Show A LESSUN foil A I 1 i book it is a first reader A first reader is n look for cry young children ami being a book for very young I 1 children containing in n form the milk of literature who lave imagined that it over could havo iby adv possibility become alio means of bringing alo greatest confusion and vexation to a grownup grown up hut it did I 1 golden am that grownup and I 1 am the author or nearly the author mider ho ablest supervision I 1 frankly confess of th it 1 arst 1 icador th way it came about was hi I 1 have always been passionately feild of children but a decidedly small specimen ot humanity myself I 1 adored nil the smaller specimens with whom I 1 to meet at the age of six there being no baby then at my own home I 1 deliberately entered alio biome of our washerwoman washer woman ono day knowing her to bo absent at alio time and flolo her avo monalia old balsoy from alic bradlo in which lie was peacefully sleeping and in spite of his kicks and yells when lie awoke to alio situation managed to carry him safely to our fortunately not far distant and place him in alio arms of my very much molher ami when he was reclaimed and carried away again by his rightful owner I 1 cal me down on tho floor with a bang and opened mv mouth to its utmost width and lifted my voice to its utmost height and refused most emphatically to be comforted aliis love of little anc did bot diminish in the least 1131 grew in stature and in ears on the contrary it seemed to increase and it became as natural for mo to talk baby talk and mako baby rhymes for every aeo darling eliat camo in my way as it was for mo to breathe and for the older youngsters I 1 had always a story ready some simple thing about simple ti lings but by virtue of creation my own and having contrived to bo an unobserved listener to several of those st orica and leaving also learned from suo his little niece and 1 I mido up out of my own head the jingles with which she often sought to entertain him mr erickson aur school masler and a very clever fellow too said to TOO one afternoon miss golden I 1 have undertaken a lask in which I 1 think nay I 1 am sure eliat yon can if yon will be of great tome and pray aliat may that task bo asked I 1 wonderingly the preparation of a first reader lio replied 1 I do not expect the pecuniary results to bo princely though no doubt you would to compensate you for whatever time you might but tho practice would bo for ou ami perhaps open alio wiy for belter paying literary work i literary work repeated I 1 why 1 never eon dreamed of such a thing did ou not he said with a smile well you arc not the first person who lia remained in ignorance of hid or bior particular talent until a friend discovered it but arc you willing to give mo a helping liand with the book most willingly said L tell me plainly what I 1 am to do or to do and I 1 will liagin this very ami I 1 did begin that varv evening and extremely glad I 1 was tu do so for I 1 had already although april had scarcely set in trimmed my usual amount of spring hats and bonnets which our community not following strictly for good and reasons the decrees of fashion alo included biot of alic bummer ones thereby cutting oft that source of income for tour or live months ami it biad been highly necessary tint another source should bo discovered immediately frodi which statement we shall naturally iufer that the family was only in name it was otherwise of course t in a money sunse it anil not that to as great an alent a desirably father well any kind of steady business seemed to disagree with fallier ho contributed to port ony by fits and starts our eldest boy worked faithfully is an assistant bookkeeper in a publishing in new york city and bent nearly halt hid salary to mother the arst of every month george our youngest buy was clerk with a hopu of bamo bomo day becoming one of the airm til alio wildwood general and I 1 as I 1 have intimated above was thu wildwood milliner hut work as hard ai wo might daniel georgo and 1 we could do no more even with the intermittent help from father than tako oare of ourt ak and tho pit pt 0 in ho humblest way the rest 0 tho family consisted of mother a darling grandmother another darling and of tho sweetest cunnin geat liello girls two ovo and six years old thal ever needed to bo taken caro of so n you midy well imagine I 1 WAS na only do lightbod ligh tod but oil delighted to get alio llio chance of assisting mr erickson with alio llio reader and I 1 cobil idad s to malt han wo coming homo from together alio next bunday evening because you antt daiil I 1 it I 1 id this may bo I 1 can go on writing until and 1 caught my breath nl alio llio boldness of alio idea 1 I am found worthy of a in the magazines and as a successful writer I 1 could help alio llio family imich more thiu I 1 cau now for literary work is fur nil seasons and only for two or month i out af alic whole acar forget said matt your rich undo who is coming hero from australia and alio will no doubt so arrango thing that the family will no holp at all from your hands 0 doar said I 1 so idail but lie hn forgotten ii for so joany years I 1 was fire and I 1 was nine icon on my that now lio has descended condescended con to our existence and us 1 visit its no wonder that L cant keep him in mind anil wo aro not suro alint ills coming will benefit us any iio may be i cranky old jiin and very hard to it is more alian likely lio is lor farhit whom ho coufa never agree though lie n his only brother telli me ho was an unusually cranky young one 0 you must mako liim pleased with vou declared malt you havo one advantage and i great one