A CHRIST-MAS CAROL, LIT-TLE ROS-A-BEL'S AD-VEN-TURE.
Lit-tle Ros-a-bel liked sto-ries
the best of any-thing in the
world; and she be-lieved that
all her lit-tle pict-ure books
were true, and O, how she did
wish she were a stor-y-book
girl her-self, and that such
things would hap-pen to her.
Dear lit-tle Ros-a-bel, she used
to go out in the green lanes
and grass-y dells and hunt for
fair-ies, and list-en for talk-ing
birds and talk-ing flow-ers.
And one day lit-tle Ros-a-
bel thought she would try one
of the sto-ries and see if it
would come true with her.
She chose the sto-ry of "Lit-tle
Red Rid-ing-hood," be-cause
she had a red hood and be-
cause she knew a poor old
wom-an who lived a-lone in an
old house. So she put a pat
of but-ter and a cust-ard-pie in
a lit-tle bask-et, tied on her red
hood, and started a-way. But
there were no woods to go
through, and so no wolf came
a-long. Ros-a-bel called "Wolf!
Wolf!" man-y times, but no
wolf came. When she came
to the old house she tried to
reach the big knock-er. But
she couldn't, so she knocked
with her lit-tle knuck-les. A
ver-y thin, low voice said, "Lift
the latch and come right in!"
Ros-a-bel did, and there was a
poor old grand-moth-er right in
bed, just like the stor-y!
"O, have you any-thing to eat
in that bask-et?" said the voice.
"I have sprained my an-kle
and I can't walk, and there has
no-bod-y been here for two
days, and I am al-most starved,
and I want some-bod-y to go
for a doc-tor. Can you go?"
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Yes, Ros-a-bel could. A-way
she ran to mam-ma, and mam-
ma and the doc-tor both came,
So Ros-a-bel was not on-ly in a
real sto-ry, her-self, but she al-so
did a great deal of good.