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Show r THE LAND OF HAPPINESS. Once upon a time there were two little children, chil-dren, a boy and a girl, who had no mother. Their mother had died and their father had married an ogress, and had become so much like her that he came very near eating his own children, taking them for two good-sized grasshoppers. Their mother had died when they were young and they did not know what death was. They asked the people where their mother was, and they told them that she had gone to the. "Land of Happiness." Hap-piness." They asked if they coidd get where their mother was, and the people said: "Yes, when you have been real good and when God calls you." For a long time they had been very good, and one day they thought they heard God calling them, so they packed a few clothes and went away. After three days' sleeping on the sof t ground and eating anything they could find on the way, on the morning morn-ing of the fourth day they came to a city. The first person they met was an old lady, and they said to her: "Do you know where the Land of Happiness Happi-ness is?" But the old lady laughed and said: "There is no such land. We belong to the Ogre that lives in 'the forest, and he treats us very mean. No, we don't know what happiness is." The children then cried to her: "Oh, we don't want to stay here! We are going on!" So they went on until they came to another city, and there they inquired if they knew where the Land of Happiness was, and the people said: "It is here; for we do not have to work only be lazy." Then the little boy said: "Will you tell us if a beautiful lady is here named Mother Daffodil ?" The people laughed loud and long. "No," they said; "she is not here, for we have no names here. It. is too much trouble to call any one by a name. But tell what your names are. They must .be a curious thing to know." And the boy said: "My name is Sweet William, and her name is Anna." Then the children went on, and about two days later Sweet William said: "Anna, I feel ill. I think we must be near to the Land of Happiness, because be-cause I heard mother say: 'Come, little children,, come !' " Then they became real joyful and ran and picked flowers along the road, and Sweet William said: "Oh, Anna ! there is manima ! She is beckoning for me to come. Y'ou stay here until 1 run and see what she. wants." The little boy ran forward, hut never came back. Then Anna was wild with grief. She began to run, and she ran until bhc reached a great city. There the people stared and said: "Are you crazy?" And Anna, who was a sensible girl, did not like this. She began to cry and ran faster, until at last she ran out of the great town and into the country. The people who saw her there called her Ragged Annie or Wandering Annie. At last she became so tired she sank down on the grass, and while she was sinking she said: "Oh, mamma! now I see the Land of Happiness.'" The poor people who saw her lying there buried her right where she died, and after awhile some flowers grew on her grave. Because they rambled around everywhere and were ragged, everybody called them the Bagged Annies or Wandering Annies. An-nies. New World. A |
