going to visit me, why, I suppose I'll just have to stop for him. But
I'll tell you one thing — you'll either have to do the holding, or you'll
have to put Pig-a-wee in a bag — because he'll be sure to fall out on the
way if you don't! I can't drive Dobbin and hold a fat little pig at the
same time."

"Well, we'll just have to put him in the bag then," said Charlotte
Anne. "I hope Pig-a-wee won't mind, but he's so very slippery, I
couldn't hold him, you see."

"Very well," said Grandfather Ray, "that's settled, so here we go."

Then they drove over to Joe-Boy's house and caught Pig-a-wee, and
nut him in a bag and tied the bag up, and put it underneath the buggy
seat! And as they drove away Joe-Boy stood at the gate and shouted,



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 107

"Good-bye, Charlotte Anne, take good care of Pig-a-wee, and don't
let him stay but a week."

And Grandfather Ray smiled and Charlotte Anne waved and
Pig-a-wee squealed and squealed, and away they rolled off down the big
road to the country. Pig-a-wee stopped squealing in a little while — I
guess he found out how nice it was to take a ride — and by and by, when
they got to Grandfather Ray's house. Grandmother Ray came out to
the gate to meet them, and Charlotte Anne jumped down and then
she said, "Wait a minute, Pig-a-wee's come, too, grandmother." And
when they pulled Pig-a-wee out from under the seat Grandmother Ray
was so surprised she didn't know what to do; so she just wiped her
spectacles and said, "Deary, deary, deary! Now, did 3^ou ever!" But
she went with Charlotte Anne to the meadow where there wasn't any
mud-puddle, and turned Pig-a-wee loose, and when he got out of the
bag he shook his curly tail about and went rooting around for his sup-
per, and grunting every step of the way.

"You see, grandmother," said Charlotte Anne, "Pig-a-wee is hunt-
ing for a mud-puddle this very minute! He just won't keep clean, and
Joe-Boy and I want him to wear a blue ribbon so!"

"Well, well, well," said Grandmother Ray, "I'm sure I never saw
a pig in my day that kept clean enough to wear a blue ribbon, but I hope
this one will be different, because everybody loves clean things."

Then they told Pig-a-wee good night, and went to the house to
supper, and pretty soon Charlotte Anne was in the high bed fast asleep.

And now comes the funny thing about Pig-a-wee. The very next
morning, right after breakfast, Joe-Boy went down to the buttercup
meadow to take Silverlocks some salt, and when he passed by the mud-
puddle, guess what he saw? Yes, sir, there was Pig-a-wee in the very
middle of that mud-puddle, with mud all over his back and head and
nose, as happy as happy could be!

Now, how do you think Pig-a-wee found his way home? Joe-
Boy could hardly believe his own eyes. It surely was Pig-a-wee, and it
did look as if he had some sense, if he couldn't keep clean! It seems to
me if somebody tied me up in a bag, and put me under the buggy seat,
and rode and rode down the country road, and turned me loose in a big
wide meadow, — why, I'd never find my way home! Could you"*



108 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

The Rabbits That Wore a Blue Ribbon

Tuesday

1 GUESS you would like to know what Charlotte Anne did the next
morning when she found Pig-a-wee was gone. She went to Grand-
father Ray's meadow early to take Pig-a-wee his breakfast, and she
looked and she looked and she looked everywhere for Pig-a-wee, and
she could not find him. And the hired man looked for Pig-a-wee and
he could not find him; and Grandfather Ray looked for Pig-a-wee and
he could not find him; and Grandmother Ray looked for Pig-a-wee
and she could not find him! And then — well, I do not like to say
Charlotte Anne cried, but her mouth was turned down some at the cor-
ners — you know how that is — and Grandmother Ray said very quickly:

"Well, well, well, deary, we won't worry. I'll just send the hired
man into town, horse-back, and see if Pig-a-wee could have gone home.
I have heard that you could hardly lose a little pig if you tried, so I
believe Pig-a-wee is safe at home this very minute. Come along, and
while the hired man is gone we'll go and look at the white rabbits.
They are clean enough to wear a blue ribbon, any day. How would you
like to have a pair to carry home for your very own?"

"I'd like it very well," said Charlotte Anne, and then the corners
of her mouth got turned up — you know how it is when you smile.

"All right," said Grandmother Ray, "and you may carry a pair to
Joe-Boy, too." So away they went to find the rabbits, and Charlotte
Anne was smiling and smiling and smiling. She picked out a white one
with pink eyes for Joe-Boy, and a white one with blue eyes for herself,
and a spotted one with blue eyes for Joe-Boy, and a spotted one with
pink eyes for herself, so they couldn't get mixed up when they went
visiting.

