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Did you know that even a little rabbit has lessons to learn? One of these
is to listen to his mother, for she known many ways by which a rabbit may
protect himself from his enemies. This story tells you how a little bunny
got into trouble because he did not obey his mother.

=Bunnyboy was a half-grown "cotton-tail" rabbit, whose home was in the woods.
He lived with his mother and brothers and sisters in the burrow -- a nice
warm hole that went down into the ground under an old tree stump.
One bright morning =MotherRabbit thought that she would go to a field where
she knew there were some early cabbages.
"Children," she aid, "if you are good while I am gone, I will bring you some
juicy cabbage leaves. You must stay quietly at home."
But =Bunnyboy followed his mother out of the burrow, saying, " I don't want to
stay at home, =Mother. Please take me with you."


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The very last sentence in this story says, "Why, oh why, do people want to
destroy such beautiful things?" What do you suppose the beautiful things are?

=PeterRabbit had spent a happy night frisking about in the Old Pasture. Just
as he was ready to start for his home in the Briar Patch, early in the morning,
he heard a humming sound.
=Peter looked up, frightened. He was afraid it was his enemy, =Redtail the Hawk.
But no, it was only his friend, =Hummer the Humming-bird, who now swooped down so
close to =Peter's head that the rabbit ducked.
"What are you trying to do," he cried angrily?
"Just trying to show my happiness," answered =Hummer. "Isn't spring a beautiful time
of year? I always love to visit the Old Pasture when the columbine is in bloom."
=Peter pricked up his long ears. "Columbine? Columbine," he said? "I suppose that
is a flower. You never seem to be much interested in anything but flowers."

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=JonathanBartlett's family were taking their dog =Shep with them to the new land.
It was funny to see old =Shep when the howling began. The first time he heard it,
he barked with all his might and rushed out into the darkness. In a few minutes
back he rushed, whining, with his tail between his legs.

One evening the families stopped for the night quite early, because they had found
a good spring of water. It was =Jonathan's fifth birthday, and he was happy over
a whistle which one of the men had made for him from the leg-bone of an antelope.
It was still daylight when the travelers stopped and the little boy took his whistle
and went off by himself. He walked such a long way that when he turned to go back,
he could not see the camp or hear any voices. But he knew that the wagons could
not be far away; so he kept walking.
By and by the sun dropped out of sight, and it began to grow dark, but still there
was not camp to be seen. The five-year-old boy was tired and hungry, and he began to
grow frightened. So he sat down in a little hollow place in the prarie and cried;
but not one came, for no one heard him. And then, after what seemed to him a long
time, it began to be light again. The great round moon was peeping over the edge
of the hollow in which he sat.



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The chief always brought a present of a live chicken, which some follower carried,
dangling upside down from his wrist. =Alice was very sorry for the poor chicken,
and she used to see that it had water and food in camp.
The white people would also give the chief a present, usually money. Then the chief
would allow the travelers to get water from the nearest river, and would give them
firewood; he would also give them eggs and chickens, or whatever other food there
was. After this the white people picked out a good place to camp and told the
porters to bring n the boxes and bundles.

The moment the porters got in they dropped their loads and rushed off to see about
getting a sleeping-place in the huts of the village. Sometimes the porters would
bring back some of the village men to help set up the tents for the white people
and to carry the different bags and boxes to the right places.
As soon as the cook had his tent up and his fire going, he began getting dinner.
Sometimes the dinner was at two o'clock, sometimes a four or at six. When dinner
was to be late, the travelers would eat the crackers and chocolate they carried
in their pockets, and open a bottle of lime juice, which is the finest-tasting
thing in the world on a hot day in Africa.



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And then before the children could guess what was happening, the young man had dived
into the pond. In a moment he was up again, tossing his hair from his eyes and smiling
at the little girl, who was saying: "Did you find them?"
"The pond is so muddy that I cannot see the bottom," said the young man; "and so I must
feel for the sandles."
Then he ducked his head under again and the children saw his feet go in last like the
flopping tail of a great fish. He was under for a long time. But suddenly -- up he
came, and in his hand was the rope with the wet sandles dangling from it. =TingFang
helped to pull in the rope himself and counted the sandles as they came out of
the water. He had lost only a few, and even without those he still had more sandles
than anyone else.
"Thank you, thank you," =TingFang said to the hero who had saved his sandles! "Now my
mother can cook our supper tonight. But how did you learn to dive so well," he asked?




