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Show i& Daddy? LJ06 Eveiii$ Fairy Tale yAARY GRAHAM BONNER. i i oortntXT rr vtirun ntwv umsom CHARLES NORMAN'S LIBRARY Billie Brownie had gone again to call on Charles Norman. Charles Norman Nor-man was now about a year old well, he was a little more than a year old, and strange as it may seem he was collecting books. " "I'm going to have a big library," he told Billie Brownie. "Of course, I Won't bother about reading now, and then I'll have to be read to before I'll read to myself. At present I'm too busy with other matters." "What other matters?" Billie Brownie inquired. "Well, I'm Interested In drinks of water and drinks of milk and rides In my carriage and In sweet sleep and sunshine and out-of-doors and my mother's society and my daddy's society so-ciety and all such Important things. "My daddy takes care of me all the time he Is home from the office. He loves to do that and I love it, too-well too-well that takes up all that much time. "And when my daddy Is at his office my mother Is constantly with me if I am not asleep on my sunny porch and that takes up all that much time. Then they sit and look at me and chuckle with delight about me and I chuckle, too, so as to be polite. Really, I enjoy It hugely, too. "They say I am decidedly boyish In my looks, which Is flue, for I am a boy, of course. "I have a small boy cousin, too. He Is younger than I am, however. Yes, he Is all of four weeks younger. "Of course, I cry at times. Then my, mother soothes me, but my daddy "Some One Gave Me a Book." speaks to me sternly in a very manlike way. When I don't cry my daddy keeps calling me, 'You darling little thing,' over and over again. "So that by way of variety and change and to have him say something else to me I cry once In a while. That's one of my reasons anyway. Another Is that It Is expected of me to cry Just a little bit "But I don't cry much. It's a waste of time, and as I told you of all the other things I have to keep me busy you will realize that I haven't much time in which to cry. "I was going to tell you about my library. Well, as I told you at one time, I have any number of beautiful garments Just quantities of clothes. If It were not that I am so busy and that a baby would be out of plnce keeping a store I really believe I'd set up a store and I'd have everything for customers with babies. "But at the same time I don't need the money from a store for I've got a bank account. Dear me, yes, Billie Brownie, I've a bank account I "And then some one gave me a book. Well, my motb.r showed It to me and I grinned and made little 'talky sounds,' she sard, and she also told me I'd been especially good after receiving receiv-ing it. She said books made people contented and happy and pleased. "And she said I thanked the one who sent me the book by sending a 'friendly and gummy grin, much fist waving and enthusiasm.' Yes, she said all this. I do love the way my mother expresses herself and talks. It's not Just like every one else. It's always Interesting. "But I'll tell you, Billie Brownie, the book Itself wasn't anything much. It gave my mother an idea, though, to start a library for me while I was young so I'd have quite a fine one when I grew up, and while growing up. "So I have a library and quite a number of books now. And when the rainy days come and the evenings and when I'm a bigger boy I shall Just have the best time in the world with my library. "I shall read and read and read, but I'll tell you one thing, Billie Brownie, the pictures in the books won't come up to my mother's pictures, for oh, how she can draw ! It's pretty fine to think of having some one who can really draw right In the family. "Maybe there will be pictures by her in some of the books. Then the books will be perfect. "But it is a good idea to start a library li-brary when one Is only a baby. It gives one a good running start! "And now I must bid you a polite good-by, Billie Brownie, and do come and call on me again soon. My grandfather grand-father is coming to call on me now and I must give him my entire attention atten-tion he Is very Important and learned and I'm a wee bit afraid of his Importance." Impor-tance." So Billie Brownie went off In the best of spirits for he had had a chat with his dear llttl friend, Charles Norman. |