18 The room was almost bare of furniture, cold, dirty, unkempt. To the left was a little bedroom about as big as a dry-goods box. The policeman was about to enter, when he heard a child's voice. He paused and peered in. He saw an empty stocking pinned to the wall at the foot of the bed.

19 Kneeling at the bedside, in an attitude of prayer, was a little girl. The morning sun sent a luminous ray of light on her head, golden with ringlets. The policeman, big and brave, just stood there. He listened, and these were the words he heard:

20

"Oh, God! You forgot me and Dolly Dimple this time, and there is n't any Santa Claus, for my stocking is empty. And I am cold and hungry. Hurry up, please, Mister God, and find my Daddy and my Precious, and I'll be a good girl and never cry any more, even when the old woman whips me!"

And as he listened, the tears began to run down the big policeman's nose.

21 He wrapped little Reddy Ringlets in an old blanket and carried her gently down the stairs, and all the time she held fast to a very dirty wax doll which she called Dolly Dimple.

The old Italian down on the street gave the little girl an orange, and at the station-house the matron° gave her a bag of candy.

22 Little Reddy Ringlets never found her Daddy or her Precious. Were they caught in the fire, crushed by falling walls, or did they fall victims to some yawning crevasse? No one can say.

23 But now little Reddy Ringlets has a home with a rancher and his good wife, out beyond the hills of Sausalito.° And when Christmas comes and she hangs up her stocking, it is never empty.

camaraderie 7

(kå' må' rå' d' rē′), | rancher 23 (răn' chẽr), one who has ɔ ranch or large Western farm Sausalito 23 (sô' sà lē' tō), a town

the good will of comrades Chinatown, 15 the Chinese quarters Golden Gate Park,3 a park near San Francisco matron 21 charge

(mā' trůn), woman in

ship north of San Francisco station-house 21 (sta' shun), police station

unkempt 18 (ŭn kěmpt'), untidy.

2.

3. Of what troubles

1. Make up five questions to ask the class about this story. How could soldiers help in such a disaster? might the husband of the woman in the park be thinking? that the fruit-dealer was kinder than the husband? policeman do right to break in the door? Why?

4. Show 5. Did the

6. Look up pall, gable-room, 16 luminous 19 in the glossary, or dictionary, at the end of the book. To what is each applied? Write sentences on the board, using the words.

7. How should pupils behave if a fire occurs in school? 8. Which is it better to be in a time of danger disobedient, a quick thinker, lazy, self-reliant, selfish, obedient, brave, flighty, kind? Give in

stances.

9. Read aloud your favorite Christmas poem. 10. Conversation and discussion: (a) Some ways of "playing Santa Claus" to others; (b) The prettiest Christmas tree you ever saw. II. Arrange a Christmas program. (Manual.)

TOM BAILEY OF RIVERMOUTH°

THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH

Tom Bailey in this story is Mr. Aldrich himself, and "Rivermouth" is just another name for the New England village in which the author was born. When Tom was a baby his parents moved to New Orleans, and later sent him North to school at Rivermouth, where he lived with Captain Nutter, who was his grandfather, and Miss Abigail, the Captain's sister. Tom's father sent a little pony North as a playmate for him. It is a long trip by sea from New Orleans to New England open your geography and trace his journey.

As you read this story silently, see how Tom acted on his first day in a strange school. Do you remember your first day in the grammar school?

1

I. TOM'S FIRST DAY AT THE TEMPLE SCHOOL

THE Temple School was a two-story brick building,

standing in the center of a great square piece of land and surrounded by a high picket fence.° There were three or four sickly trees, but no grass, in this enclosure, which had been worn smooth and hard by the tread of multitudinous feet. I noticed here and there small holes scooped in the ground, indicating that it was the season for marbles. A better playground for baseball could n't have been devised.

2 On reaching the school-house door, the Captain inquired for Mr. Grimshaw. The boy who answered our knock ushered us into a side-room, and in a few minutes during which my eye took in forty-two caps hung on forty-two wooden pegs - Mr. Grimshaw made his appearance. He was a slender man, with white, fragile hands, and eyes that glanced half a dozen different ways at once, a habit probably acquired from watching the boys.

3 After a brief consultation, my grandfather patted me on the head and left me in charge of this gentleman, who seated himself in front of me and proceeded to sound the depth, or, more properly speaking, the shallowness, of my attainments. I suspect my historical information rather startled him. I recollect I gave him to understand that Richard III was the last king of England.

4 This ordeal over, Mr. Grimshaw rose and bade me follow him. A door opened, and I stood in the blaze of forty-two pairs of upturned eyes. I was a cool hand for my age, but I lacked the boldness to face this battery without wincing. In a sort of dazed° way I stumbled after Mr. Grimshaw down a narrow aisle

between two rows of desks, and shyly took the seat pointed out to me.

5 The faint buzz that had floated over the schoolroom at our entrance died away, and the interrupted lessons were resumed. By degrees I recovered my coolness, and ventured to look around me.

6 The owners of the forty-two caps were seated at small green desks like the one assigned to me. The desks were arranged in six rows, with spaces between just wide enough to prevent the boys' whispering. A blackboard set into the wall extended clear across the end of the room; on a raised platform near the door stood the master's table; and directly in front of this was a recitation-bench capable of seating fifteen or twenty pupils. A pair of globes, tattooed° with dragons and winged horses, occupied a shelf between two windows, which were so high from the floor that nothing but a giraffe could have looked out of them.

Having possessed myself of these details, I scrutinized my new acquaintances with unconcealed curiosity, instinctively selecting my friends and picking out my enemies, and in only two cases did I mistake my man.

8 A sallow boy with bright red hair, sitting in the fourth row, shook his fist at me furtively several times during the morning. I had a presentiment I should have trouble with that boy some day, subsequently realized.

a presentiment

9 On my left was a chubby little fellow with a great many freckles (this was Pepper Whitcomb), who made some mysterious motions to me. I did n't understand them, but, as they were clearly of a pacific nature, I winked my eye at him. This appeared to be satisfactory, for he then went on with his studies. At recess

he gave me the core of his apple, though there were several applicants for it.

10 Presently a boy in a loose olive-green jacket with two rows of brass buttons held up a folded paper behind his slate, intimating that it was intended for me. The paper was passed skillfully from desk to desk unti! it reached my hands. On opening the scrap, I found that it contained a small piece of molasses candy in an extremely humid state. This was certainly kind. nodded my acknowledgments and hastily slipped the delicacy into my mouth. In a second I felt my tongue grow red-hot with cayenne pepper.

11

I

My face must have assumed a comical expression, for the boy in the olive-green jacket gave an hysterical laugh, for which he was instantly punished by Mr. Grimshaw. I swallowed the fiery candy, though it brought the water to my eyes, and managed to look so unconcerned that I was the only pupil in the class who escaped questioning as to the cause of Marden's misdemeanor. C. Marden was his name.

12

Nothing else occurred that morning to interrupt the exercises, excepting that a boy in the reading class threw us all into convulsions by calling Absalom° A-bol'-som, "Abolsom, O my son Abolsom!" laughed as loud as any one, but I am not so sure that I should n't have pronounced it Abolsom myself.

I

13 At recess several of the scholars came to my desk and shook hands with me, Mr. Grimshaw having previously introduced me to Phil Adams, charging him to see that I got into no trouble. My new acquaintances suggested that we should go to the playground. We were no sooner out of doors than the boy with the red hair thrust his way through the crowd and placed himself at my side.