The Tar Baby and the Tomahawk: Race and Ethnic Images in American Children's Literature, 1880-1939

Oh Tad! Who do you suppose has come?" Bessie, almost at the point of tears, flung herself breathlessly at her brother's side.

"Why," said Tad, quickly arousing himself from a reverie, "you mean the pear peddler, don't you?"

All morning Tad had been thinking of a certain pear peddler who had stopped by their home two days before, selling the sweetest and juiciest big yellow pears he had ever seen. Mother had told him to come back Saturday morning and she would take a bushel for canning. "The children won't be at school that day and they can help to peel them."

For once, the prospect of Saturday morning work did not worry Tad. He longed for its arrival and took this outburst of Bessie's for the announcement of the pear peddler.

"Oh, it's that horrible old kissing-bug." Bessie smiled ruefully.

"Do you mean Aunt Jane?" asked Tad, with his face set.

"I do," said Bessie solemnly. "I was on my way to the front gate when I saw that old white faced sorrel hitched there. I didn't stop to look at anything else then, but while I was running back here to tell you, I caught a glimpse of that old black striped skirt through the front window. I heard Mamma say, "I'll call the children in a minute."

"Well, I'll not be here when she calls," said Tad, rising. "I'm tired of having Aunt Jane kiss me like I was a year-old girl baby. Can't she see that we don't like it?"

"Ta-a-d! Oh, Bessie-e-e !" called Mother from the house just as Tad was slipping under the back fence.

"Come on," he said to Bessie, who stood undecided, "unless you want to go back and get your mouth and face smacked full of old smokey kisses." Aunt Jane used a pipe.

The corpulent, good-natured aunt of Tad and Bessie's father lived several miles distant in the country and every now and then she came to spend the day with her nephew's family. She had a heart chuck full of love for her
brownies.192110.010.jpg kinsfolk and her method of greeting them hailed back to the time when most all neighbors lived several miles apart, and kissing on meeting and leaving was a part of good country manners. Accordingly, Aunt Jane, from a point of custom when visiting "My nephew James' " family, kissed them all, and the children, "Bless their little hearts," she just loved to bite and squeeze them whenever they came near her—which wasn't often if they could help it.

Tad and Bessie could never forget the time when they, being back in the kitchen at the time of this relative's arrival, had sought to escape from the demonstration of her affections by bedaubing their faces with molasses and dust from the coal box while Aunt Jane called out from the other room, "Children, come in and let Auntie kiss you!"

When they entered, Aunt Jane threw up her hands in amazement; but blood being thicker than water, she said, "My! you children look awfully bad, but Auntie's going to kiss you anyhow !"

The two runaways were out of sight of home, not caring particularly where they were headed for. Anywhere seemed better than within the range of Aunt Jane's arms.

"Let's go over and play with Tom and Helen a while," suggested Bessie.

"No," said Tad. "Let's don't stop in the neighborhood at all, 'cause Mamma will be asking someone to tell us to come home if they see us. Let's go way off, down by the hollow."

"But let's don't go too far," said Bessie. "Maybe she just came in to peddle and will be gone in a little while."

"Oh now, Bessie, you know she always stays all day." The word "peddle" brought back the pears to Tad's mind. "Bothersome old thing to come and spoil my pleasure. I had planned to stay around the kitchen and eat pears all morning. They were the grandest pears, Bessie—so sweet and juicy! The man gave me one."

"Wouldn't you be willing to go back and suffer being kissed to get some pears?"

"Oh it wouldn't be so bad if I could take some and get out, but Mamma said that we were to help fix them and you know Aunt Jane would be lolling around the kitchen all morning."

"Well if we stayed away all morning, Mamma might save them until this afternoon and we'd be bothered just the same."

"Well I'm not—" but Tad's answer was interrupted by the sight of a man driving up the lane with a basket of pears in his express.

"Say, Mister! Sell me some pears?" he called out, drawing two nickels from his pocket.

"Can't, sonny," was the answer. "Just bought them myself from a fellow down the road."

"Does he live far from here?"

"Oh just down the road a little piece, in a green house with a big orchard in front."

"Let's go down there, Bessie," said Tad. "We can have our pears after all without being bothered."

"Oh Tad, I'm afraid to keep on going. Mamma will be worried." A big tear stood in Bessie's eye.

