Baby Nightcaps

The nurse had a straw hat on, and Johnny, in his desire to get at her mouth, pulled the hat as hard as he could, and tore it nearly in two pieces. He did not mean to, you know; but when he had done it he thought it a very funny caper, and laughed, and put his hand through the rent, and snatched the comb out of her hair, laughing all the time and jumping almost out of her arms. What a baby!

The poor nurse looked as if she had been in the wars; she did not get angry, she loved Johnny so much; she only held fast with one hand to her ragged old hat, and hurried home, laughing as hard as Johnny.

Let me tell you that the old horse and the baby had a fine supper that night, and went to bed hugging each other, that is, Johnny hugged the horse.

Soon his beautiful black eyes were closed in sleep, and his little fat fingers, that had done so much mischief without meaning any wrong, were resting quietly on his breast.

Those bright eyes and busy fingers wanted rest, don't you think so? I do. So; good night, little Johnny.

LILLIE'S SAYINGS AND DOINGS;

OR,

THE EFFECTS OF A GOOD EXAMPLE

Of all the precious, bright-eyed fairies I ever knew, little Lillie was one of the very first and foremost. She was always doing or saying something charming or funny; and sometimes, of course, she was mischievous; but if you were ever so much provoked at her mischief and its effects, one look at her sweet, innocent face, so unconscious of wrong meaning, with the long golden curls floating round it, one look, and the great frown on your brow would soften into a little one; another look at the dimpled cheeks, and imploring blue eyes, and the little frown would disappear entirely; but when the sweet voice said, "Mamma, shall I put myself in the corner? I ought to go," why, one, two, three, presto!! all the angry feelings would come right out of your heart, and fly away up the chimney! and a very good riddance they were!

Don't you wish, little reader, that angry feelings of all sorts and sizes against everybody, would adopt the fashion of flying up the chimney, and never come back again? I do.

Lillie was five years old. She had two sisters older than herself. One had already gone "home," and was now a little white-robed angel in heaven, safe forever in Jesus' arms, from the temptations and dangers of this sorrowful life. The other was a dark-haired, dark-eyed little maiden, five years older than Lillie, and the grave dignity of all these years caused Annie to be impressed with a lively sense of the great necessity that rested upon her, of setting a good example to her sister, and brother Willie, a curly headed little fellow, not quite three years of age. I will tell you how Annie came to feel this responsibility so deeply.

One day her mother asked her to go down stairs, and get a book that she wanted; but Annie was very busy with her paper dolls, and she answered in a low voice, for she hardly meant her mother to hear her, "I shan't do it." When, what was her amazement and sorrow, to hear her little Lillie say, right after her, "Mamma, if you tell me, I sant do it, too."

Oh! my dear little reader, this was worse than the most dreadful punishment to Annie, to think that she had been so naughty, and that her example had caused Lillie to be naughty too, and her heart sank, as she looked up and saw her kind mother sitting there, the great tears falling one by one upon her clasped hands, and her sorrowful eyes fixed upon her children.

With a grieved cry, Annie rushed to her mother and threw her arms around her neck, and kissed her, and wiped the tears away, and said, "Hush! hush! dear mother. Oh! do stop crying! and I will never, never do so again," and little Lillie, who was only three years old then, and hardly knew how wrong she had acted, in her desire to imitate her sister, in everything, clung to her mother and said, "What for you ki, mamma? don't ki," and so it came to pass that Annie never forgot this terrible lesson, but strove with all her might to set her sister and brother a good example, and begged her good and pious mother to make a little prayer for her, that she might be strengthened from above.

This is the prayer her mother made, which Annie said every night and morning, with her other prayers, and Aunt Fanny who is writing this, begs you, dear little readers, to learn this prayer; if you only say it from your heart, I know it will help you.

"O God, my Heavenly Father, send thy Holy Spirit to help me to be good myself, and to set a good example to others. Take all the wicked disobedient thoughts out of my heart. Make me a comfort and a joy to my dear parents, and prepare me to live with Thee and my dear little sister now in Heaven. For Jesus, my Saviour's sake, Amen."

