“O yes,” “Yes,” exclaimed all the children, “let us have a story out of the Morocco Book.”
“Very well,” said Mary Jay; “I have no objection. I can find a short one, which will not take more than eight minutes.”
But the children did not want a short one, and those who had not chosen plays agreed to appropriate all their time to the Morocco Book.
CHAPTER VI.
THE MOROCCO BOOK.
Mary Jay accordingly sent up two of the children after the Morocco Book. She told them that her sister would give it to them. They knocked at the door of the house, and, when Mary Jay’s sister came to the door, they told her what they wanted. Then her sister went in, and presently came back, and brought the Morocco Book, which she had wrapped up carefully in a newspaper; for she knew that Mary Jay was very careful of the Morocco Book.
When the messengers had returned to where the children were assembled, Mary Jay took off the newspaper, and brought the handsome Morocco Book to view. She looked at the index a few minutes, and then turned to a place at about the middle of the book, and read the following story.—
THE LONELY SLEIGH-RIDE.
Once there was a farmer who lived in a solitary place near the bank of a river, and he had a little daughter named Jane. They commonly called her Jenny.
There was a small village about two miles off, up the river, though upon the other side. At the village there was a mill, and very near the mill, on the other side of it, was a house where the miller lived. One evening in winter, when the moon was shining bright, the farmer concluded to go to the mill in his sleigh. Jenny wanted to go with him for the ride; and he said that she might go. It was a very pleasant ride along the banks of the river from the farm to the mill. When the river was frozen over, they generally went upon the ice. The road upon the ice was very pleasant to travel, though it was rather bad getting off and on, for there was generally a wet place along the shore.