"Now," said Grandmother Ray, "I'll tell you about these rabbits,
so when you take them to town to live you will know how to take
good care of them. Of course, they must have a little house to live in
and plenty of fresh water all the time, and a clean straw bed to sleep
on. They like to eat almost anything green — cabbage leaves and let-
tuce leaves and celery tops and parsley, and sometimes cracked wheat
and fruit."

After they had played with the rabbits a long time. Grandmother
Ray said, "Well, it is about dinner time now, and I expect the hired



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 109

man has gotten back, too, so we will go and see." And, sure enough,
when they got to the house there was the hired man waiting for them.

"Yes," he said, "that httle pig went right straight home, and he
was down in the meadow, when I went by — lying in 'the middle of a
mud-puddle, too."

"Oh-o," said Charlotte Anne, "what is to become of Pig-a-wee?"
But she was very glad to hear that he had gotten safely home, anyway.

"You see," said Grandmother Ray, "Pig-a-wee has got some sense
after all!"

"Yes," said Charlotte Anne, "he just doesn't like to keep clean
like us, and then maybe Pig-a-wee likes his own home better than any
other. I know Joe-Boy was surprised to see him, too, but I never shall
bring Pig-a-wee visiting with me any more."

Well, when the end of the week came Charlotte Anne went home
and she carried the pretty rabbits with her, tucked away in a basket, and
Joe-Boy was so proud of his, he just jumped up and down like a churn
dasher. He and Father Gipsy worked nearly all of the next morning
on a rabbit house for them, and after dinner they went over to Char-
lotte Anne's and made a house for her rabbits. There were straw beds
in both, and Httle windows and doors, so the rabbits could come out and
go in whenever they pleased — because rabbits do not like to be penned
up, you know, any more than you or L Charlotte Anne named her rab-
bits Pink-eyes and Blue-eyes, and Joe-Boy named his rabbits Blue-eyes
and Pink-eyes. Sometimes Charlotte Anne would bring her rabbits
across the street to see Joe-Boy's rabbits and then Joe-Boy would take
his two rabbits across the street to see Charlotte Anne's. And when they
went visiting they always wore their blue ribbons, and were just as
clean as clean could be! Now, which would you rather be — a fat little
slippery pig, or a fat, little, soft, white rabbit — as clean as clean can be?

Mrs. Spider-Brown

Wednesday

IF I told you Joe-Boy had a pet as big around as a bird's egg, and
with eight legs and eight eyes, what would you guess it was? No, it
wasn't a fly, because they haven't as many as eight legs, you know, and a
great many more than eight eyes. But this pet of Joe-Boy's was very
fond of flies — I can tell you that. It was a great big brown spider,
and Joe-Boy named her Mrs. Spider-Brown the morning he found



110 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

her in his room. Now, Mrs. Spider-Brown had always lived in the
flower garden before this — her family did not like to live in houses
very much — but for some queer notion she thought she would spin her
a web in somebody's house. Maybe she thought there would be more
flies to catch. Anyway, late one night, while everybody was sleeping,
Mrs. Spider-Brown crawled into Mrs. Gipsy's house, and when she
had looked all around she said to herself:

"I like this house very much indeed! It looks dainty and clean
and has so many transomes over windows and doors that I could crawl
out to the open air any time I chose. I just believe I will go right to
work and build me a silken web, away up high, out of everybody's way,
and then surely the people who live here will not care. But first I will
look around and see which room I like best."

So Mrs. Spider-Brown crawled into the parlor, but she quickly
shook her head as she looked at the pretty walls, all sprinkled with
violets, and said, "I guess I had best not build in here! Everything
looks so fine, I don't believe a fly ever looked inside of this room — I'll
try another room."

So Mrs. Spider-Brown crawled into the dining room. But she
slowly shook her head again and said, "No, this room looks rather fine,
too; there are too many mirrors and bright things around. Why, that
large sideboard glass over there would get me all mixed up. I would
be sure to think there were two of myself, instead of one, and I might
forget which was who! People are queer things, anyway." And then
she crawled on into the kitchen.

"No," she said, "this will not do either; this is where the family
do their cooking and, of course, when the baby spiders come I should
not like to raise them altogether among pots and pans. I shall hunt
longer."

