"Rabba, Rabba, silly, silly Rabba, have you caught another whale to-day?" With this strange cry a number of children followed an elderly man through the streets of a town in the Ea...
"The cardinal bird," said daddy, "is a very superior bird and will not come down to the ground. The lowest he will come is to a bush, but he never hops along the woods or lawns, no...
BY LUCY FITCH PERKINS. Oh, I'm a goose, and you're a goose, and we're all geese together. We wander over hill and dale, all in the sweet June weather, While wise folk stay indoors...
A SNAKE, having made his hole close to the porch of a cottage, inflicted a mortal bite on the Cottager's infant son. Grieving over his loss, the Father resolved to kill the Snake....
Here in the morning we're starting so soon, Give us a message, we'll ride to the moon, Straight through the meadows and hop o'er the stile, And we will but charge you a farthing a...
Once upon a time there lived a poor woman who had only one child, and he was a little boy called Hassebu. When he ceased to be a baby, and his mother thought it was time for him to...
Wide-spread is the superstition that it is unlucky to see magpies under certain conditions, but these vary considerably in different localities. Thus, in some counties, two bring s...
Winkelman Von Winkel is the wisest man alive, He Knows that one and one make two, and two and three make five; He knows that water runs down hill, that the sun sets in the west, An...
I saw a ship a-sailing, A-sailing on the sea; And, oh! it was all laden With pretty things for thee! There were candies in the cabin, And apples in the hold; The sails were made of...
Oh, that was a stirring, glowing time! All the air, and the underwood seemed throbbed with pleasant murmuring voices. The streams were laughing, the deep pools smiling, as pussy-wi...
God bless the master of this house, The mistress also, And all the little children That round the table go; And all your kin and kinsmen, That dwell both far and near; I wish you a...
Once upon a time there lived a King and Queen, who were the best creatures in the world, and so kind-hearted that they could not bear to see their subjects want for anything. The c...
BY HUGH MILLER David Fraser was a famous Scotch hewer. On hearing that it had been remarked among a party of Edinburgh masons that, though regarded as the first of Glasgow stone-cu...
Ibrahim, the most learned and pious man of the city, whom everybody held in esteem, fell on troubled days. To none did he speak of his sufferings, for he was proud and would have b...
Oeyvind was his name. A low barren cliff overhung the house in which he was born, fir and birch looked down on the roof, and wild-cherry strewed flowers over it. Upon this roof the...
There was once upon a time a poor miller who had a very beautiful daughter. Now it happened one day that he had an audience with the King, and in order to appear a person of some i...
In the morning a coarse servant brought Rosette bread and milk and offered her services to dress her. Rosette, who did not wish this rude domestic to see the change in her dress, t...
AN EAGLE, overwhelmed with sorrow, sat upon the branches of a tree in company with a Kite. "Why," said the Kite, "do I see you with such a rueful look?' "I seek," she replied, "a m...
In a certain village there lived two people who had both the same name. Both were called Klaus, but one owned four horses and the other only one. In order to distinguish the one fr...
There was once upon a time a shepherd who had two children, a son and a daughter. When he was on his death-bed he turned to them and said, 'I have nothing to leave you but three sh...
BY HENRY JOHNSTONE Oh, Friday night's the queen of nights, because it ushers in The Feast of good St. Saturday, when studying is a sin, When studying is a sin, boys, and we may go...
Once upon a time there was a town called Atpat. In it there lived a poor Brahman who used always to perform Shradh or memorial ceremonies to his father on the last day of the month...
Once upon a time a raven, a rat, and a tortoise, having agreed to be friends together, were having a pleasant chat when they saw a wild goat making its way toward them with surpris...
Three little kittens, they lost their mittens, And they began to cry: "O mother dear, We very much fear, That we have lost our mittens." Lost your mittens! You naughty kittens! The...
When I was a little boy, I lived by myself, And all the bread and cheese I got I put upon a shelf; The rats and the mice, they made such a strife, I was forced to go to London to b...
From the German. Kletke. There was once upon a time a miller who was very well off, and had as much money and as many goods as he knew what to do with. But sorrow comes in the nigh...
THE OAKS presented a complaint to Jupiter, saying, "We bear for no purpose the burden of life, as of all the trees that grow we are the most continually in peril of the axe." Jupit...
A THIEF came in the night to break into a house. He brought with him several slices of meat in order to pacify the Housedog, so that he would not alarm his master by barking. As th...
When Charles I came to the throne of England, it was soon seen that he was as bad a king as his father James I had been. He did not care at all for the good of his country and his...
(ADAPTED) Mr. Lincoln made the great speech of his famous senatorial campaign at Springfield, Illinois. The convention before which he spoke consisted of a thousand delegates toget...