"Patty want pig, mamma," said the baby, putting up his hand to pat mamma's face. "Patty want pig vely much."
"Frankie shall have a fig by and by," said mamma; "now I will tell him a little story.
"Once there was a little boy; his name was Harry. He had no kind mamma to give him good breakfasts. His mamma had gone to heaven to live with God.
"Little Harry was poor, and often when he woke up he was very hungry. But he could not lay his head on his mamma's breast, because she was dead, you know. Poor little Harry used to cry for somebody to come and take care of him. All babies need some person to hold them and rock them."
"Patty got mamma," cried the little boy.
"Yes, darling, Frankie has a mamma who loves him dearly, and tries to take good care of him, and makes him nice warm clothes. But Harry had none. The woman who let him live in her house was too busy to attend to him; so, when he was cold, or hungry, or tired, and wanted to lay his poor, weary head in her lap, she had no time to let him do so. Dear little fellow, it would have done him so much good to have some kind mamma take him in her lap and squeeze him close to her breast, as mamma does Frankie, and call him her darling, dear little Harry. I think he would have stopped crying at once, and he would have looked up in her face and smiled his thanks."
Frankie was so much pleased with the story, that he put up his little mouth to kiss mamma; and when he had done so, he patted her face softly, and said, "Patty love oo." He could not say "you."
"One day," said mamma, "a kind lady called at the poorhouse where Harry lived. He was sitting on a little bed in the corner, crying; but he stopped when the lady went in. His hair had not been combed for many days; his face was very dirty where the tears had run down over his thin, pale cheeks; his clothes were soiled and torn; but the lady pitied him very much. When she found he had no mamma, and that his papa was at work a great way off, she wrapped her shawl about the poor baby, and took him home in her carriage.
"First of all she gave him a cup of milk to drink, and then she told nurse to bring some warm water in a tub, and some soap and towels, for she was going to wash the poor baby. She did not wonder then that the poor little fellow cried, for he was all sore, because he had had no kind mamma to wash him and put on nice powder. She kept him in the water a long time, and washed him very clean; and then she told the nurse to go up garret and bring a small trunk with some baby clothes in it. She had a little baby once, and these were his clothes. Then she tried to get the snarls out of his hair, and by this time Harry was so tired, he was glad to go to sleep.
"When he woke up he began to cry again, for he thought he was back in his old home; but as soon as he saw the kind lady, he smiled very sweetly. He held out his arms for her to take him. She had some warm bread and milk all ready, and she took him in her lap and put a towel round his neck and fed him.