WHAT CHARLIE DID ON A RAINY DAY
ONE day it was a rainy day. The rain poured and it poured, and the wind blew. It was a very disagreeable day. It poured so hard that Charlie could not go out in the yard and play in his little house. His Mother and his Auntie both said that it was the kind of day when it is best to stay indoors.
Then Charlie’s Mother said, “As it is such a rainy day that I cannot go out, I shall make preserves all the morning. I shall make plum preserves and orange marmalade, and we will have some for supper to-night.”
And his Auntie said, “I shall sew all the morning; yes, I will make myself a nice new dress.”
Topsy and Bingo and Jane did not say anything. But they all three lay down on hearth rug and went to sleep. They had decided that, as it was such a disagreeable, rainy day that they could not go out and play, they would sleep all the morning, and, maybe, dream a nice dream about playing in the fields in the country.
As for Charlie—he did not know what to do. He stood at the window and he looked out at the rain pattering on the ledge and against the window pane—and he said, “I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to do!” And he said it again and again.
His Auntie said to him, “The very idea, Charlie, you have heaps of things to do! Why don’t you play with your toys—with your train and with your blocks?”
But Charlie shook his head. “It’s no fun playing with my train—it just goes round and round, and I have built everything with my blocks that I know how to build. I want something new to play! Something I have never played before.”
His Auntie thought hard for two whole minutes. Then she said, “Look here, Charlie, I have a splendid idea! You run up to my room and bring me a pile of typewriting paper that you will find on my desk. Also bring a paper of pins out of my top bureau drawer, and I will show you something new to play with.”
So Charlie ran upstairs and brought down these things. Then his Auntie told him to get his own scissors with the rounded tops and his box of colored chalks.
Charlie began to feel very interested and excited. He wondered what in the world his Auntie was going to do.
Well, when he had brought his scissors and his crayons, his Auntie sat down at the table and she took a piece of typewriting paper and folded it this way and that way. Then she colored one part of it red with the red chalk, and she made three little green strokes with the green chalk, and with the scissors she cut along the creases, and folded it some more; then she pinched it here and pinched it there, and she stuck a pin in at the back, and—there was a beautiful little white house with a red roof and green shutters, and a door that opened and shut!
Charlie was delighted. He said, “Oh, oh! How beautiful! Show me how to make it. Please, Auntie, show me how to make a little house.”
So his Auntie showed him ex-act-ly how to make the little house—and you will see in the picture on this page ex-act-ly how Charlie’s Auntie cut the paper, and where she painted it red for the roof, and where she put the windows with the green shutters, and where she cut the door so that it could open and shut, and where she put the pin in at the back to keep it together. Yes, Charlie’s Auntie used a pin instead of paste, because paste does not always stick very well and it often makes things look messy unless you are very skillful.
Well, after Charlie had tried several times and his Auntie had showed him every time where he had gone wrong, he ac-tu-al-ly succeeded in making a paper house all by himself! And it was a beautiful house.
When his Auntie saw that Charlie could make paper houses just as well as she could, she said, “Now I must go upstairs and sew my dress, and you, Charlie, can make a whole, big village of little houses, and I am sure that you will think of some nice game to play with them.”
Well, Charlie did go on making his houses until he had made a whole lot of them—yes, he had made a tre-men-dous number of houses; maybe he had made fifteen houses out of paper, with red roofs and green doors and shutters. Then he thought that he had made enough and that he would like to play with them—and so he did.
I will tell you how Charlie played with the houses. First he went over to a corner of the room where there was no furniture to get in the way and there he set up some of his houses and made a village of them. Then he had a grand idea—and the idea was that he would like to have some trees in his village, and he knew ex-act-ly how to make them!
He ran into the kitchen where his Mother was making delicious preserves and he said, “Oh, Mother, I want some branches off the bush near the back door—and it is very important. Can I go out just for a minute and pick some?”
And his Mother said, “Yes. If you put on your rubber boots and your slicker and your sou’wester, you can go out for just a minute, even though it is raining, and pick the branches you want, but you must not be long.”
So Charlie did so—he put on his rubber boots and his sou’wester and his slicker and he picked all the branches that he wanted. When he brought them into the house he had to shake them over the sink because they were so wet.
Now I suppose you will wonder how Charlie made those branches stand upright on the floor to make them look like trees?
I will tell you. Charlie went to his box, where he kept the old toys that he used to play with when he was a very little boy, and there he found a whole lot of spools. When he was a baby he used to like to string spools together and his Mother and his Auntie always gave him their spools of thread when they were bare, so Charlie had dozens of spools and he sometimes let Bingo and Topsy play with them.