You have no idea how good and lovely Annie became after this. God answered her prayer.

In the summer time Lillie and the rest would go into the country to see her grandfather, of whom she was very fond, and well she might be, for he was one of the best and dearest grandfathers in the whole world. He was a gentleman of the old school, and treated even children with a stately courtesy; but while, at the same time, the children nestled to him with the most fearless confidence and love, they would as soon have thought of cutting their heads off, as of giving him one disrespectful word or look.

In the very next house to Lillie's grandfather's, lived "little Alice," about whom you have heard in "Nightcaps."

Alice always knew when Lillie had arrived. Every sweet summer morning Alice would jump out of bed, and her mother would throw the window open, letting in the delicious perfume from the strawberry bed next door, and the joyous morning hymns of the little birds, and then, if Lillie had come all at once, 'midst the songs of the birds, a small clear musical voice would be heard, singing (for she made a little song of it) – "Al —lie! Al —lie!" Then Alice would give a jump, and answer, imitating her song, "What —ee! What —ee!" and then the bird outside would sing, "Where's you? Where's you?" and Alice would answer, "Here's I, Here's I!" and that would finish the duet, for Alice would run to the window, and there, just below, would be Lillie, standing on the daisy-spangled grass-plot, looking, in her white dress and golden curls under that blue sky, fairer and lovelier far, than any lily ever looked, in any earthly gardener's conservatory. It is true, that God made them both, but this Lillie was a flower blooming for immortality, while the others would perish in one short summer.

Then Alice would run down stairs, and out of the house, and scramble through a little hole in the fence at the back of the house, and rush up to Lillie, and Lillie would rush up to Alice, and they would knock each other down, without meaning to, on the soft grass, and roll over together, and jump up again, as good as new, and laugh! you never heard any thing sweeter! and report themselves ready for any play that Annie might propose.

Lillie was very fond of singing. She could sing most delightfully, "Old Dog Tray," "I want to be an Angel," "Pop goes the Weasel," and many other beautiful airs. She had taught Willie to sing "Pop – go – a – dee – sell," as he called it, and was unwearied in her efforts to amuse him, for he was a delicate little fellow, and had been sick a great deal. In this, Lillie was imitating her sister Annie, (do you see the importance of a good example?) and it was perfectly beautiful to observe the care she took of him: she would tie the bib round his neck, when he was to eat his dinner, so tight, as almost to choke him to death, but with the most loving intentions, and would comb his soft curls down on his face, and nearly scratch his eyes out with the comb, but Willie never cried; not he! because he knew perfectly well, baby as he was, from the sweet affectionate expression beaming from Lillie's blue eyes, that she did it all in love, and it is really amazing what a deal of knocking about, children will stand and laugh at, if they know it to be done in love or play, when a slight touch in punishment will set them crying.

One pleasant morning, just before last Christmas, Lillie was conversing with Willie while they were eating their breakfast with the family; for Willie had been promoted to the dignity of a high chair, and had commenced the business of feeding himself, and did it very well, considering. About once in five times he would stick the spoonful of hominy in the middle of his cheek, or on the tip of his chin, expecting to find an extra mouth or two, I suppose; so that in a little while his face would be ornamented with a variety of white patches, which made Lillie laugh, and Willie laugh back; so upon the whole he fed himself in what might be called an entertaining manner, and began to grow fat upon it.

Lillie was older, and of course ate her breakfast like a dainty little maiden, as she was, in the neatest possible way, but for all that, she liked plenty to eat, and presently she held out her plate for some more cakes.

"Why, Lillie!" said her father, pretending to be astonished, "more cakes? you're just like Oliver! I am sure you must be full up to here," and he pointed to his throat.

"Oh! no, papa, you are mistaken, only look here, how loose my skin is," and she grasped the skin of her white neck, and pulled it up, and cried, "see papa, quite a big room left."

Her father laughed, and gave her the cakes, and while she was enjoying them, she cried to Willie:

"I'm learning to spell and read, Mr. Willie."

"Is you?" answered Willie, "why for?" and in his earnest attention to this announcement, he forgot the way to his mouth again, and landed a spoonful of hominy on the end of his nose.