"Oh if you're going to be a cry baby, you might as well go on back and let Aunt Jane kiss your tears away. I'm going on to get some pears. The man said it wasn't far. Come on."

Bessie trudged along with Tad, wishing she had stayed home. Tad soon began to get tired, as he realized that "just down the road a little piece" was quite a big piece when one was on foot. However, he wouldn't let Bessie know; so he kept on walking, with her limping beside him.

"Oh Tad, I'm not going any farther!" cried Bessie at last. "I'm too tired to make another step," she sobbed, dropping down by the roadside.

"Well don't cry," said Tad. "We'll wait here until some one comes along who'll give us a ride back home. Look! I see someone now, away down the road."

Keeping their eyes on the coming vehicle, the first thing that caught their attention was a white faced sorrel. Tad and Bessie gasped and caught each other's hands. Next appeared the edge of a black striped skirt and just as Bessie felt that she was going to faint, the express stopped at the roadside and Aunt Jane exclaimed as she climbed out, "Well! Well! Here's Auntie's sweeties sitting down by the road. Lord love them!" Smack! Smack! Tad and Bessie found themselves wrapped in the tightest embrace they'd ever known.

"How in the world did you happen to be way down here by yourselves? You look tired
brownies.192110.011.jpg to death." More kisses. "Auntie was on the way to see her children, and she's going to take them right home."

Tad and Bessie's feelings, as they rode along, can hardly be described. Each one cast reproachful glances at the other but Aunt Jane did most of the talking, which she now and then punctuated with a hug or a kiss.

It was a very shamed faced little pair that entered their home beside their aunt. "Why here's Aunt Jane!" cried the worried mother. "And where have you children been?"

"I found them huddled down by the roadside, over two miles off," said Aunt Jane, as she embraced her nephew's wife vigorously. "They looked so tired and worn out. I cannot understand what the poor little things were doing so far from home."

"Nor can I," said the mother angrily, "especially when I had ordered a bushel of pears for canning this morning with their help, and without my permission, they went trampling off down the country road. Go to bed, both of you! I won't whip you because Auntie is here, but you've got to be punished."

"Now don't be so hard on the poor little dears, Mary. They just wanted to stroll a bit and went too far."

"Yes, but they knew better. They must go to bed. I guess they're tired enough to go anyway. No, you cannot carry any pears to bed with you."

"Now just give me an apron, Mary, and we'll get those pears out of the way in no time," said Aunt Jane. "Poor darlings," she added, kissing them again, "Auntie's going to save you some pears."

As they were leaving the room, Tad and Bessie heard their mother say, "I made sure I saw you coming here early this morning, Aunt Jane. A woman, who looked like you, drove up to the gate with a horse like yours ; but it was the wife of the man from whom I engaged these pears. She brought them and she reminded me so much of you."

WOLF AND HIS NEPHEW

Do you know where the Cape Verde Islands are? No? They are off the most western point of Africa—Cape Verde, the green cape. In those islands now and for several centuries some of the best story tellers, I believe, in the world have been telling one another stories which once travelled, some of them, from the African mainland, some of them from the Hispanic peninsula. For stories, you know, travel like people, from one end of the world to the other. How? Guess.

We catch the stories somewhere on their travels, but we seldom learn where they started from. The stories I am going to tell you I caught in Rhode Island, after they came over to this country from the Cape Verde Islands, and, as I said, some of them reached the Islands from Portugal and some from Senegambia or Sierra Leone; but whence they came to those countries, who knows? Perhaps from Arabia. perhaps from India, perhaps from some old, old African kingdom. At any rate, they have been moving about the world a long time, a very long time.

After you have read about these tricks which Wolf, the big, greedy, slow fellow, and Peter, his quick and sly little nephew, play on each other, tell the story in your turn to somebody who likes stories. Remember, these tales are tales not to write but to speak. I have written them down for you only because I can't reach you with my voice for which written words are only a makeshift, a lifeless sort of makeshift. But if you tell the story to somebody in your own words, you will make it come to life again.

PETER had a place in the country, where the food was good. One day he met his Uncle Wolf. Wolf said to him, "Ah, Nephew, "where have you been and what have you been
brownies.192110.012.jpg eating to make you so fine and fat? Your Uncle has been around here without being able to find a thing to eat. Do take me where you get your food."