Well, Charlie got these spools and he stuck a small branch in the end of one of them and stood it upright. It made a beautiful tree! So he made a dozen trees and set them all along the streets of the village.
Charlie Made Three Villages
But there were no people in the village. Charlie thought hard for two whole minutes—then he went and found his old Noah’s ark and his box of lead soldiers. Of course, Noah and his wife and his family were the people who lived in the village, and so were some of the soldiers. The animals of the ark he stood up in the fields behind the houses and he pretended that they were all cows—yes, he pretended that the elephants and the giraffes and the lions and the tigers were all cows.
When Charlie had finished making one village, he started right away and made two more, so that he had three villages, and each village had a railway station. Then he arranged his railroad track so that it went between the different villages, and he made his train run up and down between them. He put some of the lead soldiers in the coaches. And every time that his train came to a station Charlie blew his whistle and called out, “All out for Stony Hollow! All out for Pine Hill! All out for Ford’s Crossing!” and some of the soldiers got out at every station and others got in.
My goodness! but Charlie did have a good time playing with his train and with his villages. He had such a good time that the morning only seemed five minutes long!
When his Mother and his Auntie came in to see what he had been doing with himself all the morning, and to tell him that it was time to get ready for dinner, they were surprised and de-light-ed when they saw the beautiful villages that Charlie had made.
Well, the very minute that Charlie had finished his dinner he went back to his villages, because he had thought of several new ideas while he was eating his dinner.
Yes, he remembered a little tiny horse and wagon that his Mother had given him. When his Mother had given it to him there was some candy tied to the wagon, and of course Charlie had eaten the candy long ago; but he had kept the horse and wagon because it was so cunning and little, though he thought that it was too little to play with. But now Charlie was going to use it for his village.
I wonder if you can guess what he was going to use it for? I will tell you. Charlie decided that the little wagon should be the stage, and he put a lead soldier in it and pretended that he was the stage driver. Then he loaded the stage with little parcels made out of paper which he pretended were sacks of apples that the farmers of the villages were sending to the city; and he loaded them on to the train, and blew his whistle—and off it started!
Charlie played all the afternoon with his train and his stage and his villages; he played with them for hours and hours. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining but Charlie did not notice that—until he heard a little hoarse “Wow-wow!” outside the door.
It was Bingo. Yes, Bingo had wakened and wanted Charlie to come and play with him. So he opened the door and Bingo came jumping into the room, and the very first thing he did was to knock over three houses in Charlie’s village. And Topsy came chasing after Bingo and he knocked over four more with his tail. They would have knocked all the houses over if Charlie had not stopped them. But Charlie took Bingo and Topsy out of the room and he shut the door behind him so that they should not spoil his village.
Then Charlie’s Mother called to him and she said, “Why don’t you and Topsy and Bingo run out and play in the yard? The sun is shining, but you must put on your rubber boots, as the grass is still wet.”
Charlie thought that it would be fun to run around a little as he had been so busy all day. He called Topsy and Bingo, and they had a grand time chasing each other around the garden and in and out of Charlie’s little house that he had built of the bricks that the builders had given him. Sometimes Charlie would catch Bingo, and, when Bingo was caught, always he rolled over on his back and stuck his four legs in the air—so that he looked ridiculous!
But Charlie never could catch Topsy. Whenever he nearly caught him, Topsy would just climb up a tree, and he’d climb way up and peek down at Charlie through the branches.
So Charlie and Topsy and Bingo played together in the garden till Charlie’s Daddy came home. Then, of course, Charlie had to show his Daddy the beautiful villages he had made, and the way each one had a railway station, and how his train ran up and down the line between the stations, just like a real train, and carried packages and mail and passengers.
His Daddy was most interested and de-light-ed. He was so interested and de-light-ed that he sat straight down on the floor, and began to play with the villages himself. But Bingo and Topsy had to be left in the garden while Charlie and his Daddy were playing with the villages, because they wanted to play also, and their idea of playing with the villages was to knock down all the houses and all the trees!
Well, Charlie and his Daddy played together till supper was ready. Then Charlie’s Mother said, “I have been making preserves all day, and now we will eat some for supper. I have made plum jam and orange marmalade.” Charlie and his Daddy tasted the plum jam and the orange marmalade—and they both were delicious.
And what do you think? Charlie’s Auntie had finished her new dress and she wore it down to supper—and it did look beautiful.
So Charlie and his Mother and his Auntie all had a nice day after all, even though it was such a rainy, disagreeable kind of a day. And Topsy and Bingo and Jane had enjoyed the day too!
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.