“UNTO BABES.”
BY HELEN KENDRICK JOHNSON.
“’ET, ittie oottie, I dettie ut ’en it det e ittie iter;” which, being interpreted, means, “Yes, little rooster, I’ll get up when it gets a little lighter.”
The same was uttered by a pair of cherry lips, opening below a pair of laughing eyes, which were parted from the cherry lips by a cherry nose. The nose was cherry because it stuck out from the face so round and plump that the sun, which had been around painting cherries just this time of the year, threw a glance at it and said, “There’s another!” and gave it a good strong stroke with his brush. This little accident made the whole face look funny; for, like most people who do their work in a hurry, the sun had dipped up so much paint, and dashed it at the nose so carelessly, that it had hit ever so many other places—a spot on the chin, a daub on the cheeks, and a streak on the forehead.
Now there is some excuse for the sun; for while everybody knows that boys never will stand still long enough to have their faces properly attended to, everybody, little and big, and not only that, but every tree and flower and blade of grass, keeps dancing and whirling about, while the sun is trying to fix it.
The result is just what you would expect—apples with one red cheek and one white one, blackberries with three colors on the same stem, so that the boys can always quote the old riddle, “blackberries are red when they’re green,” and cherries that make half your pail-full, “not fit to eat,” according to your mother, and speckled little fellows, just like this one.
On this particular morning there was great excitement in the towzley head that popped up to make the lucid remark above quoted. His big sister did not dream that little Wide Awake took it all literally when she said, “Don’t get up the first time the rooster crows.”