So then Mrs. Spider-Brown crawled all the way up the hall and
went into Mrs. Gipsy's room. "Ah," she said, as she looked around,
"I like this room better than any. It is bright and cozy — I always did
like red — but before I decide to room in here I guess I had better just
take a peep at those people over there in the bed — possibly they are
fond of brooms and dusters."

So up the wall by the side of the bed crawled Mrs. Spider-Brown
and peeped with her eight eyes at Mother and Father Gipsy, lying fast
asleep. She looked a long time and then she shook her head three times
and said:



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 111

"Mr. Gipsy has a fine face! I do not believe he would ever think
of sweeping or dusting up high. But Mrs. Gipsy? No, indeed! I
could not think of rooming in the same room with her! She has a
face that is sweet and beautiful enough, but her hand — I believe Mrs.
Gipsy almost lives with a broom in her hand, to say nothing of a duster!
She would sweep me off the face of the earth in less than three minutes!"

So Mrs. Spider-Brown crawled down the side wall very quickly
and went straight into Joe-Boy's room.

''Dear me," said she, as she went to the top of the toy cabinet for
a good look, "isn't this a dainty room! All in white, with daisies scat-
tered around ! Just the place for the baby spiders, and I know they
would enjoy these birds along the walls — I could tell them stories of
every one. But there is a little w^iite bed over there, too ; who sleeps
in it, I wonder? Why, a little boy, I do believe, — how charming! I
always loved children; they never dust high with brooms and dusters —
bless their dear hearts! Yes, yes, yes, this is the place for me, and I
shall room with the little boy. I believe he will treat me kindly and we
will be great friends."

Then Mrs. Spider-Brown crawled over in the corner and went to
the top of the ceiling, where she began to spin a most beautiful silver
web, which was to be her sitting room, you know, and the place where
she always caught the flies she ate. The wonderful silken thread came
from the tiny spinning holes near her hind legs, and Mrs. Spider-Brown
could work those legs of hers as fast as you can work your fingers, and it
did not take her very long to build her pretty web, from the thread of
dark, rich blue. First she fastened a few long threads to stand on
while she worked, and the she spun some cross threads, gluing them
tightly to the wall. Then came the pretty part of her work, for she spun
the threads round and round like a wheel, and by and by Mrs. Spider-
Brown had finished one of the daintiest, prettiest silken rooms that
ever you saw, with a small round window right in the center. And then
she felt so tired she crawled in and went to sleep. The next morning
when Joe-Boy waked up the very first thing he saw was Mrs. Spider-
Brown peeping at him from her round window, and he thought her
silken house was verj^ beautiful.

"I'm glad she came to room with me," said he, "and I shall have
her for my own pet spider; she shall live with me as long as she chooses."

"That's good," said Mrs. Spider-Brown, "I knew that was a
polite child !"



113 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

But right after breakfast in walked Mrs. Gipsy and then something
inside Mrs. Spider-Brown went "thump, thump, thump," because, sure
enough, in Mrs. Gipsy's hand there was a broom and a great long
duster.

"Just as I expected," said Mrs. Spider-Brown, "and now my day
has come!"

But when Mrs. Gipsy saw it she smiled one of her most beautiful
smiles and said, "Oh, isn't that a lovely web? Why, it must have
been spun last night. I never saw it before. And I did not know that
kind of web was ever found in houses at all. I thought the spiders
always spun them in the gardens on bushes or in fence corners or barn
windows and doors, and they look so much like silken fairy wheels that
it is a pity to dust them down! I wonder if Joe-Boy saw it. Here
he comes now."

"Mother, mother," said Joe-Boy, "I just remembered and ran in to
tell you that Mrs. Spider-Brown in the corner belongs to me — I am
going to have her for my pet, so be sure and do not clean her up, too!"

Then Mrs. Gipsy laughed merrily and long — the very idea of
Joe-Boy's saying, "don't clean a spider up!" Why, she cleaned up
rooms and not spiders, of course ! So she said :

"Well, I never heard of anybody having a pet_spider in all my life,
but this is your room and nox. my room, and I suppose if you want to
keep a spider in it, why, you can, — just so that it isn't poisonous and
won't bite."

"The idea," said Mrs. Spider-Brown, "why do people always think
we garden spiders are poisonous and bite ? Why, we wouldn't bite them
for anything, and would be their friends if they would only let us!
I am very glad the little boy there is to be my friend, and I believe
I shall learn to love his mother, too, — see the smile around her mouth!
She believes in letting even children have their rights, and that shows
she has a kind heart. Now, if she would only let brooms and dusters
alone!"