"Uncle, I won't take you where I get my food. You're too greedy. They'd catch you and kill you."

Wolf begged. "No, I won't be greedy. Take me! Take me!"

"All right. Tomorrow at dawn I'll take you."

That night Wolf did not sleep at all, and at midnight he knocked at Peter's door. Peter said, "Oh, Uncle Wolf! Go home. It's still the middle of the night. Nobody would 'go at this hour."

At one o'clock Wolf began to crow like a cock, —"Cocorico! Cocorico! Cocorico!" Then he went and knocked at Peter's door. Peter got up and said to him. "It's too early yet. Go home! Do go home! It's too early yet. It's you crowing like a cock. I know you. Go home!"

Wolf had a little house. He went back to it and waited a little while, then he set the house on fire. He went back and knocked again on Peter's door. Peter got up and saw the light of the fire. Wolf said to him, "See the light? It's dawn. Time to go. See the light?"

"Uncle Wolf," said Peter, "I don't know what to do with you. Here you are setting fire to your house. Now you will have to live on the street. Well, let's go."

They went to the house of Aunt Goose. On the way Peter said to his uncle, "Uncle Wolf, if Aunt Goose catches us, she will kill us. We must work quickly. Eat only one egg to every fifty you put in your bag."

"All right, Nephew," said Wolf. But to every fifty eggs Wolf ate, he put only one in his bag. Peter put into his bag one hundred eggs to' every one he ate.

"Time to leave, Uncle Wolf," said Peter.

"I have still an empty place in my stomach,"

said Wolf. "I have still to eat for my grandmother and for my mother and for my father and for my wife and for my children."

But Peter would not wait. "I am going, Uncle." he said. "When you are ready to come out say 'Cushac! Cushac!' for the door to open, and when you are outside say 'Cubic! Cubic!' for the door to close."

"All right," said Wolf, and he went on eating. After he finished eating all he could and wanted to leave he called out, "Cubic! Cubic!" The door shut tight. "Cubic! Cubic!" he shouted. The door shut tighter. "Cubic! Cubic! Cubic!!!" The more he shouted, the tighter it closed.

Aunt Goose was coming. Away on a little hill stood Peter. He saw her and sang: "Little stick, little stick,

Are you going to beat Sir Wolf?

Aunt Goose comes from gathering wood." Inside the door, Wolf heard Peter singing and sang back :

"Nephew, my nephew,

You are a sly one!

Into someone's house you bring me to feed, When you know I am unlucky.

Cubic! Cubic!"

Outside Aunt Goose sang:

"Wan! Wan! Dew falls, sun shines, And I am coming."

Peter sang again : "Little stick, little stick, Are you going to beat Sir Wolf? Aunt Goose comes from gathering wool."

Now Aunt Goose came up to her door with her bundle of wood. She put it down and said, "Cushac! Cushac!" The door started to open. when from inside Wolf called, "Cubic! Cubic!" and it closed again. Again Goose said. "Cushac Cushac!"—"Cubic! Cubic!" said Wolf. Goose sat down before the door. "Door," she said. "why don't you open? Other days you open when I say, Cushac Cushac!" The door flew open.

Wolf ran under the bed. Then Aunt Goose made herself some coffee. She drank it and lay down to rest, She belched.

"You pig!" exclaimed Wolf under the bed.

Aunt Goose looked around everywhere. She couldn't see anybody. She went back to bed. She belched again.

"You dirty pig. Don't you see a man is under the bed?" called out Wolf.

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This time she saw him. She dashed at him. He jumped out and caught hold of the roof truss. "Come down so I can kill you," said Goose. But Wolf held on until he grew tired.

"I'm tired hanging here, Aunt Goose," he said.

"If you're tired hanging by your hands, hang by your feet," she said.

"I'm tired hanging by my feet," Wolf called out again.

"If you're tired hanging by your feet. hang by your belly," said Goose. Wolf let go with his feet. He fell into a pile of ashes by the fireplace and was lost to sight.

Just then Peter passed by. "Peter ! Oh Peter: Come in here." said Goose. "Your uncle was here, but now I can't see where he is. He fell down. He must be dead."

