The Pig Brother, and Other Fables and Stories

Once a child was sitting on a great log that lay by the roadside, playing; and another child came along, and stopped to speak to him.

“What are you doing?” asked the second child.

“I am sailing to the Southern Seas,” replied the first, “to get a cargo of monkeys, and elephant tusks, and crystal balls as large as oranges. Come up here, and you may sail with me if you like.”

So the second child climbed upon the log.

“Look!” said the first child. “See how the foam bubbles up before the ship, and trails and floats away behind! Look! the water is so clear that we can see the fishes swimming about, blue and red and green. There goes a parrot-fish; my father told me about them. I should not wonder if we saw a whale in about a minute.”

“What are you talking about?” asked the second child, peevishly. “There is no water here, only grass; and anyhow this is nothing but a log. You cannot get to islands in this way.”

“But we have got to them,” cried the first child. “We are at them now. I see the palm-trees waving, and the white sand glittering. Look! there are the natives gathering to welcome us on the beach. They have feather cloaks, and necklaces, and anklets of copper as red as gold. Oh! and there is an elephant coming straight toward us.”

“I should think you would be ashamed,” said the second child. “That is Widow Slocum.”

“It’s all the same,” said the first child.

Presently the second child got down from the log.

“I am going to play stick-knife,” he said. “I don’t see any sense in this. I think you are pretty dull to play things that aren’t really there.” And he walked slowly away.

The first child looked after him a moment.

“I think you are pretty dull,” he said to himself, “to see nothing but what is under your nose.”

But he was too well-mannered to say this aloud; and having taken in his cargo, he sailed for another port.

LITTLE JOHN BOTTLEJOHN

Little John Bottlejohn lived on the hill,
And a blithe little man was he.
And he won the heart of a pretty mermaid
Who lived in the deep blue sea.
And every evening she used to sit
And sing on the rocks by the sea,
“Oh! little John Bottlejohn, pretty John Bottlejohn,
Won’t you come out to me?”

Little John Bottlejohn heard her song,
And he opened his little door.
And he hopped and he skipped, and he skipped and he hopped,
Until he came down to the shore.
And there on the rocks sat the little mermaid,
And still she was singing so free,
“Oh! little John Bottlejohn, pretty John Bottlejohn,
Won’t you come out to me?”

Little John Bottlejohn made a bow,
And the mermaid, she made one too,
And she said, “Oh! I never saw any one half
So perfectly sweet as you!
In my lovely home ’neath the ocean foam,
How happy we both might be!
Oh! little John Bottlejohn, pretty John Bottlejohn,
Won’t you come down with me?”

Little John Bottlejohn said, “Oh yes!
I’ll willingly go with you.
And I never shall quail at the sight of your tail,
For perhaps I may grow one too.
”So he took her hand, and he left the land,
And plunged in the foaming main.
And little John Bottlejohn, pretty John Bottlejohn,
Never was seen again.

A FORTUNE

One day a man was walking along the street, and he was sad at heart. Business was dull; he had set his desire upon a horse that cost a thousand dollars, and he had only eight hundred to buy it with. There were other things, to be sure, that might be bought with eight hundred dollars, but he did not want those; so he was sorrowful, and thought the world a bad place.

As he walked, he saw a child running toward him; it was a strange child, but when he looked at it, its face lightened like sunshine, and broke into smiles. The child held out its closed hand.

“Guess what I have!” it cried gleefully.

“Something fine, I am sure!” said the man.

The child nodded and drew nearer; then opened its hand.

“Look!” it said; and the street rang with its happy laughter. The man looked, and in the child’s hand lay a penny.

“Hurrah!” said the child.

“Hurrah!” said the man.

Then they parted, and the child went and bought a stick of candy, and saw all the world red and white in stripes.

The man went and put his eight hundred dollars in the savings-bank, all but fifty cents, and with the fifty cents he bought a hobby-horse for his own little boy, and the little boy saw all the world brown, with white spots.

“Is this the horse you wanted so to buy, father?” asked the little boy.

“It is the horse I have bought!” said the man.

“Hurrah!” said the little boy.

“Hurrah!” said the man. And he saw that the world was a good place after all.

THE STARS

A little dear child lay in its crib and sobbed, because it was afraid of the dark. And its father, in the room below, heard the sobs, and came up, and said,