  IIFEBRUARYpisces Pisces They went to the February place: February place They went to the February place The little valentine girl in the February house was very sociable; but she talked so much, and there were so many clocks striking all around, that she was always getting side-tracked into a rhyme. For example, she was just about to describe a jolly party she went to one day last year, when a clock struck six, and she was obliged to say, instead:— “One day last year, with hems and haws and sidelong steps and nervous caws, the crows came mincing forth to mail gay valentines, you know. The post box was a hollow tree. They did not know, unluckily, that squirrels had gnawed the floor away, and owls moved in below. “The crows went flapping off with glee. They said, ‘Our woodland friends will see that, though we dress so solemnly, we’re sociable at heart.’ “The valentines came hurrying down, came scurrying down, came flurrying down, and waked the owls, all fast asleep, and gave them quite a start. “‘What’s this, my dear, amiss, my dear?’ cried Father Owl. “‘Oh, bliss, my dear,’ said Mrs. Owl. ‘A shower of mail for us. How very fine!’ “The daughter owls were full of joy, and quick the little owlet boy ruffed up his feathers roguishly and seized a valentine. “Excitement reigned among those owls; but, being such nocturnal fowls, they could not read the valentines at all in broad “Just after dusk a thing occurred, unfortunate for every bird: a wild, wild wind came romping in (it was a dreadful prank), and with a swoop, in boisterous play, swept all the envelopes away. “The poor owls cried, ‘Alackaday, we shan’t know whom to thank!’ “Next morning all the crows came out and pranced about and glanced about, expecting greetings from their friends, and praise, and everything; but when they got no single word of gratitude from any bird, they held a meeting in the trees that made the whole woods ring. “Oh, well, it surely seemed a shame, but no one really was to blame; and this year all the birds around (I heard it from a wren) will put their mail most carefully safe in a holeproof hollow tree. And every crow is going to be a happy crow again!” Little Ann was enchanted with the February house; she planned in her own mind to copy it in chocolate and taffy. “I’d like to see upstairs,—the beds and bureaus and things,—” she said shyly, “if you don’t mind my looking—” A big clock began to boom somewhere near. “My looking—” repeated Ann. “Dear me suz, I’m caught again! What shall I say?” Then all at once she said:— “My looking-glass is like a pool, “It fronts the clean white nursery wall, “But when in front of it I go, “Oh, just suppose I hurried there “And stood and stared, and could not see When it was nearly time to leave the February house, Ann remarked that Amos had talked in prose straight along ever since they came. Amos smiled proudly. “So I have,” he said. He was about to go on to say that he wondered if he would be caught at all, when—whiz! with a scramble and a scuffle a cuckoo rushed out of a “Wonder if George Washington “Wonder if he shed his shirt “Wonder did he sit in school, “Wonder if he ever took |
|
