The Jumble Book
JUMBLE
BOOK
OF GOOD
THINGS
GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY
NEW YORK
GEORGE SULLY AND COMPANY
—————
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the U. S. A.
Contents
"HELLO CENTRAL!"
"Hello Central!"
"Give me all the little boys and girls in the World. I want to tell them about the JUMBLE BOOK!"
"Hello! Is that you, Jimmy?"
"Well, this is David Cory, the JUMBLE BOOKman. Do you like Indian stories? You do, eh? Well, you'll find some in the JUMBLE BOOK. Good-by!"
"Hello, Polly!"
"This is the man who wrote the JUMBLE BOOK. Do you like Fairy Stories? I thought you did. Well, you'll find lots of them in the JUMBLE BOOK. Good-by."
"Hello, Billy."
"This is the JUMBLE BOOKman. Do you like stories about animals? Well, I'm glad you do, for I've written a lot of them for you in the JUMBLE BOOK. Good-by."
"Hello, Mary!"
"This is your friend David Cory. What kind of stories do you like? All kinds, eh? Well, the JUMBLE BOOK'S the book for you, then. You'll find all kinds of stories all jumbled together between its covers! Good-by!"
The Jumble Book
LITTLE SIR CAT
Once upon a time I promised to tell a little boy how Little Sir Cat caught the Knave of Hearts who had run away with the Queen's tarts.
Well, Sir! That Knave had run only about half way across the courtyard when Little Sir Cat pounced on him as if he were a mouse, and his Highness, the Knave of Hearts, stopped right then and there, but he spilt the tarts all over the ground. Wasn't that a shame?
This made the King dreadfully angry, and he "beat the Knave full sore," as the rhyme goes in dear "Old Mother Goose," and if you don't believe me, just get the book and see for yourself. "Now ask me a favor, and it shall be granted," said the Queen who had asked Little Sir Cat to come into the castle and sit on the throne by her side.
"Tell me where I may find my fortune," answered Little Sir Cat.
"Ah!" cried the Queen, "that is not so easy. For each of us must make his own fortune. But I will help you," and she called for her old seneschal.
"He will not find it on Tart Island," said the old retainer. "Mayhap in Mother Goose Island he will find it."
So pretty soon, not so very long, Little Sir Cat left the big castle, and by-and-by he came to an old willow tree by a pond. And who do you think he saw? Why, little Mrs. Oriole sitting close beside her nest that hung like a big white stocking from the branch. As soon as she saw Little Sir Cat she began to sing, and all her little birds peeped out of the nest, but they didn't say anything, for they had never met him before. "Children, this is Sir Cat. I knew him when he lived in a castle," said Mrs. Oriole.
Well, after that, he went in to the farmyard, for it was noontime, and he was hungry, and knocked on the kitchen door. Just then the Cuckoo Clock in the kitchen sounded the hour of noon, and the farmer's wife looked out of the window to see if her man was coming through the gate, when, of course, she spied Little Sir Cat.
"Dinner is ready. Come in, Kitten!" So he stepped into the neat, clean kitchen, and as soon as the good woman had put on a clean apron, they sat down to supper. By-and-by the cuckoo came out of her little clock and said: "Time for kittens to be in bed," and the twinkle, twinkle star shone through the window, and sang a little lullaby:
The little white clouds are like sheep
That play all the night while the moon's shining bright.
Sleep, little pussy cat, sleep."
And in the next story you will find what Little Sir Cat did when he woke up in the morning.
Little Stories of Famous Animals
Tradition reports that Charles IV. discovered the Carlsbad Spring, but after you have read this little history
It happened this way: More than four hundred years ago Charles IV. was hunting in the neighborhood. In the exciting chase and pursuit of a stag he suddenly lost all trace of it. As he paused, undecided which course to take, he heard the yelping of one of his hounds, and following the sound, he found it lying scalded in the waters of the spring, which, as you know, is a stream of water probably escaping from a smoldering volcano way down deep in the earth. The faithful animal had followed the stag's leap into the valley, and had missed a sure footing on the rocks near by.
