FOURTH READER. PART FIRST. LESSON I. HOW THE CRICKETS BROUGHT GOOD LUCK. 1. My friend Henry went into a baker's shop one day to buy a little cake which he had fancied. He intended to send it to a sick child whose appetite was gone, and who could not be coaxed to eat common food. Henry thought that such a pretty cake might tempt even the sick. 2. While he was waiting for his change, a little boy, six or eight years old, clad in poor but clean clothes, came into the baker's shop. "My mother sent me for a loaf of bread," said he to the baker's wife. The woman took from the shelf of four-pound loaves the best one that she could find, and put it into the little boy's arms. 3. My friend Henry then first noticed the thin and thoughtful face of the little fellow. "Have you any money?" asked the baker's wife. 4. The boy's eyes grew sad. "No, ma'am," said he, hugging the loaf closer to his thin jacket. "But mother told me to say that she would come and speak to you about it to-morrow. 5. "Run along," answered the good woman, kindly; carry your bread home, child." "Thank you, ma'am," said the poor little fellow. 6. My friend now came forward for his money. He had put his cake into his pocket and was about to go, when he saw the child, with the big loaf in his arms, still standing in the doorway. He was surprised, for he had supposed that the lad was halfway home. "What are you doing there?" asked the baker's wife, who, too, had thought him fairly off. "Don't you like the bread?" 7. "Oh, yes, ma'am," answered the child. "Well, then, carry it to your mother, my little friend. If you stay any longer she will think you are playing by the way, and you will get a scolding." 8. The child did not seem to hear. The baker's wife then went up to him and gave him a friendly tap on the shoulder. "What are you thinking about?" she asked. "I was wondering what it is that I hear singing,” he answered. 9. "There is nothing singing," she said. "Yes, indeed, there is!" cried the little fellow. "Can you not hear it? It goes queak, queak, queak, queak!" 10. My friend and the woman both listened, but they could hear nothing, unless it was the song of the crickets -frequent guests in bakers' houses. "It is a little bird," said the child; "or perhaps the bread sings when it bakes, as apples often do." 11. "No, indeed," said the baker's wife, "those are crickets which you hear. They sing because we are lighting the oven, and they like to see the fire." "Crickets!" cried the child. "Are they really crickets?" Then he added, blushing at his bold request, "I would like it very much if you would give me a cricket." 12. "Give you a cricket!" said the baker's wife, smiling. "What in the world would you do with a cricket? I would gladly give you all there are in the house, to get rid of them; they run about so.” 13. "O ma'am, give me one, only one, if you please," said the lad, clasping his thin hands under the big loaf. "I have heard that crickets bring good luck into houses; and perhaps if we had one at home, mother would not have so much trouble, and would not cry any more." 14. "Why does your mother cry?" asked my friend, who could no longer avoid joining in the conversation. "Because there are so many bills, sir," said the little fellow. "Father is dead, and mother works very hard, but she cannot pay them all." 15. My friend took the child, and with him the great loaf, into his arms, and I really believe he kissed them both. Meanwhile, the baker's wife, who did not dare to touch a cricket herself, had gone into the bakehouse. She persuaded her husband to catch four of the insects and put them into a box with holes in the cover through which they might breathe. She then gave the box to the child, who went away perfectly happy. 16. The baker's wife and my friend stood for a moment silently watching him as he trudged down the lane. "Poor little fellow," said they both together. Then the woman took down her account book, and, finding the page on which the mother's account was kept, she made a great dash all down the page, and then wrote at the bottom, PAID. 17. Meanwhile my friend had put up in a paper all the money he had in his pockets, and now he begged the good woman to send it at once to the mother of the little cricket boy. She took the money and inclosed it with her bill, receipted, and a note saying that her son would one day be a joy and a pride to her. All these things they gave to the baker's boy, and told him to make haste. 18. The child, with his big loaf, his four crickets, and his little short legs, could not run very fast, and when he reached home he found his mother, for the first time in many weeks, with her work laid aside, and a smile of happiness on her face. He really believed that it was his four black crickets which had worked the miracle, and I do not know but that he was right. NEW WORDS. TO BE SPELLED, DEFINED, AND USED IN SENTENCES. 1. Piped the blackbird on the beechwood spray, "What's your name? It surely must be told, 2. Little Bell sat down beside the rocks, "Sing me your best song before I go." 3. And the blackbird piped: you never heard Half so gay a song from any bird; Full of trills and wiles, Now so round and rich, now soft and slow, 4. And while that bonnie bird did pour, In the little childish heart below All the sweetness seemed to grow, and grow, From the brown, bright eyes. 5. Down the dell she tripped and through the glade : Then peeped the squirrel from the shade, And from out the tree, Swung and leaped and frolicked without fear, While still the blackbird piped, that all might hear, "Little Bell!" piped he. 6. Little Bell sat down beside a fern: 66 Squirrel, squirrel! to your task return; Up and away the merry squirrel hies, |