And don’t you come back, oh, no—no—no!”
[8]. The vane on the barn.
Willie was delighted with this little song, and made Henry repeat it over and over again, which he did in a half singing, half reciting tone. After hearing it several times, Willie was able to repeat it himself, and I can assure you he clapped his hands with glee the first time he reached the “no—no—no!” without tripping over a single word.
Willie now teased Henry to draw some pictures on the other side of the slate—for notwithstanding he had transferred the wind song to his memory, he would not yet risk rubbing it out from the slate. So Henry made several pictures, such as a horse, a cow, a woman, a barn, etc. I would show you a specimen or two of them, if I were not afraid you would laugh at them. But you should remember that it is not for any one person to know or do everything. Because a girl sews beautifully, you ought not to expect that she will sing like a nightingale; and if a boy writes clever rhymes, that is no reason why he ought to draw fine pictures. But Henry’s rude drawings answered their end. They pleased Willie, and that was all they were designed to do.
But Henry drew one picture on his slate that I think you will like to look at. It was a picture of a top, drawn in writing, or rather a little poem arranged in the form of a top, which he had learned to make some time before. Here it is:
THE
TOP,
THE
TOP,
YOU