M



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 113

Mrs. Spider-Brown's Children

Thursday

RS. SPIDER-BROWN spent a ver>' happy time In Joe-Boy's
room and they were the best of friends. He had drawn her
picture two or three times, and her silken house, too, and had
even carried it to kindergarten and shown it to the children there. So
when Mrs. Spider-Brown saw she need not feel afraid she decided to
weave her nest and get ready for the baby spiders she had spoken about.
"I believe I will make my nest here, under the window ledge," she
said one day, "and lay my eggs in it."

You need not think Mrs. Spider-Brown was going to lay her egg in
that pretty silken house with the round window in the center. No,
indeed, that was for her sitting room and to catch any stray flies that
happened near. She lived on flies, and woe be unto any of them that
buzzed around Joe-Boy's room! It was Mrs. Spider-Brown's special
pleasure to see that none of them ever specked the walls of Joe-Boy's
room or those of her own. But, as I started out to tell you, Mrs. Spider-
Brown built her nest under the window ledge by the transom — such
a tiny, tiny nest, about the size of a thimble, and made out of that same
silken thread which came from her body. When she had lined it soft
and warm, then she laid her egg — only one egg, a wee, wee, wee egg, not
even as big as a pea! But Mrs. Spider-Brown was very proud of it —
she would even fight for that egg, because she knew the baby spiders were
growing inside and would soon wake up. Why, she often carried it
around on her back, and that is how Joe-Boy came to see it. He called
Mrs. Gipsy to see it, too, and Mother Gipsy said:

"Well, I think Mrs. Spider-Brown is very glad that she isn't like
the speckled hen that has twelve eggs to take care of instead of one!
And I also guess the speckled hen is very glad she doesn't have one
hundred babies to come out of just one egg, as Mrs. Spider-Brown will
have when her egg hatches!"

But Mrs. Spider-Brown did not worry over that fact a single
minute — she only wished her egg would hurry up and hatch, so she
could have her baby spiders for company. She didn't tell Joe-Boy so,
but she said to herself that as soon as her baby spiders did hatch, and were
large enough, she was going to turn them all into the garden to live,
where they belonged. It was too dangerous to raise a hundred babies



114 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

in the house with Mother Gipsy — she believed too much in brooms and
dusters !

Well, by and by the egg hatched out, and my! I wish you could
have seen those hundred babies roll out ! Just exactly like their mother —
legs and eyes and all! And Mrs. Spider-Brown made them mind, too,
from the very beginning! She would not have one bit of foolishness,
and those babies knew it, too! She told them they would all have to
make their own living, but, of course, she meant to teach them how
before she turned them out into the garden. So, every morning Mrs.
Spider-Brown had school with them up over the transom window,
and they were all learning very fast. She would first .make them get
in a long row, and then she would say, "Attention!" That meant for
all the little spiders to look at her. And they looked, too, with all of
their eight eyes.

"Now," said Mrs. Spider-Brown, "tell me where you came from?"

"We came out of one egg," piped all the baby spiders together.

"Don't say 'We came out of one egg,' my dears," said their mother,
"why, that is too long ; just say 'egg,' and be done with it. I like short
answers!"

"Egg, and be done with it," said the baby spiders, trying their very
best. Mrs. Spider-Brown sighed, because that is not exactly what she
wanted them to say, but she went on to the next question, anyway.

"Now tell me," she said, "what do little spiders eat?"

"Flies," said the baby spiders, "flies!"

"Good," said Mrs. Spider-Brown, "that's a short answer! Now,
how do you catch the flies?"

"Run after them," chimed the baby spiders.

"Tut, tut," said Mrs. Spider-Brown, "the idea! WTioever heard
of a spider running after a fly! Why, they have wings! We could
never catch one that way! Listen, every one. Spiders spin webs to
catch flies in and they spin the web from a wonderful silken thread that
comes from their bodies. Each one of you spiders have a silken thread
in you, too, and you will find the little spinning holes by your hind legs
— look for them now." Then Mrs. Spider-Brown gave them a spinning
lesson and they all learned how to spin a short thread.

"Good," said Mrs. Spider-Brown; "now, where is the best place for
spiders to make their webs?"

And all the spiders said, "Down on the barn, in the fence cor-
ners, by the side porch, and on the rose bush!"



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 118

"Very fine," said Mrs. Spider-Brown, "most especially by the barn,
because there will always be plenty of flies near. And don't forget
the pattern — round like a wheel. I will show you how pretty mine is
by and by. Now, two more questions and school is out for today. Why
should not spiders build their webs in houses?"

