The First Little Pet Book with Ten Short Stories in Words of Three and Four Letters. Fanny Aunt

sad

      All day, did spy

      To see the bad

      Red fox go by.

      I set a net,

      And oh! I saw

      The bad red fox

      Put in his paw.

      Now he did cry,

      And he did beg,

      But no! I had

      Him by the leg.

      To let him go

      Was not to be,

      And our old Dan

      Did say to me:

      "O the bad fox!

      As I say 'one,'

      I'll hit him – pop!

      Out of my gun."

      The fox did die,

      And my new hen

      Can lay an egg,

      Or two, or ten.

      For now no fox

      Can eat my hen,

      Or get her egg,

      Or two, or ten.

      BEN AND BOB

      One day Ben did go up to his pa-pa, and say: "O pa-pa! my cap is so old, it is not fit to be put on; do buy me a new one!"

      His pa-pa did say: "If you are not bad all day, I can say 'yes' to you, but if you are bad, the old cap will do for a bad boy."

      But Ben was not bad; so his pa-pa got him the cap. It had fur on it. Ben put it on; and as it fit him, he ran out in the air, and did cry as he ran: "See my new cap! see my new cap!"

      Far off, by an old log, he saw a fat hen. She was by her nest. In it was an egg. Ben ran up to her, and he did cry, "Sho! sho! sho!" till she did fly off. So he got the old hen's egg, and put it in the top of his cap. As he did so a boy ran up to him. It was Bob. "Hal-lo," Bob did say. "How do you do, Ben?" and he hit him a tap on the top of his cap. He did not see Ben put the egg in his cap; and, O my! the egg did go pop!! and it ran in his ear and his eye, and all on him from top to toe. His new cap was all egg too.

      So you see how bad it was in him not to let the old fat hen and her egg be.

      But he did not care a bit; for he and Bob ran off to see the men mow the hay. It lay in the hot sun to dry.

      Bob lay on the hay, and the sun was so hot, that the end of his nose got red, and a big dog who was by the men saw the end of his nose, and ran and made a snap at it to eat it. But Ben did hop up, and he and Bob ran off.

      Ben did go in to his mam-ma and say: "O mam-ma! we are so hot and so dry! do let us get a pie to eat and a big tin mug of wa-ter; and oh! may we put a big bit of ice in the tin mug?"

      His mam-ma did say, Yes; and so Ben and Bob did eat the pie and had a lot of fun; for Ben bit his pie to look like a cat who had one leg, and Bob bit his pie in-to a dog who had one ear. He ate it all up; and Bob did say he had a dog-pie, and Ben had a cat-pie. Was it not fun?

      But his pa-pa did say to him: "Why, Ben, how did you get all the egg on you?"

      O how red Ben was! But he did not say a lie. O no! He did say: "Pa-pa, I got an egg and put it in the top of my new cap, but Bob did not see it, and he did tap the top of my cap, and the egg did go pop! all on me, and the top of my new cap is all egg. How can I get it off?"