Title: Happy and Gay Marching Away
Author: Unknown
Release date: February 1, 2004 [eBook #11098]
Most recently updated: December 23, 2020
Language: English
Credits: E-text prepared by the Internet Archive Children's Library, David Garcia,
E-text prepared by the Internet Archive Children's Library,
David Garcia,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
Turn the leaves gently. The dogs and the cats,
A lit-tle girl
Read in her book,
How a wick-ed boy
A wild bird took
From out its nest
In the green-wood tree
A cap-tive now
'Tis forced to be,
And flutters its poor wings all day long,
And beats the bars of its cage so strong.
"Poor lit-tle bird!"
She soft-ly cried;
Then on her head
Her hood she tied,
Took down the cage
Of her own bird,
Opened the door,
With joy-ous word.
"Fly, lit-tle bird, a-way," quoth she,
Back to your home in the green-wood tree.
A-way, a-way,
The glad bird flew,
Far out of sight,
In heav-ens blue.
The wee girl watched
With won-der-ing eye,
Till it had fad-ed
In the sky,
Then sat her down, and cried, "Boo-hoo!
My bird is gone! What shall I do?"
Her pin-a-fore
With tears was wet:
"My bird a-gain,
I'll nev-er get."
At last she raised
Her weep-ing eye,
And there at hand,
What should she spy
But bird-ie hop-ping in his door,
Tired of his free-dom, back once more.
One day, all in the sweet spring weather,
Two lit-tle folk went out to-geth-er.
Oh the bright May-day!
Sun was shining, birds were sing-ing,
Flow-ers bloom-ing, May-bells ring-ing!
Oh the glad May-day!
So they two went forth a May-ing,
Laugh-ing, dan-cing, sing-ing, say-ing
"Oh the bright May-day!
What care we for moth-er's warn-ing?
Who would bide at home this morn-ing?
Oh the glad May-day!"
These are Jack and Jill. Do you not see their pail? They fill it with salt wa-ter.
"What a sweet lit-tle lamb!" said May. "No: it is a wolf. I must run: he will eat me."
"Oh, dear! On, dear!
'Tis al-most nine.
The birds all sing,
The sun does shine.
Poor Doll and I
To school must go:
I don't see why,
We hate it so.
I hate those let-ters. They twist and turn.
There's no use try-ing: I'll nev-er learn.
"Hur-rah! hur-rah!
At last it's two!
I am so glad!
What shall we do?
Come, Doll, let's run.
I'll nev-er go,
When I get big,
To school, I know;
But ev-er-y min-ute of the day
I'll spend just as I like, in play."
"Hold it tight, Tom, dear," said May. "Mam-ma will be pleased at her birth-day gift. I think it is just love-ly." But the words were not out of her mouth when Tom caught his foot and fell at full length on the car-pet. Crash! went the vase that was to have been mam-ma's pres-ent in-to bits.
May burst in-to tears, but she stopped all at once when she saw that Tom did not get up, and that his face was grow-ing ve-ry white. "Oh! Tom," she cried, "is a-ny-thing the matter?"
"My knee," groaned Tom, "it hurts aw-ful-ly."
May ran at once for pa-pa. He came, and Tom was lift-ed up and put to bed, and the doc-tor was sent for. It was found that his knee was bad-ly hurt, and that he must not get out of bed for a month. Hard work it was for Tom, but May stayed by him all the time, and at the month's end he was well a-gain.
A scared little couple,
Fright in each eye!
O what is the matter?
A dog passes by!
Bow-wow!
I'm sure 'tis a big dog,
Or kitty'd not hide,
And her brave little mistress
So nearly have cried!
Bow-wow!
One bright spring day Tom got out his new sail-boat, "The Sea Foam." Dol-ly went with him, and they set out for the pond. They had but just put the boat in the wa-ter, when they saw their cous-in Grace. She had a doll in her arms, which she was car-ry-ing with great care; and she had her eyes on the ground as she walked a-long.