A TEMPERANCE HORSE.
Reading edition
He belongs to a baker. His master went into a restaurant to deliver some pies. I was sitting at a window opposite. He stayed so long in the place that I thought he had forgotten his faithful beast.
After a while he came out carrying a great mug full of foaming beer. There were two other men with him. All their faces were red, and they walked unsteadily, and they were laughing loud, and shouting. Then the baker went up to his beautiful horse, and offered him the beer to drink.
Do you suppose he took it? No, indeed! He gave it one sniff from his smooth, brown nostrils. Then he turned his head away with a jerk so sudden that he knocked the glass, beer and all, upon the pavement. He looked at his master as if to say, “Don’t insult me again in that way, sir!”
So his bad master had to pay for both the beer and the glass.
Wise old horse, he was not afraid to give his opinion of beer.
CLARA J. DENTON.
High and low The spring winds blow! They take the kites that the boys have made, And carry them off high into the air; They snatch the little girls’ hats away, And toss and tangle their flowing hair. High and low The summer winds blow! They dance and play with the garden flowers, And bend the grasses and yellow grain; They rock the bird in her hanging nest, And dash the rain on the window-pane.
High and low The autumn winds blow! They frighten the bees and blossoms away, And whirl the dry leaves over the ground; They shake the branches of all the trees, And scatter ripe nuts and apples around. High and low The winter winds blow! They fill the hollows with drifts of snow, And sweep on the hills a pathway clear; They hurry the children along to school, And whistle a song for the happy New Year. M. E. N. H.