On the top of the hill, which is now called the Hirschensprung (stag's leap), a cross has been erected, and a little lower down a lookout house has been built. Still farther down, on a high pointed rock, a citizen of Carlsbad has had erected an iron figure of a chamois.
After chance had made known the hot waters of the spring to Charles IV., he had a bath and a hunting lodge built there, which were called after him, Karlsbad.
The real discoverer of the spring, the faithful hound, has no mention made of him by name or monument, although the crest of the hill is named for a stag and the spring after a king.
TESSIE, TOTTIE AND TEDDY
CHAPTER I
"Listen," whispered Tessie, "I've got a secret to tell you; snuggle up so nobody'll hear!"
Tottie squeezed up close to her little sister, and Teddy shoved himself along the piazza seat until all three were packed as tight as little sardines.
"What is it?" asked Tottie.
"Hurry up and tell," whispered Teddy, hugging Tessie's arm, while Tottie squeezed her hand with her little fat fingers.
"S-s-sh!" replied Tessie, "s-s-sh!"
"Tessie!" called mother's voice, "Tessie, come here, I want you to run down to the grocer."
"Oh, dear!" sighed the three tiny T's.
Tessie jumped up quickly and ran inside the house, closely followed by Tottie and Teddy.
"You can wear your roller skates," said mother, "and Teddy can put on his and go with you, if he wishes."
In a few minutes the skates were strapped on each impatient little foot, and mother's darling messengers were gliding down the front walk.
"Be very careful not to break the eggs," said mother, as she stood in the doorway watching them go out of the gate. "Hold the bag tight and don't go fast on the way home."
CHAPTER II
Tessie and Teddy skated along smoothly on their errand for mother. The roller skates behaved very well, and did not try to race with each other, so that neither little messenger had a fall, or even a bump against anybody on the sidewalk who did not get out of the way in time.
The fat grocer man said good morning very pleasantly, and gave them each a little animal cracker. Tessie told him what she wanted, and while he was counting out the eggs and putting them in the bag, she stroked his big tiger cat, who lay half asleep on the top of the sugar barrel.
"Here you are, Miss," said the grocer man, handing the package to Tessie, "and be careful, little man," he added, turning to Teddy, "that you don't run into sister and upset her—you won't have any eggs if you do!"
"Of course not," replied Teddy, biting off the hind legs of his buffalo cracker. "I'll take care," and both children wabbled over the floor and through the doorway out onto the sidewalk.
Everything went along beautifully. Teddy kept well behind so that Tessie would have plenty of room, and the distance was half over, when something happened. About a block from the house, the sidewalk ran down a small hill. Although Tessie had time and again coasted down without the slightest trouble, today it seemed as if she were going very much faster than usual. Perhaps she was a little worried over the bag of eggs. At any rate, all of a sudden her feet behaved very badly, and before she could help it, one foot went off to one side and Tessie did, too. Down she went in a heap. Crash! smash! mash! there were scrambled eggs all over the walk!
Tessie turned a frightened glance towards Teddy who just came up.
"O dear me! How shall I ever explain to mother?" cried poor little Tessie.
CHAPTER III
After Tessie and Teddy arrived home they hunted around for mother to tell her the awful news, and how sorry they were that the bag of eggs was lying out on the sidewalk in funny yellow patches, with bits of broken shell strewn all around.
About half an hour later Tessie was telling her little kitten what mother had said. "And, Pussy dear," confided Tessie, "don't you ever try to carry any robin's eggs down from the nest. If you do, you'll find you get sliding faster and faster, and before you reach the ground your foot will slip and down you'll come with a crash!"
Pussy looked up out of the corners of her blinky green eyes but said nothing.
"And maybe your mother won't be so nice about it," added Tessie. "My mother didn't scold me 'cause when I 'splained how my skate nearly came off and tripped me up she just wiped my eyes, 'cause I felt awful sorry, and told me not to cry about it any more, and by and by she gave us all a lump of sugar."
