Mabel took the lump of sugar, and held it up to the horse, saying, “See, Queen Bess, what I have brought you.”—Page 94. Little Miss Dorothy.
“He was feeling very much worried about it when suddenly a boy came into the barn. The boy walked around whistling a lively tune, and all at once picked up Sugar-Boy and put him in his pocket.
“My brother thought he was safe in the boy’s pocket, at least for a while. He found himself in the company of a jackknife, ten marbles, two rusty nails, a ball of twine, a bent pin, a piece of tar, an old butternut and a few other articles that I cannot remember.
“‘I wonder how many more things are coming into this pocket,’ said the marbles, ‘we would like a little space to roll around.’ Just then the boy put his hand into the pocket for the jackknife and those selfish marbles pushed Sugar-Boy out with the knife and he fell in the yard and the boy never knew it. My brother found himself beside a small stone, and he soon discovered that a certain Mr. Worm lived under the stone.
“He was very lazy, sleeping most of the time, but one day the stone happened to get overturned by a boy, and then Mr. Worm began to squirm around at a great rate. Sugar-Boy watched him until a dozen little sparrows began to chirp around him, and in a remarkably short time they had made a meal of Mr. Worm. But they had also seen Sugar-Boy, and as soon as they had eaten Mr. Worm they tried a peck at Sugar-Boy.
“They made a great fuss and scolded each other because they could not carry Sugar-Boy, he was so heavy. In the height of the excitement a great black crow flew into the midst of the sparrows, and, taking Sugar-Boy in her beak, flew far away. Deep into the woods went the crow and perched on a high tree, and in another minute Sugar-Boy was in a nice warm nest with some little baby crows. They opened their mouths very wide and the mother crow began to feed them. She tried a peck at Sugar-Boy’s coat and he felt very badly about it. After a while she caught him up and one of the babies tried to take a little peck. It pleased the mother crow so much to see such a smart baby that she wanted to kiss the little mouth. She loosened her hold on Sugar-Boy and before she could catch him he had fallen from the nest in the high tree-top down to the path in the woods. He was there quite a long time when two girls came along gathering wood for their mother’s fire.
“‘O, see,’ cried one of the girls, ‘I have found a lump of sugar! I’m going to take it home to Gretchen!’
“She put Sugar-Boy in the basket with her twigs and sticks and he was carried safely through the woods to their mother’s cottage. A plump little maid with two long braids of golden hair came running to meet the girls who had been gathering sticks.
“‘See what I found for thee, Gretchen,’ said one of the girls, holding up Sugar-Boy. Gretchen took him in her little fat hands and cried: