Produced by Al Haines
1893.
BECKTOLD & Co., Printers and Binders,
ST. Louis, Mo.
Apples, Ripe and Rosy, Sir
Better than Riches
Building a Boat
A May-Day Gift
Tilderee
A Little White Dress
A Miser's Gold
That Red Silk Frock
A Lesson with a Sequel
Uncle Tom's Story
Hanging May-Baskets
What a month of March it was! And after an unusually mild season, too.Old Winter seemed to have hoarded up all his stock of snow and coldweather, and left it as an inheritance to his wild and rollicking heir,that was expending it with lavish extravagance.
March was a jolly good fellow though, in spite of his bluster andboisterous ways. There was a wealth of sunshine in his honest heart,and he evidently wanted to render everybody happy. He appeared to haveentered into a compact with Santa Claus to make it his business to seethat the boys and girls should not, in the end, be deprived of theirfair share of the season's merrymaking; that innumerable sleds andtoboggans and skates, which had laid idle since Christmas, and been theobjects of much sad contemplation, should have their day, after all.
And he was not really inconsiderate of the poor either; for though,very frequently, in a spirit of mischief, he and his chum Jack frostdrew caricatures of spring flowers on their window-panes, knocked attheir doors only to run away in a trice, and played other pranks uponthem, they did not feel the same dread of all this that they would havefelt in December. He would make up for it by being on his best andbalmiest behavior for some days following; would promise that milderweather, when the need and the price of coal would be less, was surelycoming; and that both the wild blossoms of the country fields, and thestray dandelions which struggle into bloom in city yards, would be ontime, as usual.
On the special day with which we have to do, however, March was not in"a melting mood." On the contrary, the temperature was sharp andfrosty, the ground white, the clouds heavy with snow. The storm of thenight before had only ceased temporarily; it would begin againsoon,—indeed a few flakes were already floating in the air. At fouro'clock in the afternoon the children commenced to troop out of theschools. How pleasant to watch them!—to see the great doors swingopen and emit, now a throng of bright-eyed, chattering little girls, ingay cloaks and hoods and mittens; or again a crowd of sturdy boys,—afew vociferating and disputing, others trudging along discussing gamesand sports, and others again indulging in a little random snowballingof their comrades, by the way. Half an hour later the snow was fallingthick and fast. The boys were in their element. A number of them hadgathe