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Then he took her into a barn which was heaped up almost to its roof with yellow straw.
"Spin that into gold for me," he said, "and tomorrow you shall be a queen."
With a glance over his shoulder, he went out of the barn, locked the door, and
left her to herself.
The miller's daughter sat down. She looked at the spinning-wheel. She looked at the
great heap of straw. "Ah," she said, "to spin that into gold would take a
hundred little long-nosed men."
"What, what, what," cried a voice, and in an instant little Master =LongNose appeared
once more, his eyes like green beads and his cheeks like red crab-apples. But this
night the miller's daughter had nothing left to offer him for wages. The dwarf looked
at her for a moment, and then he said:
   "In the seed is the leaf and the bud and the rose,
    But what's in the future, why, nobody knows."
"See here, pretty maid; promise me your first child if you ever have one,
and queen you shall be tomorrow."


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"=Peter, =Peter, are you up?"
No boy had ever dressed faster than =Peter did that morning. =Clatter, =clatter, his
stout shoes sounded on the stairs.
After breakfast, =Grandfather and =Peter walked down the street to the stable,
harnessed the old white horse, and drove him back to the house. =Mother and =Mary
were waiting at the gate with baskets of lunch beside them. =Grandfather helped them
into the cart, and climbed to his own seat; then off they went!
It was not long before they could see the flags flying over the tents, and then the
tents themselves. When they reached the place where the horse was to be left,
=Grandfather turned to =Peter, saying: "I can unharness alone; you run along
and see the sights."
These were welcome words to the boy, who started off toward the sheep pens. His
mother called after him: "Remember to come to your Uncle's tent for dinner at
twelve o'clock!"


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One thing did =Beowulf take from the cave. He still held in his hand the hilt of
the wonderful sword. This he would take to King =Hrothgar, and together they would
read the strange writing on the twisted gold. So up from the dark lake came
=Beowulf, and back he went to the king's palace.
The king and queen came forward to meet him, and all the warriors crowded around.
When =Beowulf had told of his battle under the water, he gave the hilt of the
sword to =Hrothgar. All around the hilt was written a story which told that th
sword had been made for a giant, hundreds of years before.
=Beowulf told of the strange animals that made their homes in that dark lake.
He told also of the piles of gold and silver which lay in the cave. "But I touched
nothing of the treasure. Not for gold did I go down into that dark lake, but to
save the people of this land," he said.
At these words, the Danes shouted and cheered in their love for this brave hero.
Never had men heard such a story as this which =Beowulf told.

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One day as the great =Charles was resting in the shade of a beautiful tree,
Saracen messengers came and knelt down before him.
"Oh great =Charles," said the leader, "we come to you from =Marsilius. He
sends you rich presents and begs you to return to =France. He promises that
he will follow you there in one month, and that he will never fight you again."
=Charlemagne sat silent for some moments. Then he called his warriors around
him and said: "King =Marsilius has sent messengers to me, bringing rich gifts
and asking me to return to =France. He promises to follow me there and never
more to fight against me. Tell me what answer I should send him."
As soon as =Charlemagne has finished speaking, =Roland exclaimed, "My advice
is, fight on! =France will never be safe until =Marsilius is conquered."
The great king bent his head, but did not answer. Then a knight named
=Ganelon rose and stood before him. "=Roland is young and talks foolishly,"
he said. "Listen not to him. Let us accept the offer of King =Marsilius
and end this long war, so that we may return to our homes."


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This story is called "A Surprise Christmas," but perhaps just as good a name
would be "The Animals' Santa Claus." As you read, see whether you think so, too.

It was Christmas morning -- the day when =Bob and =Betty should have been having
the merriest time in the world. But they were not merry at all; they sat and
looked at each other and hardly knew whether to laugh or to cry.
"That letter is the best present we could have had, anyway," said =Betty as
she looked again at the big special-delivery stamp. "=Mother is now out of
danger, and we will be home in a few weeks."
When =Mother had become sick, just after Thanksgiving, the children had been
sent to Uncle =Ben's farm. They had played in the meadows, gone to school in
the little schoolhouse, and watched for the postman to bring letters from home.
Christmas at home meant days of shopping, fun with Uncle =Tom when he came back
from college, parties at the church and at the schoolhouse. Besides, Christmas
at home meant planning a gift for some little child that was poor.




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Much as we love winter with its happy times at Thanksgiving and Christmas, we
are all glad when Maytime comes. What pleasure it is to find the first flowers,
to see the leaves slowly come out on the trees, and to welcome our bird friends
back from their winter homes! If you read this story carefully, you will learn
some interesting things about spring.

Out in the May meadow the wild grapevine was flinging itself around a slender
young tree.
"What a beautiful Maypole the grapevine has made of the tree," said =JackInThePulpit!
"Let's have a May party, now that we have a Maypole."
"Hurray," cried the wild flowers, who at once began talking about who should be
May Queen!
"I was the first flower up," said the =Crocus. "I think I should be chosen."
"Oh, no," said the Arbutus! "I was cuddled down under my leaves, keeping warm
and saw you rubbing your eyes long after I was awake."