Peter called out, "Our yellow race never dies without belching."

Wolf heard him. He belched. The ashes scattered and there was Wolf in full sight. Aunt Goose began to beat him. She beat him almost to death.

THERE was a Goat that had three kids, named Melo, Maria, Sane. She raised them in a house she could lock up, and every day she would come in from the fields to suckle them. She sang:

"Melo, Maria, Sane,

Open the door for me to suckle you."

One day Wolf heard this song and while Goat was away, he came to the door and sang in a gruff voice:

"Melo, Maria, Sane,

Open the door for me to suckle you."

"Oh, Sir Wolf ! We're not going to open to you," cried the kids. "You're not going to get us to eat."

So Wolf went to the doctor to ask him how he could make his voice soft like a goat's. "Get a woolen blanket, a pot of water, and a bundle of wood," said the doctor, "Make a fire and heat the water. Jump into the pot and tell your nephew to cover it with the blanket. In this way your voice will become soft." Wolf [illustration - Get in, said the doctor] did this and stayed three days in the pot. Then he went to Goat's house and sang:

"Melo, Maria, Sane,

Open the door for me to suckle you." They opened the door, and he swallowed them down, all three of them.

Then he went to the well for a drink. "Sir Wolf," the Well asked, "what have you eaten to make you so thirsty?"

"I have eaten goose-eggs." answered Wolf. Mistress Goat was going along, crying for her children. She met a Donkey. Donkey said to her, "Mistress Goat, how is it that every day I meet you singing and dancing, but today you are in tears?"

"I have reason to cry, Sir Donkey; Wolf has eaten up my three kids."

"Come along with me," said Donkey. "I'll turn Wolf over to you."

When Wolf saw Donkey coming towards him he said. "Come here, Donkey old boy. You're the very fellow I am looking for to eat." Donkey ran away.

Goat met an Ox. Ox said to her. "Mistress Goat, how is it that every day I meet you singing and dancing, but today you are in tears?"

"I have reason to cry, Sir Ox ; Wolf has eaten up my three kids."

"Come along with me," said Ox. "I'll turn Wolf over to you."

When Wolf saw Ox coming towards him he said, "Come here. Big-neck. You're the very fellow whose blood I want to drink."

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Ox ran away.

"Not until you let out all the kids," said Ant.

Goat met a Horse. Horse said to her, "Mistress Goat, how is it that every day I meet you ringing and dancing, but today you are in tears?" Wolf let out the last kid. Goat took the three kids and went off to the fields.

"I have reason to cry, Sir Horse; Wolf has eaten up my three kids." From this, you see that you must not disparage anyone because he is little, for Ant, little though she was, gave back to Goat her three kids.

"Come along with me." said Horse. "I'll turn Wolf over to you."

When Wolf saw Horse coming towards him. he said, "Come here, Horse, old fellow. You're [illustration - I have reason to cry] the very one I want to wrestle with." Horse made towards Wold, but as soon as Wolf came on, too, Horse Kicked up his heels and ran away.

Goat met an Ant. Ant said to her, "Mistress Goat, how is it that every day I meet you singing and dancing, but today you are in tears?"

"I have reason to cry, Mistress Ant; Wolf has eaten up my three kids."

"Come along with me," said Ant. "I'll turn Wolf over to you."

"I don't think you can turn Wolf over to me," raid Goat. "Big fellows like Donkey, Ox and Horse couldn't, how can a little creature like you?" Ant sang:

"I am a little Ant.

Smoke doesn't blacken me,

Sun doesn't burn."

She went on up to Wolf and Wolf swallowed her. Then she bit into Wolf's guts. Wolf cried. "Ant, let me alone!".

"I won't let you alone until you let out the three children of Mistress Goat."

Wolf let out one. "That's all," he said. "Mistress Ant, I have three children," said Goat.

Ant bit Wolf again. Wolf said, "Ant, do let me alone!"

"Not until you let out all the kids," said Ant. Wolf let out the last kid. Goat took the three kids and went off to the fields.

From this, you see that you must not disparage anyone because he is little, for Ant, little though she was, gave back to goat her three kids.

