Pieces People Ask For

SERIOUS, HUMOROUS, PATHETIC, PATRIOTIC,
AND DRAMATIC SELECTIONS IN
PROSE AND POETRY

FOR

READINGS AND RECITATIONS

EDITED BY
GEORGE M. BAKER

BOSTON

WALTER H. BAKER & CO.

1909

Pieces People Ask For

Contents

PART I
“Bay Billy”	Frank H. Gassaway	[98]
Because	Boston Transcript	[33]
The Book Canvasser		[78]
Casabianca (Colored)		[43]
A Centre-board Yacht-race	George A. Stockwell	[67]
The Christening	E. T. Corbett	[37]
The Coming Wave	Oliver Optic	[82]
Counting Eggs	Texas Siftings	[64]
Cut, Cut Behind	Charles Follen Adams	[45]
The Deacon’s Ride	Mary C. Huntington	[59]
The Death of D’Assas	Mary E. Vandyne	[24]
Decoration Day	Mary Bassett Hussey	[54]
The Driver of Ninety-three	Sarah K. Bolton	[ 8]
The Engineer’s Story	Eugene J. Hall	[81]
The Fall	Thomas Hood	[66]
Filling His Place	Maria L. Eve	[40]
The Flag	James Jeffrey Roche	[32]
The Heritage	James Russell Lowell	[42]
Hiring Help	Mrs. S. E. Dawes	[102]
The House in the Meadow	Louise Chandler Moulton	[15]
How the Ransom was Paid	W. R. Rose	[10]
Jem’s Last Ride	Mary A. P. Stansbury	[88]
The Labor Question	Wendell Phillips	[29]
The Light from Over the Range		[ 5]
A Little Peach		[17]
A Lost Child	Anna F. Burnham	[86]
Love and Philosophy	Geo. Runde Jackson	[30]
Malaria		[74]
Mary’s Lamb on a New Principle		[44]
The Man with the Musket	H. S. Taylor	[27]
Metamora to the Council		[ 9]
Missing		[53]
The Mississippi Miracle	Irwin Russell	[70]
Mr. Pickwick’s Romantic Adventure
with a Middle-aged Lady in
Yellow Curl-Papers	Dickens	[18]
Over the Crossin’	Springfield Republican	[92]
Puzzled		[76]
The Rajah’s Clock	Theron Brown	[57]
Re-enlisted	Lucy Larcom	[11]
Scene from “Ion”	Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd	[46]
She Stood on the Stair	Puck	[13]
The Silver Bell	Mrs. Julia D. Pratt	[63]
Somehow or Other		[94]
The Story of Sir Arnulph	Gerald Massey	[85]
Taters	W. O. Eaton	[96]
Together on the Stairs	Andrew G. Tubbs	[35]
A Tough Customer	William L. Keese	[28]
“An Unknown Man, Respectably Dressed”	Helen Jackson	[97]
The Village Choir	Audre’s Journal	[39]
Wendell Phillips	John Boyle O’Reilly	[72]
When Greek met Greek		[56]
When McGue puts the Baby to Sleep		[87]
PART II
After “Taps”	Horace B. Sargent	[78]
At Arlington	James R. Randall	[15]
At the Rising of the Moon	Leo Casey	[12]
Aunt Parson’s Story	Presbyterian Journal	[48]
Aunt Sophronia Tabor at the Opera		[36]
Biddy’s Philosophy	R. H. Stoddard	[102]
The Bravest Boy in Town	Emma H. Nason,
	in Wide Awake	[23]
Brer Rabbit and the Butter	Harris	[26]
Cicely and the Bears	Lilliput Levee	[64]
The “Course of Love” Too “Smooth”		[97]
The Drummer’s Betrothed	M. Cecile Brown,
	from Victor Hugo	[ 5]
The Dutchman’s Serenade		[57]
Dyin’ Vords of Isaac	Anonymous	[99]
A Fight with a Trout	Charles D. Warner	[40]
Forcible Entry	J. M. Bailey	[45]
Grant’s Strategy	Judge Veazey	[85]
He Never Told a Lie		[82]
A Howl in Rome	Bill Nye	[67]
Indian Names	L. H. Sigourney	[80]
Jamie Douglas		[70]
John Leland’s Examination		[ 8]
A Laughing Philosopher		[17]
A Leak in the Dike	Phœbe Cary	[93]
Lessons in Cookery	Detroit Free Press	[107]
A Lesson to Lovers		[83]
A “Love” Game	T. Malcolm Watson	[86]
The Loves of a Life	Mazzini	[29]
“Magdalena”	Puck	[75]
The Menagerie	J. Honeywell	[100]
Nebulous Philosophy	J. Edgar Jones	[14]
Never Too Late	Earnest McGaffey	[39]
No!	Hood	[100]
The Old Canteen		[34]
An Old Man’s Prayer	George M. Baker	[88]
On the Shores of Tennessee	E. L. Beers	[103]
An Order for a Picture	Alice Cary	[42]
An Original Idea	George M. Baker	[110]
Over the Left	W. C. Dornin	[56]
Paddy’s Dream	Anonymous	[106]
Pat’s Reason		[109]
The Prisoner		[31]
Raking the Meadow-Lot	Ruth Revere	[77]
The Saddest Sight		[13]
Scene from “Ingomar”	Maria Lovell,
	from the German	[59]
The Seminole’s Reply		[56]
The September Gale	O. W. Holmes	[11]
The Soldier’s Dream	C. G. Fall	[53]
The Song of the Drum	I. E. Diekenga	[20]
Story of a Bedstead	San Fransisco Wasp	[72]
Wendell Phillips	Henry W. Beecher	[46]