A Funny Twin Brother

Last sum-mer when we were in the coun-try hav-ing a hap-py ho-li-day, we of-ten went in-to the hay-field, and you lit-tle ones may fan-cy the fun we had. John-ny and Lil-ly rolled in the sweet fresh hay, and were bu-ried and came up a-gain ma-ny and ma-ny a time; and just when we thought there was not a bit of chub-by child to be seen, a round red laugh-ing face would peep out, fol-lowed by a sort of wind-mill of arms and legs.

It was on a bright sum-mer’s day in that hay-field that we met Tim and his lit-tle mis-tress. “Who was Tim?” you say. Well, Tim was a don-key, and such a hap-py pet-ted don-key has sel-dom been seen be-fore. Liz-zy—the lit-tle girl you see in the pic-ture—was the far-mer’s daugh-ter, and as she led Tim round her fa-ther’s field, she picked up the sweet hay and fed him with it.

When Tim and lit-tle Liz-zy came near us, we all went up to pat the don-key: then the lit-tle girl told us how good and gen-tle her Tim was. “We are very luc-ky to have such a good don-key,” said she.

“And I think he is luc-ky to have such a good lit-tle mis-tress,” said I.

“Oh, but he be-longs to us all,” an-swered the child, “and there are six of us; we all feed and pet him. My father bought him when he was quite lit-tle. He is five years old now; just the same age as my lit-tle bro-ther Willy. So he is his Twin Bro-ther you see,” ad-ded Liz-zy grave-ly.