Ah, how tall those trees are. And how warm it is in these woods. Our favorite trees are the Winter Trees - the Spruce Trees, the Fir Trees, the Pine Trees.''

       '' 'Now do you understand how we have to be as fine looking in the Winter as in the Spring?' And the Snow understood.''

Little Carry's Birthday

       ''Carry was nine years old," daddy said. ''A few minutes before eleven Carry's little brother came to her, ringing a large bell. 'Come to the celebration for the queen of the day!' he shouted and all the family joined the procession.

      ''In the center of the room was a table. And such a marvelously covered table! But, first of all, they seated Carry in a big rocking-chair at the head of the table. They were all dressed up in funny costumes which they always wore for birthday celebrations. The table was full of presents, and in the center was a cake with nine lighted candles on it. ''Happy Birthday!'' they all cried together.

      ''She opened her presents one by one. She had lovely pink knitted bed-room slippers from her mother, a beautiful doll from her daddy, a workbag from her granny, a paint box from her auntie and a big box of candy from her brother, which he'd bought with his very own saved-up money, and which to Carry was the best present of all!''

More About Birthdays:

• 'Happy Birthday' alphabet coloring pages
• Color a scrumptious ice cream cone cake!
• Craft a Crayon Caddy Cake for A Birthday Surprise!

A Loaf of Bread

        ''One day in a baker's shop,'' said daddy, ''appeared a very small-sized loaf of bread.
       ''A little girl named Lucy was shopping with her grandmother.
       '' 'Oh, look,' said Lucy, 'look at the tiny loaf of bread.'
       ''Now the loaf of bread would have smiled, only loaves of bread can't smile and if they should laugh they would crumble, so the loaf of bread kept a perfectly straight face.
       '' 'I thought I'd be noticed by a child,' said the small loaf of bread. 
       '' 'You won't last as long as we will,' said a larger loaf of bread
       '' 'Oh, who cares about the size,' said the small loaf.
       '' 'Of course you don't,' said another larger loaf.
       '' 'Now, now,' said the small loaf, 'don't be mean and unkind to your little friend and relative, the small loaf of bread. I'm the only small one here, though I heard the baker say if folks liked me the size I am and if mothers bought me for their children he'd make a lot like me.'
       '''We didn't mean to be unkind or mean,' said the larger loaves, 'only we are a little envious. We've been the same size always. We have to follow our relatives who are baked ahead of us and are sold ahead of us. We always have to follow their example.
       '' 'But you have been made differently. You have been made a small size. You're cunning and different. You are just like us in taste and shape and kind, but smaller in size and that makes you very interesting.'
       '''Hush,'' said the small loaf of bread, ''I am being bought. Hush!'' And off went the little tiny loaf, in a paper bag, carried by Lucy. Just as soon as it got home, having been carried all the way, for Lucy knew it couldn't walk or run home, a nice fat crust was cut off and Lucy ate it with joy. 
       '' 'My nice little baby loaf of bread,' she said, 'you are so cunning and so good to eat!'' And the loaf of bread was glad it had been made so tiny and cunning and yet so good.'' 

 

More About Bread:

• The Story of Bread
• Going to Mill
• Bread loaves sewn from socks
  

The Snow House

       ''At night after the children had gone to bed and it had grown colder and colder Old Man Snow came around to see what the children had been doing,'' said daddy.
       " 'Well, well, well,' he said as he saw a snow house and a snow fort and a snow man, 'this is fine. They appreciate me. They know what handsome things I can make. This is really gorgeous.
       " 'Look, Prince Icicle, isn't this fine?'
      "Prince Icicle appeared with a number of the other princes and princesses who hung down from the roof of the snow house and the top of the snow fort and from the shoulders of the snow man. Prince Icicle himself took a very fine place over the doorway of the snow house.
       " 'Isn't this handsome?' asked Old Man Snow. 'Our fine king will be delighted and his royal majesty will be honored.'
       "As Old Man Snow said these words along came King Snow. He wore a most beautiful crown of snow and he showed the Icicle family the compliment of wearing icicles from his beard and his crown and his locks of snow and from his hanging snowy sleeves.
       " 'They stopped me as I went by the brook,' said King Snow, 'and begged me to have some of their jeweled icicles. Don't they sparkle beautifully? Yes, they asked me to have them, and the brook, which
was beginning to freeze around the edges, begged me to listen to its story. 
       'It had so much to tell of its travels, how it ran down a long and winding hill and how it couldn't help trickling and laughing all the time with the jokes and merry tales it kept hearing.'
       "So Old Man Snow, King Snow, Prince Icicle and the other princes and princesses talked all through the night and told wonderful stories as they sat in the children's snow house."