WOLF and Peter, his nephew, went into the country and stole a pig. They took it to a cave and made a fire and put on the pot. Wolf was sitting on one side of the fire, and Peter on the other. When the pig was almost cooked, Peter took a little stone and threw it up to the roof of the cave. As the stone was falling down he said, "Look, Uncle Wolf, look! The cave is falling down on us. Get up and hold it up." While Wolf went to hold up the cave, Peter took the pot outside and ate up all the food. He went away, leaving Wolf holding up the cave.

For three days Wolf stood there holding the cave up, then he jumped aside and fell and cut his head. He went home and asked his wife if she had seen Peter.

She said, "No, I haven't seen Peter. You better leave that boy alone and stay home. He'll kill you yet."

"I'm the one who's going to kill him! Isn't he my nephew?"

Next day Peter smeared his head with molasses and went to see his uncle. When he came in he said, "Mistress Isabel, where's Uncle Wolf ?" Wolf was hidden under the bed. He wanted to catch Peter. As Peter took off his hat, Isabel saw the molasses and thought it was blood, so she screamed.

Wolf came out from under the bed. He cried out, "Oh, Peter, my nephew! Who has done this to you?"

Peter answered, "Oh that's nothing, my uncle. I told a man to hit me on the head with his axe, and that came out."

Wolf touched Peter's head and then he put his fingers in his mouth. My! but it was sweet! "Isabel! Isabel!" he called to his wife. "Get the axe and hit me, too, on the head." She hit him and drew blood. He cried, "Hit me again, hit me again! It isn't sweet yet. Hit me again!!" She almost split his head in two. Then she had to go and get herbs to make a plaster to cure it.

After his head was healed, Wolf started out to the beach to find Peter. Peter was a fisherman.
brownies.192110.015.jpg On the beach Wolf began to pick up snails and crabs to eat. A claw stuck in his teeth. Peter was at the other end of the beach when he saw his uncle. He came up to him and said, "Uncle, I'll get that claw out for you." Peter had a needle in his hand.

"No, Nephew, not with that," objected Wolf. "Don't you remember that the shroud of your mother was sewed with a needle?"

Peter got out a pin. "No, Nephew. Don't you remember that pins were used for nails in the coffin of your mother?"

Peter picked up a straw. "No, Nephew. Don't you remember it was a straw that cooked your mother to death? Why don't you take it out with your fingers?"

Peter started to take it out with his fingers and Wolf snapped his teeth on his fingers and bit a piece out.

"Nephew, you are a smart fellow, but I am smarter than you. Remember I am your uncle."

Peter said, "Uncle Wolf, I came to tell you where you could get something good to eat. Now you've bitten a piece out of my finger, I won't tell you."

"Oh, Nephew, do tell me. I'll put the piece back on your finger, even if I have to take a piece out of my own finger."

"Well, Uncle Wolf, I'll take you there," said Peter, "but you've got to learn the rule."

It was a fig-tree. You could not reach the tree, it was too high up. You had to say, "Come down! Come down ! Come down!" and the tree would come down, and you could climb on it and say, "Go up! Go up! Go up!" and it would go up as far as you wished. Then you said, "Stop!" When you got enough to eat you would say, "Come down ! Come down! Come down!" and it would come down.

Wolf said to the tree, "Come down! Come down! Come down!" and the tree came down and he climbed on it and said: "Go up! Go up! Go up!" He said, "Stop." and he began to eat. He ate so much that he forgot the rule and when he wanted to come down he said, "Go up! Go up! Go up!" and the tree kept going up. It went all the way up to Heaven.

When Wolf got there God said to him, "What are you doing here? How are you going to get down again?"

"I don't know," said Wolf.

"Well, take this piece of leather," said God, "go to the river and wash it and bring it back to me. I'll make a drum for you. and I'll tie a string on you and let you down. When you reach the bottom, play your drum and I'll know you're there and cut the string."

When Wolf went to wash the leather, he was so hungry that he ate it. When he came back he told God the current had carried away the leather while he was washing it. God gave him another piece of leather. He was still hungry and he ate it and told God again that the current had washed it away. God gave him another piece of leather and this time God sent Saint Peter along with him to watch him and see if he was telling the truth. Every time Wolf started to carry the leather to his mouth, Saint Peter said, "Pst! What are you doing?"

"Oh! I ain't eating it, I'm just smelling it," said Wolf.