Lillie laughed, and polished his nose with her napkin; and rubbed it so hard, that it made Willie wink, and said:

"Because people must learn to read and spell, and you must learn too – I'm going to teach you; come, spell 'cat.'"

"But I tant," said Willie.

"But you must," said Lillie, "you must spell 'cat,' and you must learn to read the Bible; and you and I will read the Bible every single morning, and a great many times besides."

"Come, begin: spell 'cat.'"

Willie looked gravely down, with very large eyes, at the cat, as if he thought that she might tell him; then lifted his mug, on which was elegantly painted, with about twenty-seven flourishes, the words, "For Willie," to his lips, and took a long drink of milk, staring over the top of it at the cat the whole time, but the blinking old tabby only dozed away with one eye opened, and slapped her tail on the carpet as if to say, "you'll find no spell in me," so Willie put his mug down, and drawing a long breath, lisped again, "But I tant."

"Well," said Lillie, a little provoked, "if you can't spell 'cat,' spell 'kitten:' that's littler."

This made a great laugh round the table, and finally Lillie had to teach Willie how to spell this difficult word, and she repeated the lesson so often, and so kindly, that before an hour, Willie could spell "cat" just as well as Mr. Appleton himself! think of that! and he (Willie, not Mr. Appleton) was so proud of his new accomplishment, that he took an opportunity to run away, and his nurse went hunting after him, and found that he had scrabbled down the stairs backwards, which was his way of getting down in the world, (and I'm sure it is better than plunging headlong, as some people do,) and trotted into the kitchen to teach the cook and a little butcher boy who had just brought in the dinner, to spell "cat," and asked her in return for this kindness, to make him a "turnover pie," which you may be sure she did.

A few days after this, the joyous Christmas came, the day on which our blessed Saviour was born, when everybody ought to be grateful and joyful, if they possibly can.

On this day, Annie, Lillie, and Willie were in perfect ecstasies, so many kisses, and so many presents poured in upon them, and all tokens of so much love; that made the charm.

Lillie, especially, was enchanted with two rings she received; a pretty gold ring, and one of red cornelian. Only think! the grandeur and dignity of two rings at once, on her little white fingers! the very idea set her singing and skipping with joy. "Dear me," she said, "two wedding rings! how delightful! I shall begin a play 'mediately. Come, Annie and Willie, let's play I was a grand lady dressed in two rings, coming to make you a visit." Accordingly, Annie spread herself out as wide as she could, and Willie, as he didn't happen to wear a hoop, concluded to spread himself up as high as he could, which he effected by putting on a "sojer cap" with a long feather, and they sat up in state to receive the company, and had a splendid time, when the two rings, and the lady, walked majestically in.

The next day, a lady called upon Lillie's mother, and said, "How did Annie like the ring I sent her?"

"Annie? Lillie, you mean."

"Oh, no," said the lady, "I sent the cornelian ring to Annie."

This announcement troubled Lillie's mother. She knew her little girl thought more of this cornelian ring, than of all the rest of her presents; but she promised the lady, who was their cousin, it should be given to the rightful owner.

Now, this good mother would gladly have bought another ring for Annie, and let Lillie keep her treasure, but that would not have been the right thing; so she took Lillie out walking with her, and as the little girl skipped and danced along, (for a little happy creature like that, scarcely ever walks,) she began her painful duty by saying, "Lillie, what is the golden rule?"

"I know," said Lillie, "Do as you would wish to be done by."

"Well, do you understand what it means?"

"Why, yes, mamma; papa says the golden rule means, that I must be good and kind to everybody, because I always want everybody to be good and kind to me."

"Well, Lillie," said her mother, in a very kind tone, "I must tell you about a mistake I have made. I am very, very sorry for it. I gave you two rings on Christmas day, and your cousin tells me, that she meant the cornelian ring for Annie. Now, Lillie, what will you do?"

"Oh, mamma!" exclaimed Lillie, and then she stopped, while a painful flush came all over her face, her little breast heaved, and her large and lovely blue eyes filled with tears. She felt very miserable, for a moment, then checking a rising sob, she said, softly —