A Kindergarten Story Book Part 16

One suns.h.i.+ny day in June Ethel had been playing in the park for a long time. Though she had coaxed and coaxed the squirrels, they would not come near; and though she had listened for a long time to the hoa.r.s.e croak of a frog, and watched and waited, and looked about with big bright eyes, she could not get even so much as a peep at him. At last she grew very tired and sat down upon a bench near by to rest before going home. Scarcely was she seated when she heard some one call her name. "Ethel! Ethel!" a sweet voice said. She looked all about but could see no one. "Ethel! Ethel!" it called again, this time very near. She looked around, saying, "Here I am; who is calling?" "It is I. Don't you see me? I am close beside you," said the same sweet voice.

Looking down Ethel saw at her feet a tiny creature all dressed in dainty green. "Oh!" thought she, "this must really and truly be a fairy. Why, I supposed fairies were only make-believe people!" and Ethel was so surprised that she forgot to answer the little creature.

Soon the fairy said: "Ethel, because you love the birds and the flowers and the trees and all the animals, I have come to take you out into the country to visit your friends."

Ethel clapped her hands and said: "Oh, I should love to go to the country! but I haven't any friends there."

"Yes, you have," said the fairy, "come and see."

So away they went, and Ethel all the time wondered whom the fairy could possibly mean by her friends; but they went so fast that, before she had time to do much thinking, Ethel found herself in a great, green meadow, bright and fresh and cool. Soon they came to a tree with spreading branches; and there, lying under it and resting in its shade, was a gentle looking creature with soft eyes, long smooth horns, and a hairy dress of red and white.

"Here," said the fairy, "is one of your friends, and a very good friend she is too." "Oh," said Ethel, "now I know whom you mean by my friends!"

I wonder who can tell me why the fairy called the cow Ethel's friend.

Yes, because without this friend Ethel would miss her cup of milk at breakfast and the golden b.u.t.ter for her bread.

Ethel gave the white star on the cow's forehead a gentle pat and, looking into her great dark eyes, she said, "Surely you are my friend, Bossy." But the fairy said, "Come on, little girl, there are many more friends to see." So Ethel visited all the friendly animals,--the sheep with their woolly coats, the pigs in their sty, the chickens, the ducks and the geese in the barnyard, the pigeons in their home on the roof, the great clever collie in his kennel; and she found that she owed something to every one of them.

Just as she was giving Rover a farewell pat, old Dobbin, harnessed to the farm wagon, came clattering up to the barn. "Here comes the best friend of all!" cried Ethel. "What should we do without Dobbin to carry the milk and the b.u.t.ter and the eggs to the city, to draw the wood and the coal that keep us warm, to help the farmer plow and harrow the ground in the springtime, to draw in the hay and the grain in the autumn, and to trot cheerfully along the country road when the children take a ride? Oh! I hope the farmer gives him a good, dry bed to sleep upon, a manger of hay and a measure of oats when he is hungry. I hope he combs and smooths Dobbin's black coat well, and puts a blanket on his back when the weather is cold. I'm sure the farmer wouldn't cut off Dobbin's s.h.i.+ny black tail for the world, for how could Dobbin drive away the flies that trouble him, without his tail? I know that there is always plenty of fresh water for Dobbin to drink whenever he is thirsty, and that, sometimes, the children give him a lump of sugar to eat. The farmer never lets Dobbin lose a shoe, I'm sure, for fear he might go lame, but always takes him to the blacksmith if only a nail is loose."

Buzz z z z! buzz z z z! sounded close to Ethel's ear. She opened her eyes and looked about. There she sat upon a bench in the park. The sun had gone down behind the tall buildings, and it was almost dark.

The pretty elfin in green had vanished. Her country friends were nowhere to be seen. A bee's gauzy wings and yellow legs were disappearing in the distance. "There goes another of my friends," said Ethel, "I think he must have come to tell me that it is time to go home."

So Ethel ran home and told her mother all about the fairy and her friends. "Oh, mamma! do you suppose the fairy really and truly took me to the country?" said Ethel.

"No," said mamma, "I think my little girl was asleep and dreaming; but, for all that, the animals on the farm are really among our very best friends."

"Yes, I know that," said Ethel, "how I wish I could see them!" And for many days after her wonderful dream Ethel never went to the park without thinking of how the little fairy in green took her to visit all her friends in the country.