God made him the drum and tied him to a string. "When you get down, play the drum and I'll cut the string," said God.

On the way down Wolf saw a Bluejay. He called out, "Eh there. Bluejay! Give me a piece of your meat." (Bluejay has a red mouth and it. looks like meat.)

Bluejay said, "Play your drum for me, and I'll give you a piece."

Wolf was hungry, so he began to play his drum. He played "St. John of God" in double quick time. God heard him playing and cut the string. As Wolf was tumbling down over and over, he kept hollering to Peter, "Nephew! Oh. Nephew! Put some mattresses and straw down for me to fall on." Bluejay laughed at him and flew away, and when Peter heard him he took all his knives and forks and razors and pins and all the sharp things he could find and put them there for his uncle to fall on.

THERE was a famine in the land and people were looking about for something to eat.

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The day Wolf reached the king's house, the king was marrying off his daughter. For three days Sir Wolf had had nothing to eat. At the king's house he started to cry. The king said to him, "What is the matter with you?"

He said, "I'm not crying for myself. I'm crying because your daughter is going to ride to her wedding on an old pack saddle, just a straw saddle, and I who know how to make leather saddles—"

"Good!" said the king. "I'll put off the day of the wedding, and I'll give you a week to make saddles for us all to ride on to the wedding. Go into my store-house and make up all the skin which is there into saddles."

Wolf said, All right ! I'll make it all up in a week." Every day for a week they passed food and water in through the window of the storehouse for Wolf. He ate up the food and drank the water, three buckets each day, and each day he ate up a skin. On the seventh day, when the king went into the store-house, he found only a cow's tail.

The king invited Peter to the wedding, to be the best man. He knew Peter would invite his uncle to go with him, and in this way he could catch Wolf and give him a beating. Peter did invite Wolf. "There is no one to go with me but you, Uncle Wolf. You are my uncle."

But Wolf said, "I can't go. I stole all his skins from the king. I ate them up. I'm not going to his house."

Peter said, "You better go. The king is a rich man. He won't bother about the skins. He's forgotten all about it."

"Well, I'll go with you," said Wolf, "but I'll have to go as your horse, so the king won't know me. The only thing I ask of you is not to forget me when you get there—send me out a bucket of bones."

Peter agreed and started to put a saddle on his uncle.

"Don't put that on me, I don't like it!" shouted Wolf.

"But every one has a saddle on his horse. If I don't put one on you, the king will know it's you." After Peter put the saddle on. he started to put the bridle in Wolf's mouth.

"Don't put that thing in my mouth! I can't eat with that thing in my mouth!"

"But I'll take it off when we get there."

"All right, but be sure you take it off."

Then Peter started to fasten on his spurs.

"But you will rip me up. I won't be able to hold my food," grumbled Wolf.

"I won't touch you with my spurs. Everybody wears spurs. If I don't, it will look queer."

"All right, put them on. but if you use them to me, I'll kill you when we get back home."

Wolf was a good runner. When Peter dug the spurs into him he ran so fast that in fifteen minutes he was at the king's house. Peter tied him to the foot of a tree at the street door. The other guests arrived, and Wolf pawed the ground to make them think he was a horse. Then the servants began to pass by with food. Wolf begged, "Give me something to eat! Oh! do give me something to eat!"

The servants said "What's that? If that isn't a horse talking! We are going to tell the king."

"No, no, don't say anything, don't mention it!" cried Wolf. But they went and told the king. The king loaded his gun and shot at Wolf. He hit him in the eye. Before he could shoot again, Wolf pulled back on the rope and broke it and ran away.

After the wedding the king gave Peter twenty cows. Peter took them out to pasture and within six months he had thirty head. As his pasturage was too small. he moved to another place. It was just where Wolf happened to he. When Peter saw his uncle he called out. "Uncle Wolf, I've been looking for you. Here are the cattle the king has sent you. That shot was not aimed at you. They were just shooting a gun off for the wedding."

"Very well," said Wolf, "I accept the cows and I'll make you my cowherd. I'll give you one cow out of every thirty to milk for yourself."

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But Wolf was so greedy that he had milked all his twenty-nine cows before Peter began to milk his one cow. So Wolf began to beg him, "My nephew, give me that cow of yours to milk today and tomorrow I'll give you two cows."

