HIDE-AND-SEEK.
HERE is Charley? Where can the boy have gone? Just now he was here by my side. Now he is out of my sight. I will call him. 'Charley, Charley, my boy! where are you?'
"No answer. Hark! I hear a noise up in that tree. Can that be Charley? Oh, no! It is a bird. 'Little bird, have you seen a small boy with curly hair? Tell me where to look for him.'
"The bird will not tell me. I must ask the squirrel. 'Squirrel, have you seen a boy with rosy cheeks?' Away goes the squirrel into a hole without saying a word.
"Ah! there goes a butterfly. I will ask him. 'Butterfly, have you seen a boy, with black eyes, rosy cheeks, and curly hair?' The butterfly lights on a bush. Now he flies again. Now he is off without making any reply.
"Dear me! what shall I do? Is my little boy lost in the woods? Must I go home without him? Oh, how can I live without my boy!"
Out pops a laughing face from the bushes.
"Here I am, mamma!" says Charley. "Don't cry. Here I am close by you."
"Why, so you are. Come out here, you little rogue, and tell me where you have been all this time."