"Brooms and dusters!" said the little spiders — they knew that an-
swer well.

"Yes, to be sure," said Mrs. Spider-Brown. ''Never build your
webs in houses, unless you are very sure the people inside will be your
friends. Now for the last question: Why shouldn't spiders build their
webs close to the ground ?"

"Frogs! frogs! frogs! frogs!" said all the baby spiders. "Frogs!"

"Why, to be sure," said Mrs. Spider-Brown; "I know you are the
very smartest little spiders that ever drew the breath of life! Come, I
shall give you all a ride on my back to see my pretty web — pile on!"

Then all the baby spiders that could find room got up on Mrs.
Spider-Brown's back and she carried them over to her web, coming
back for those which had been left behind.

"Hold tight," she said, "whatever you do, don't fall onto Mrs.
Gipsy's floor — brooms and dusters! Remember the silken thread you've
learned to spin — if you should fall, just spin one quickly, fasten it to my
body, and crawl up."

After Mrs. Spider-Brown had taken them all to her web and let
them watch her catch a fly, then she took them back to the nest for a
rest, and the very next day she turned them out in the garden to make
their living! And do you know, not a single one of those baby spiders
forgot what they had learned at school?

Dimple and Dot

Friday

OUT on the lawn at Joe-Boy's house there was the loveliest
fountain that ever you saw, and that is where Joe-Boy kept his
pet fish. They were very happy in the fountain, too, because
the water was always fresh and pure, running in through one pipe and
out through another. The pipe that Joe-Boy liked to watch, though,
was the pretty one that ran right up from the center of the fountain
and carried a sparkling stream of water high in the air, which curved



116 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND

over and fell into the stone basin below like ever so many dimpling
stars. The water was so clear you ceuld see the white sand and peb-
bles and tinted shells that lay on the bottom, while ferns and water-
cress peeped over the sides to play with the sunbeams that sometimes
danced there. A few snails lived in the fountain, too, and helped to
keep the water pure; and then there were the four gold fish, three min-
nows, four speckled perch, and Mother Silver-Sides and her two chil-
dren, Dimple and Dot. It was a pretty sight to watch them gliding
and darting about in the water — up and down, up and down, to and
fro they swam, often coming up to the brink of the water for the cracker
crumbs which Charlotte Anne and Joe-Boy sometimes brought to feed
them with.

Dimple and Dot, the two silver fish, used to live in the brook at the
buttercup meadow before Joe-Boy found them. But one day their
mother went into the big pond for a swim in the deep water, and she
told Dimple and Dot to stay close at home under the big rock, until
she came back again. But the two little fish forgot to mind, you see,
and you know how it is — something nearly always happens when
children forget to mind their mothers.

Dot said, "Come, let's play jumping."

And Dimple said, "All right! let's see which one can jump the
higher!" So they jumped and jumped and jumped, until by and by —
why, they jumped so high they just jumped out of the water! And
when they fell on the hard ground and got sand in their gills and on
their pretty sides and in their pretty eyes, my! how it did hurt! They
had no eyelashes like yours and mine to keep trash out of their eyes, you
know, and then little fish can not live very long out of the water. So
they were very unhappy.

"Oh, oh, oh," said Dimple, "I wish I were back in the water!"

"Oh, oh, oh," said Dot, "I wish I did have my mother! I feel so
very stiff, and the sand is stinging me so!" And then they wriggled and
wriggled and jumped around on the ground, but the more they wrig-
gled the worse it felt. It was just at that moment that Captain came
by, and when he saw them wriggling in the sand he stopped right still
and wagged his tail and barked and barked. Wherever Captain went,
Joe-Boy was sure to be close behind, so he ran up, too, and when he
saw Dimple and Dot, I reckon you can guess what he did! Joe-Boy
thought of the fountain right away, so he picked Dimple up in one hand



LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 117

and Dot in the other hand, and away he ran to the front lawn with
them and dropped them into the fountain water with a gentle splash.
You should have seen those two little fish give a curve to their tails
and a dart of their bodies and go gliding to the very bottom! I can tell
you they were glad to get into the water one more time! And it did
not take them long to wash the sand from their eyes and fins and gills
either.

"Oh," said the little gold fish, when they saw them, "here are two
little silver fish come to live with us in the fountain. Where did you
come from?"

Dimple and Dot told them all about playing "jumping," but they
did not say anything about not minding their mother — they were ashamed

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