A Sloven!

A SAD CASE.

Matilda Belinda Lucinda MacGovern

Was very untidy – you might say, a sloven!

She always objected to dusting and cleaning;

Towards brushes and brooms she had no sort of leaning.

In fact it was said that the sight of a duster,

Upstairs or downstairs, would simply disgust her;

And a broom to the room of this sad Miss. MacGovern

Was as strange as a spider’s web in a hot oven.

Matilda Belinda Lucinda MacGovern,

Oh! what could have taught her to be such a sloven?

The birds or the bees? – show us anything neater!

The daisies? – Ah! What could be nicer and sweeter?

Little Bo-Peep And Other Good Stories.

Henry Altemus Company: Philadelphia. 1905.

Depressed About The Cat!

“Puss speaks words of comfort to his Master.”

There was once an old miller who had three sons, and after his death his property was divided among them. . .

But the third son fared the worst of all, for all that fell to his share was a cat, and that was about as good, he thought, as nothing at all.

He sat down to think in what way he could earn a living, and bemoaned his fate with bitter sighs and tears.

“What shall I do?” he cried aloud. “If I kill the cat and sell his skin, that won’t go far toward keeping me out of the poor-house! Oh, how much worse I am off than my brothers!”

The cat sat near his master and heard every word he said; and when he paused for a moment, Puss came forward, and in a clear voice said: “Dear master, do not be so cast down. If you’ll give me a pair of boots and a game-bag you shall have no cause for complaint.”

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From the story “Puss In Boots.”

LITTLE FOLKS STORIES.

Illustration by R. Andre (1867).

McLoughlin Bro’s: New York. Ca 1888.