Peter was afraid of Wolf, so he gave him back the cow. Next day Wolf gave Peter two black cows; but before Peter began to milk, Wolf had finished milking his cows and he said, "My nephew, give me those black cows because black cow milk is very sweet; tomorrow I'll give you three cows."

Next day Wolf gave Peter three white cows: but before Peter began to milk them Wolf had finished milking his cows and said. "My nephew, give me those white cows, because white cow milk is just like cream; tomorrow I'll give you four cows."

Peter said, "For three days I have had nothing to eat. I'm hungry. I won't give them to you."

Wolf said, "All the cows are mine anyhow," and he began to beat Peter.

Peter ran away to a hill and Wolf began to milk the white cows. There on the hill Peter 'yelled out, "If you are looking for that blind horse, you'll find him down there in the ravine milking a white cow, one of the cows you sent him."

Wolf stopped milking. He looked up. He called out to Peter, "Is it that king asking for me?"

Peter did not answer but yelled again, "Run, run, if you want to catch him. He's a good runner. If you don't run fast you won't catch him!"

Wolf left the cow and started to run. Peter yelled again, "Better run fast after Wolf ! If he gets to the sea down there, you'll lose him! He's a good swimmer. You won't be able to catch him in the sea, he's too good a swimmer." Wolf ran down to the beach. He was not able to swim, but he heard what Peter said, and so he believed that he could swim and he jumped into the sea and was drowned. Peter came down from the hill and took the cows and enjoyed his life without his uncle.

Yesterday I came from there and left Peter having the happiest time in the world.

PINOCCHIO

The Story of a Puppet

HOW many Brownies have read this delightful fairy tale?

Pinocchio, a puppet, gets into such funny difficulties. He means well, but just the same, he is a naughty puppet. Then we read:

One morning he said to his father: "I am going to the neighboring market to buy myself a jacket, a cap, and a pair of shoes. When I return," he added, laughingly, "I shall be so well dressed that you will take me for a fine gentleman."

And, leaving the house, he began to run merrily and happily along. All at once he heard himself called by name, and turning round he saw a big Snail crawling out from the hedge.

"Do you not know me?" asked the Snail.

"It seems to me. . . . and yet I am not sure. . . ."

"Do you not remember the Snail who was
brownies.192110.021.jpg lady's maid to the Fairy with the blue hair? Do you not remember the time when I came downstairs to let you in, and you were caught by your foot, which you had stuck through the house door?"

"I remember it all!" shouted Pinocchio. "Tell me quickly, my beautiful little Snail, where have you left my good Fairy? What is she doing? Has she forgiven me? Does she still remember me? Does she still wish me well? Is she far from here? Can I go and see her?"

To all these rapid, breathless questions the Snail replied in her usual phlegmatic manner: "My dear Pinocchio, the poor Fairy is lying in bed at the hospital!"

"At the hospital?"

"It is only too true. Overtaken by a thousand misfortunes she has fallen seriously ill, and she has not even enough to buy herself a mouthful of bread."

"Is it really so? . . . Oh, what sorrow you have given me! Oh, poor Fairy! poor Fairy! poor Fairy! . . . If I had a million I would run and carry it to her . . . but I have only forty pence . . . here they are; I was going to buy a new coat. Take them, Snail, and carry them at once to my good Fairy."

Whilst he slept he thought he saw the Fairy smiling and beautiful, who, after having kissed him, said to him: 'Well done, Pinocchio!. To reward you for your good heart, I will forgive you all that is past."

At this moment his dream ended, and Pinocchio opened his eyes and awoke.

But imagine his astonishment when upon awakening he discovered that he was no longer a wooden puppet, but that he had become instead a boy, like all other boys.

"Satisfy my curiosity! dear Papa," said Pinocchio, throwing his arms around his neck and covering him with kisses; "how can this sudden change be accounted for?"

If you, too, are curious, you can get "Pinocchio" at the Public Library and read all about this little puppet. The Collodi edition has colored illustrations, some of which are: "The donkey threw the poor puppet into the middle of the road"; "The doctors came immediately—a Crow, an Owl, and a Talking— Cricket"; "The green fisherman plunged him alive five or six times in the flour."

And won't you please write and tell us how much you liked "Pinocchio"?