Craft and Color More Snow:

• Cutting snowflakes and drawing snowman... - Read all about Wilson Bentley too...
• See how we made a snow house for our Christmas display!
• Young people can craft a snowman from a paint stirring stick
  

Baby Bears

       "In the winter, at the start of the new year," said daddy, "when Mother Bear was sleeping and dozing and dreaming in her home back in the hole of a big rock, the little bears arrived. She taught them about the berries they must eat and about the things which would make them feel well and strong. She also told them of the bad things they must not touch - the things which would make their little tummies feel very miserable indeed and which would make them quite, quite sick.
       ''And when, at last, they went out of the cave, and saw the real world, the trees and the forest paths, they wanted to start off at once for adventures, for the world looked so mysterious and wondrous.
       " 'Do you want to leave your old mother?' the black bear asked.
       " 'We love you, mother, but we want to see the world,' they said.
       " 'Bang,' suddenly went a gun and Mother Bear received a slight wound.
       ''The baby bears were around her in a flash, but mother bear was safe, for the man with the gun had hurriedly gone when he had seen how near the old bear was. And he had seen her teeth and had almost
been able to feel them!
       ''And the babies knew their teeth would never have done. They, too, had had a glimpse of their mother's anger and their mother's strength.
       ''And as they licked the wound they said,
       " 'We won't leave you, Mother Bear. We don't know the world as yet.'
       ''And Mother Black Bear groaned with the hurt from the slight wound in her shoulder, but still more she grunted with pleasure, for her babies had seen that they still needed their mother.'' 

More Bears To Color:

• Color the polar bears at the zoo
• Color-by-number: Bear Bone 
• These bears have their marching orders
  

The Rhyming Years

       "Well," said the Old Year, "I am going to make up a poem about myself. I feel quite poetical."

       "And," said the New Year, "I will, too." For the New Year didn't want to have the Old Year think that he was unable to do anything like that, even though he was young. But he felt very much pleased when the Old Year said: ''Though I have lived twelve whole months, I have not become a poet.''

       ''I think age should be given the right to speak first,'' said the New Year.

       The Old Year shook his white hair and smiled so that the wrinkles in his face all ran in together.

       This is what he said:

''Yes, it is true I was feeling old,

Yes, it is true I was also cold,

Yes, it is true I heard them cheer,

Welcoming in the glad New Year.''

       Then New Year recited this verse:

''Of course, you see I was out for fun,

My life has only just begun,

They said 'He is young and full of vim,

No one can help but welcome him.'

       "You mustn't think I am conceited," he added. "I say a lot to make my rhyme come out right."

       "Of course," said the Old Year, "for I do too. Well, I will give my second verse. Don't believe it all, though!" Then the Old Year took an old harp he had and he began to play and sing, and this was what he sang:

''And Poor Old Year - he almost wept

As he packed up his things and left.

But as he turned to say good-by,

Something in him made him cry:

'Though my work is mostly done,

I, have, too, had lots of fun,

And 'ere I go upon my way,

This I certainly would say:

'Happy New Year, big and small,

Happy New Year, short and tall,

Happy New Year, every one!

May you all have lots of fun!' "

A New Year's Party

        "Just because it was the first day of the year," said daddy,"and because parties were about the nicest things in the world to the mind of a little girl named Ella, her mother decided to give her one.

       "It certainly does seem like the first of the year, or the first of something," said Ella. 'It's a new day, a new year and we have new toys and new games. We are even going to have supper out of new dishes.'

       ''For among the presents Santa Claus had brought to Ella was a fine set of dishes. They were pink and white and there were six cups and saucers, six little plates, a teapot, sugar bowl and cream jug. It was really a very complete set.