Just then puss jumped through the low open window and skipped over the lawn. Tessie stepped out on the piazza to see what she was about. At the foot of the old apple tree pussy stopped and then ran up the trunk and out on a limb.
"I do believe," exclaimed Tessie, "that she is going to try to bring down some eggs from the robin's nest."
"What did my little girl say?" asked mother, who came out on the porch at that moment. When Tessie explained it all, mother laughed and said, "Why, there aren't any eggs now in that nest, little girl—don't you know all the little robins were hatched long ago?"
"Well, I don't believe pussy knows it," answered Tessie, "for there she is now looking into the nest—how disappointed she'll be!"
CHAPTER IV
"Goodness me, Tottie, why don't you fasten the button!" cried Tessie to her little sister. But Tottie was too frightened to answer; she just stood still while sister fastened the little white pants which had slipped down on the tops of her pink slippers.
"Let's go out in the garden now," said Tessie, and the two little sisters ran out on the piazza and down the walk. They found brother Teddy already there filling his wagon with grass, for the lawn had just been cut and was covered with the loose grass.
"We'll make a big hay mow!" cried the children, and very soon they had piled up the fragment grass as high as their heads. It was great fun rolling over it, or covering each other up until nothing but a little toe stuck out at one end, or the tip of a little pug nose showed at the other.
After a while pussy came by, but when she had been covered up deep with the ticklish grass, she escaped by jumping over the green haymow, and ran off to the barn. She most likely thought it was more fun in the hay loft hunting for mice than being covered up in a big green grass hay-mow out on the lawn. Perhaps, too, she was afraid some one might step on her when under the grass. At any rate, she didn't come back, and by and by it was time for the children to go in for luncheon. I don't know whether pussy heard the bell or not, but she came in from the barn in time to get her saucer of milk before the children had finished.
"Pussy never has to bother with buttons," said Tessie, looking over at Tottie, and smiling.
"No," answered Tottie, "'cause she has only fur."
CHAPTER V
Tottie never liked to take a bath until one day Mother said: "Let's make believe you are in the big ocean wading and there are lots of little silver fishes swimming all around."
After this Tottie wanted to take a bath all the time, for Mother bought some toy fishes and Tottie didn't have to make believe very hard.
It was lots of fun in the big round tin tub. It was painted green on the outside and yellow on the inside, which looked just like the sand on the seashore. And then, too, it had a nice wide, flat edge all around, so that it seemed almost like a beach to Tottie.
Sometimes Mother would put a little red bathing cap on Tottie's head and let her wade for a while before her bath. Tottie then kept her little shirt on, making believe it was a lovely silk bathing suit. Perhaps the little fishes thought she was a big fat giantess. At any rate they slipped through her soapy little fingers as if they were swimming away for their very lives. This made Tottie laugh very much, and she would soap them well so that they would even slip through the water for quite a distance when she squeezed them real hard.
Tottie's sister Tessie often wanted to play like her little sister, but Mother said, "You are too big a girl, Tessie, not to take your bath without making a play of it." Brother Teddy, too, wanted to get the fishes to play with when he took his bath, but Mother said to him, "These are Tottie's fish. You and sister Tessie are big enough to be good while in the tub without toys," so Tottie was the only one in the house who made believe that the bathtub was the big ocean and her little toy silver fishes real live ones!
Is a rogue, do you know
He tries to poke through
The tip of Ted's shoe?
And always, it's shocking.
He's half through his stocking!
TOO-WIT, TOO-WOO AND HIS OWL FAMILY
Too-Wit, Too-Woo lived in a big hollow tree with his family. There was Mrs. Too-Wit, and their two little sons, T'wit and T'woo. In one of the biggest holes in the old hollow tree they had a very comfortable home.
Every night as the shadows began to creep through the Great Forest, T'wit would sing a little song. He was very proud of it, for he had made it up himself. He would look over at T'woo as much as to say, "You never could make up such a lovely song," and then he would toot across to his brother: