Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1874-01-03
COLUMN.
New Years Day

New Years Day
Or; The Four Good Little Girls.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.
1ssAsB
s. ONCE KNEW FOUR VERY
YSIA sweet little girls who, without
5ANfA being sisters, loved each other
VIZ dearly. Their names were
Marie, Julia, Denise and Emma. Their
parents were very glad to have the chill
dren play together, and the different
floors of the house inhabited by the four
families were daily enlivened by the
Joyous laughter of the little girls, the
Oldest of whom was just eight. while
the youngest was scarcely five. But let
no one imagine that they were disagree
able to those around them. No noise
was heard on the staircase, nor did they
amuse themselves dragging their toys up
and down the steps, nor beating tat
too on the banisters, as little girls and
boys often do. They mounted or de-
scended the stairs in quiet, lady-like
manner, with their dolls, or picture
books, or boxes containing games or
puzzles. Each had with her the toy that
she loved most, or that she thought
would best amuse her little friends.
But these lively little girls did not al
ways play such quiet games. There
were others which they enjoyed even
more, when permission was given them
to play in the beautiful garden belong
ing to the house, or in the large yard in
front OF it, which was surrounded by a
large flower border. In these two spots
the four children had liberty to run
about as much as they chose, to play
hide-and-seek, blindman's-buff, jump
the rope, or trundie their hoops.
In France it is customary for several
families to live in the same house, each
occupying floor or suite of rooms, and
thus it was that the parents of these lit
tie girls, although under the same ROOF,
had their own apartments and were al
most as much separated as if they inhab-
tied different dwellings.
On the first floor, which is always the
most expensive, lived the father and
mother Of Marie; the second was occu-
pied by the parents of Denise, whose
father was a doctor; Mr.. Duval, an ar
tist, and his daughter Julia, had the
third floor, and on the fou rth lived Mrs.
Richard, the mother of little Emma
The children were allowed to visit
each other in these different apartments
where they played quietly, not troub-
ling anything, neither climbing on the
SOFAS, her rubbing their muddy feet
against the furniture, nor resting them
ON the rounds of the chairs. These lit
tie girls were mindful of the advice Civ
en- them every day by their mothers, and
when occasion required.
"Do not touch that, DEAR" Marie
would say to the inquisitive Denise, who
was disposed to handle everything she
saw. F"
'sTake care, julia" Denise would
often remark to her little companion,
who had the bad habit of swinging to
and fro on her chair, 'syou will fall and
hurt yourself"
ssGirls, don't walk on the borders,"
warned Emma in her turn, when they
played in the garden, and generally all
these little cautions were received with
the same sweetness and amiability with
which they were given.
A like spirit was shown in their games.
Nobody wished to begin or prolong one
that did no amuse the others-each,
however, had her favorite. For in
stance, Marie, who loved to read and to
cut out pict ures to paste in her books,
was fond of playing schoolmistress.-
She seated her little companions on
gave them books, made them
recite lessons, marked them, and then
pictures to the scholars who
had behaved the best
Denise found nothing more amusing
than to dress and undress her doll and
rs she was already very skillful with
her needle, her beloved dolly always
had something new to wear. AS for
Julia, the artists daughter, she had two
amusements. One was to draw
female heads in crayon, which she pre-
tended were the portraits of her little
other, the care and ar
of baby house, and the
game in which she excclled was make
believe dinner
She invented nice dishes for the dolls
table, in imitation of those served at her
fathers. Nobody knew better than
Julia that crust of brown bread steep
ed in water and surrounded by herbs,
looks lust like beef stew. A small
piece of spiced bread that she kneaded
TO give it shape, became under her nim-
BILE fingers ham or a leg of mutten.--
she improvised salad of
daisy leaves. and ornamented it with
the red and blue flowers of the chick
weed to initiate nasturtiums, which she
had often seen put around real salad
As for the dessert, she always saved
some dainty from her own dinner to
have the pleasure of sharing it with her
companions. In fact this dolls dinner
delighted all the little girls, and the
dessert gave them an opportunity to
show their unselfishuess by saving their
sweet-meats, cake, pie, etc., for 1t. But
they loved especially to play at house
keeping, because each found therein the
occupation just suited to her taste
Marie was usually the mother, that is
to say, the mistress of the house. She
gave her directions, ordered dinner and
made and received visits. Denise was
the housemaid: she cleaned up. and
dressed the children-I mean the dolls,
and sometimes Emma. whom they class
ed among the children because she was
too small to take any other part. Julia
was the cook; she went to market, ac-
counted for the housekeeping expenses
to her mistress, and kindled the fire in
the stove; then, with her sleeves rolled
up and a white handkerchief pinned
before her for an apron, set industrious
iv to work in the kitcnen.
During the dark days of autumn and
winter, when the yard and garden were
too damp for the little girls, these indoor
games, and especially the dolls dinner
party. gave them great pleasure. Every
day their inventive genius added some-
thing to this tavorite paftime, and as
their mothers frequently gave them bits
of meat, which made 1t look like real
meal, they began to find that their china
dinner sets had become too small and
broken up for such splendid entertain
ment. There we're the remains ola lit
tie pewter service, but the plates and
dishes were greatly reduced in number,
and black from repeated use. The veg
etable dishes We're odd, ami the goblets
bent; the salad bowl OF blue apd white
china was chipped, and the tureen like
it too small to hold the soup. The de-
sire to have real, what the little house
keepers had formerly mad only in make
believe. as they called it, was due per-
haps less to the laudable ambition to
have their domestic arrangements per-
feet than to the desire to try expert
ments in cooking, which they were
sometimes permitted to do through the
kindness of Catherine, Mr.. Duvai's SER
want, who, having had the sole care OF
Julia, was always ready To amuse her
and her little friends. Once she per-
mitted them to make a real stew in her
own pipkin, and furnished all that was
necessary TO season it. A happy day il