       ''They had thin bread and butter, hot chocolate with whipped cream and a cake which Ella's mother called a New Year's cake. It was pink and white on the top with pink sugared trimmings on the white frosting.

       ''In the center of the cake was one pink candle, for Ella's mother said it would be quite impossible to have a candle for the number of years there had been, and too, it would be nice to have a new way and just consider the year a day old.

       ''After the cake had been almost entirely eaten they played house. Each little girl took a corner of the room as her house and fixed it up with some of Ella's things. They all had their own dolls and many

of their other toys so they really felt quite at home.

       ''Then they began calling on each other, dressing up in shawls and old hats which Ella's mother let them use. After a while they heard a flutter, flutter against the window pane, and then another little flapping sound.

       ''It's a little bird,' said Ella, as she looked out of the window. 'It's right on the sill, and I am dreadfully afraid it has hurt its wings. Poor little dear.'

       ''They opened the window and Ella took the little bird in her hands. Oh, how cold the little bird's feathers were!

       '' 'We'll take care of you,' said Ella. They gave the little bird some bread-crumbs and some water. Then he had a delicious piece of lettuce from the seeds which Ella had started in a box in her room.

       ''Pretty soon the bird began to grow much better and hopped and chirped about the room, and then they let him out for he had simply been very hungry.

       '' 'We'll put some suet in that tree over there,' said Ella.

       '' 'Let's put some bread-crumbs,' said her friends, and then one of them added,

       '' 'And let's give some of the New Year cake crumbs too.'

       ''So the little bird was given a regular New Year's feast, and Ella and her friends were among other children who decided to look after the feathered people through the cold months of the winter and to give them bread-crumbs and suet which they love so well.''

• Christmas for the birds...
• Fun things to do with your dolls on New Year's Day!

The Brave Little Sister

       ''There was once a little boy who had a young, little sister," said daddy. "He was very disappointed that his sister didn't care more for long walks and boys' games and that animals seemed to frighten her.

       "He used to scold her about it instead of helping her to get over her fear. One day these two children were taking a walk. They went into the country along a quiet road. They passed a little house in which lived an old woman who had a great many cats. She was very strange and her cats seemed to be strange too. Anyway, it was said that they hated people they didn't know.

       The little boy didn't believe this, and when his sister tried to hurry by the house, he laughed at her.

       "Oh, come and see this nice cat!" he said. And he tried to pick the cat up.

       "The cat objected to strangers, as all the people had said, and she started to scratch the little boy. With a cry his sister rushed to him. She grabbed the back of the cat and got him off. Then she cried ''Shoo!'' to the cat, which made him go right home, for he didn't care about hurting the little boy. He only would not be played with.

       " 'I shall never make fun of you again, sister,' he said. 'You saved me by taking off that cat, of which you were afraid. I have not been at all a nice brother to you, and I don't deserve such a good sister, for it was love for me that made you forget about your fear. But you may be quite sure I will never make fun of you in the future, for really you are the brave one.' ''

The Bravery Medal

       "Two children," said daddy, "were skating on a pond. It was a blustery, snowy afternoon, and they were the only ones on the ice.''

       "A big dog was taking a good run on this cold winter's day when he spied the children on the pond."

       ''He went down to the pond and ran across it a little way, but the ice had a bad way of creaking, and he was sure it was not so very firm.He decided that he had better stay around to see that nothing happened to the children.''

       ''He had been there but a moment or two when a terrific crack in the ice sounded. It gave way, and the two children fell through. The sheet of ice broke rapidly, and the water was soon clear for some distance around them.''

       ''Quickly the dog went to the rescue of the children and swam to the shore with them. He saw some people drive by in a sleigh on the road above, and he barked so frantically that they stopped to see what the trouble was. Then, of course, they drove the two children to their home. The big dog went along too. The hero simply said 'Bow-wow!' when later they fastened a medal on his collar. He wanted to tell them that he thought they were being very good to him, and he thanked them, but at the same time he was so modest that he didn't think he had been so brave. He felt any other dog would have done just the same, as he adored children.

The Pet Monkey

       "Once there was an old lady," said daddy, "who lived all alone.

