Wenonah's Stories for Children

by Clara Louise Burnham; Warren Proctor

He had to feed the pigs, squealing under the barn, and at evening go to fetch the cows. After such an active day it is no wonder that after supper every night Joe soon became drowsy.

While his mother washed the supper dishes he would get into a big calico covered arm chair, and those legs that had run about so busily all day long would feel as if they couldn't move, and his eyes would blink and stare, and close, before he knew it.

When her work was done his mother would say, "Come, Joe, come now. It is time to wash your feet and get ready for bed."

And Joe would pull his eyes open and stretch, and say, "O, Ma, why do I have to wash my feet every night?"

Day after day those nimble feet of Joe's stepped into all sorts of places all over the farm, and night after night he argued for a long time before he would wash them.

One evening when his mother had put all her clean dishes away she went over to the arm chair and Joe was so sound asleep that her gentle shaking did not wake him; so she just smiled down on him in that very nice way mothers have and decided to have pity on the child.

She threw a large apron over him and blowing out the lamp, left him to spend the night in the big, soft old chair.

Very early in the morning Joe woke up, cramped in his small quarters, and rather cold; so he crept upstairs and crawled into bed without disturbing anyone, and without washing his feet.

When morning came and the family had eaten breakfast, Joe's busy mother said nothing about last evening, and he rushed out to play without worrying his head about yesterday's dust; for this was vacation time and Joe knew that the end of it would soon come, and back to school he must go. So he and his playmates worked as hard as ever, playing ball, and climbing trees and leap frogging over each others' backs, and eating any quantity of bread and butter.

Of course that night he was again very drowsy and when his mother called him to get ready for bed, he remembered the evening before and how he had slept half the night under the old apron, and how he had not washed his feet. He became quite wide awake thinking about it, and he began to picture a heaven where boys whose legs were too heavy to move at night would never hear anyone remind them to scrub the dust off their ten toes. He began to try to think of a way to make such a heaven; and a plan came into his head.