over alio others yon aro his goddaughter you know 1 I know it to my sorrow 1 assented what n dinio to give an unfortunate girl laby if it loan for that saving alla what would I 1 hivo done fance i comans womans being culled sam all her lifo lint you will do your best to got into the old chaps good graces wont ou said matt coaxingly well yes I 1 will sinca your heart seems to bo sot upon it I 1 promised though I 1 at alio llio time why lio was so anxious that I 1 should become a favorite of duclo sams ill do everything but gho up tho header mall wa chief of alic store my brother was clerk and lie was also my lover 1 lie litter fact mado me the envy of li gf hie girls in wild word for antt wis considered alio handt omeal and most fascinating bachelor in lie alicc lio was till and slender willi very fair hair liblit bauo eyes a straight nose and a small mouth mrs acroy tho young wife of old captain acroy looked up to great respect bv three fourths of alic tion of because alio biad glicr bonuck and glovas straight aiom I 1 iris gave it as a s glicr opinion that liis brow was too narrow and his chin too retreating give mv she calmly and coolly tho m aster any day in preference lie is not auito as tall bul his shoulders are broader to is his and be has a certain manly look anil way about him eliat is utterly lacking in mr brows strange as it may appear did not feel as indignant at tins adverse criticism of my betrothed by alio llio way I 1 lad stipulated at alio llio time of my now two months old thit th it marriage should not bo thought of for at least two years as somo of alio other eirls did ollio for iii stanco daughter of llalon tho builder willi a snug fortune in bior own right ia from her mother was particularly wroth she only talks that way alio said referring to mrs acroy because alio wants to seem diu from everybody cle jut as she scads scuds to paris from this ont of the way village for her bonnets and gloves why theres no comparison between the two men matt dances beautifully mr eriskson Er irkson dont danco a step malt sings lovely mr erickson can only join in a bass malt lias a complexion like a girls and mr eriskson Eri ekson like like A mans I 1 suggested mischievously as film paused tor a comparison 0 pshaw ella what a you arc and about your own beau too but I 1 dont really believe you know and dioro sho heaved a deep what a lucky girl you aro well I 1 began tho ro idar ami soon became so absorbed in my work that even thing I 1 cast eye upon instantly resolved itself into a first lesson dil the butcher slop at the door 1 I see a man ho is a a butcher meat immediately hashed through my brain did one of my intimate friends call I 1 greeted glicr in my mind with 1 I sec a girl bior name is kiy or lib or molly whichever it might bo sho comes to lull some new my very dreans wore haunted by like examples I 1 saw alio llio things choir names acro gibberish they strange and ridiculous pranks but for nil that in consequence of nil that tho book progressed rapidly anil the arst hundred lessons were almost completed v hen mother si detlor from a cousin of hers dated from the samo place in australia from undo sam had como it read as follows ni mi your brollier ln marts for willij wool I 1 that lio filmy abil brin you from your will him much chimeri chime oI in an alio llio result of lisiria an fn lio inn broil cn ingul anco you last saw lilau never lian ho 1 now pe culiar I 1 arlle tills especially to virn v irn you annl to havo you warn alio llio not to n aln any to alic chyi cil lk s il hlll bo for not 0 o oba orvo n nav euch boum leavo of romle him lo 10 furlou s anfor etli loyo to upon lio to look willi favor annj kind branchi bran coi to tho rest I 1 noi duura faithfully tul and not very long after alio reception of tins letter uncle aam mado liis appearance pe arance lie peculiar lookin to use a favorita fAvo of one of ur oldest with i his licad was liala in hie hair biad been pulled out by teat handful i and his face ans ill a wr abild to ahls alio llio of an OTO and will not wonder thai the children who had been hastily cil at news of liis were as hastily withdrawn to the kitchen when lio arrived boor liello darlings wo got them away just ia lime for lips had begun to and heir eves to crow big frightened surprise will gel aud to him ly degrees whispered my molher aa I 1 iivo each of them ft reassuring liw and now J lla dear go back and do your boit to entertain him our father comes in I 1 set about alie dinner I 1 returned to the parlor I 1 gat down opposite our visitor I 1 found a dreadful fascination in hit law I 1 could not my from it I 1 essayed to speak but buforo mv WM fairly vio aarn D I 1 ills chipy brows ami prowled and so youre sam aru you and what do you so that you in that way and alion tho spirit of that birst header in of all that I 1 could do to resist it took completo nio I 1 replied slowly aud distinctly 1 I soo a mail ho is a queer looking min ho has i crooked noo lio liaa a crooked mouth lie lias n crooked chin lio hag crooked ho lias an awful scowl ho h a rich man lama I 1 rather lo 10 a pretty poor girl than a rich crooked man and that was tho last of our expectations from sam allu thundered forth sonic words which I 1 can not repeat broto all alic mantel ornaments al ono fell swoop and left tho house never lo 10 return aaen ill just add to whom it may concern that soon sailor the hopes of a fortune from my godfather wore thus destroyed my to mall was broken and that young gentleman mairich llalon As for roe 1 wis enough to tho happy wife of john I 1 rickson anil our first reader proved a perfect success marqaret in harpers |