       One day, though, she went to town and bought a pet monkey.

       She named him Niles. He was only seven inches long and had a curly tail. He was a very dark gray color. He proved to be a most expensive pet, for he liked all the most delicious fruits and would only eat his bread and rice when plenty of rich cream was poured over it. What fascinated him above all was the old lady's rings.

      "When the old lady saw how fond Niles was of jewels she took out her jewel box. Niles had the most glorious time playing with its contents. He decorated himself with all the beads and chains and bangles

and looked at himself in the mirror. He shook all over, for he liked the noise as well as the glitter of the jewels.

       ''So the old lady was very, very happy with her pet monkey. Niles was delighted with his new home and his new mistress, for he had never had jewels to play within the pet shop."

More About Silly Monkeys:

• Make a sock monkey for your 18" Doll...
• How to make a cute little monkey from a clothespin...
• The Animal Store

The Pink Cockatoo

        ''On the morning of the birthday of a little girl named Natalie,' said daddy, ''pink cockatoo was ready to greet her when she awoke. Well, you can imagine how happy Natalie was. And she kept saying over and over again:

       Oh, how lovely you are.' The cockatoo would raise up his pink crest on the top of his head at that - just as some people raise up their foreheads - only his crest went way, way higher. He did that whenever he felt like it, and he always felt like it when he was being talked to. ''And after a very short time the cockatoo was just as tame as could be and he seemed to grow more beautiful every day.

       ''Before long he began to talk just as a parrot will and follow Natalie around the house. He had his food out of special little pink dishes Natalie had given him to match his pink feathers, and every morning

he took his bath in a pink soup bowl which he thought was very fine indeed.

       ''Maybe you will think he got spoiled by so much fussing and attention, but he just became tamer and tamer every day. He learned many tricks and would often perform them for Natalie's friends.

       ''And when it came time for Natalie's next birthday she gave a party. On the invitation it said the party was being given by Natalie and the pink cockatoo. And in one corner was a little colored drawing Natalie had made of her cockatoo. When the cockatoo saw it he put his crest way up in the air, and said in a funny voice:

       ''Goodie, Natalie,' which was his pet name for his Mistress.

       ''And this is a truly true story, you know.''

More About Cockatoos:

• The Cockatoo
• Practice shading a rose-crested cockatoo
• The Cockatoo Primer Page

The Selfish Oyster Crabs

       You know, I think oyster-crabs are perhaps the most selfish of all the sea animals," began daddy. ''The oyster-crabs really belong to the crab family. They are called oyster-crabs, however, because above all things they love the juice of an oyster and absolutely live on it. And what I am going to tell you about now is the way they get it.

       "First of all, the oyster-crab hovers around the oysters and then picks out a nice, fat, juicy looking oyster, saying to himself: ''You look as if you could feed me well without any effort. I think I will crawl into your shell.' So then he crawls right inside the oyster's shell and proceeds to enjoy himself. He prefers just to 'sponge' on others, as the expression goes!" 

More About Oysters:

• Starfish love to eat oysters too!
• Your dolls can craft oysters on the half shell for a party...

Naughty Wind

       "The Clothespins on the line," said daddy, "were having a very jolly time."
       "I'll blow those clothes away," said the North Wind.
       "Oh, no you won't' said the Clothespins in chorus.
       "You are only little wooden things,' said the Wind. 'I am strong and powerful and can do just exactly as I like.'
       ''Now the Fairies saw that the Clothespins were doing their work so well that they thought they would like to help them, so they all perched on the line and began to sing:

'Heigh-ho, heigh-ho,

Let the North Wind blow,

The Clothes-Pins and we,

Will certainly see,

That the clothes will stay here.

The day's nice and clear,

The sun's good and strong,

And the wind is quite wrong.

To try such a trick,

But the Clothes-Pins will stick.'

       ''The Clothespins did stick to the line and the Fairies helped them, singing all the time. The Wind kept on blowing and tried his hardest to get the better of the Fairies, but he had no luck at all and the Clothespins won!''

More About Clothespins:

• The Clothes-Pin Dollies by Camilla J. Knight
• The Popover Family - series by Ethel Calvert Phillips
• Scout Clothespin Doll Crafts