The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-09-10

held made him leap for Joy. A hall OF
passage led to the three rooms into which
the grotto seemed to be divided. At the
end of this hall was chandelier spaAiu,3
with a thousand lights, In the room to
the right were toys made of gold, silver
and brass. There were wagons, carriages,
velocipedes hobby-horses, steam-carS,
drums bock-hohses, pop guns, jumping
lacks, watches, and all kinds of animals.
In a class case on the table was a gor-
geous variety of emeralds, diamonds,
rubies, and, in short, all kinds of precious
stones set in rings, bracelets and pins.
Hanging on the wall in the room to
the left were gilded cages filled with birds
of all the tints of the rainbow, and oh,
they sang 50 beautiful! Such sweet
music burst from their little throats that
Lester could have listened to them for
hours.
The central room was filled with mu-
steal instruments. There were large,
small, and wee-tiny pianos; there were
trumpets, horns, and tiddles; there were
toy men playing on harps and making
pretty little tinkling music. While Les
ter was looking at all these pretty things
there came out from behind a nicely
wrought curtain at the end of room,
four little boys and girls, fairy children,
who, taking hold of each others hands,
danced to the music
Lester was so well pleased with this
that the Queen asked him if he would
like to da ce with them. He said that
he would; and, as he danced, he thought
how clad Gertrude would be to be there
with him.
When they were through dancing, the
children led him to the apartment be
hind the curtain. In the center of this
long room was large table, covered with
dishes filled with all kind Of candies
!, nuts and cakes. The fairy children
+ began to sing this song, in most me
+ lodious voices:
All hail to our good little man,
} Who was always 50 kind to his sister;
/ Such red lips and sweet checks OF tan
f., Has our own darling, good little Lester.
/ For It's to good children we sing,
. Who never will any one pcStGr:
, And SO we will crown him our ng-
- Our own DARING, SWEEP lllle lCStcl'
4 We will guard him from evil and sin,
From the page and the clown, and the jester
And no one shall ever harm hm-
Our own darling, sweet little Lester
y When this song was finished the Queel
G came up behind him and placed wreatl
:. of flowers on his head, which pleased hin
D very much.
5 In the meantime the dwarf, who ha'
s remained outside, no sooGer saw tn
|. Queen and Lester start into the grott
e than he began to plot mischief. He raj
:. I'D behind them caught the cat, and sit
r ting down Oh a rustic seat wrote lette
a to testers mamma, which ran thus:
g 81 was out in the grove, and before
d knew ii a giant came upto me and caugh
g me. He is now running away with me
and fear that shall never see you again
V nv own dear mamma. I have tied thi
/ around the neck Of old Tabbie, thinkin
p YOU NAV start some men out to scare
k for me who may find her. Farewell
P dear mamma and sister.
,t "Your loving LESTER"
If When the dwarf had finished this lette
N he tied it around the cats neck, KNOWN
# that If Testers mamma received the not
h she would send some one out to look 10
him. and thus he would be found an
e taken back home. For you see, he wa
/ quite sure that after Lester had seen al
the beautiful things in the grotto h
1t would not care to leave it, especially whe
e he knew that the Queen OF the Falre
d loved lin 50 much.
7 In this he was mistaken, as you vi
" presently see. The cat lost no time i
,e getting home, for she was very hungry
1t was quite dark when she got there, an
" Testers mamma was standing at the gat
id very much alarmed, for he had never b.
at fore stayed out so late.
When she saw the cat she wiped he
a eyes--for she had been crying-an
H. thought that her little boy must be clo'
re behind. When she saw the letter on Il
ad pussy's neck she tore it off, read it quic
r. ", and was almost frantic. Just then
e. man came along who knew her and h
he children, and she told him about Lester
strange letter. The man started out
to find him, and Testers mamma went in
ch the house and laid down on the bed We
IRE sick because she had lost her little boy.
m. Meanwhile Lester had looked at all t
cr- nice things in the grosto, and had eat
lat of the candies, nuts and cake. L
ar Queen, now seeing that he was tired a
ed sleepy, led him to beautiful room whe
uit there was a little white bed, She to
nd him to lie down and rest awhile, viii
oft he did, and fell asleep as soon as his he
ID touched the pillow. The little Que
old watched him while he slept. When
Is a awoke it was morning, and he felt 50 W
nd that he jumped out of bed with a laus
ore The Queen stood there, looking as sw
,w- and as pretty as ever. She smiled a
said:
.tic "Now, my dear little man, as YOU hf
seen all the pretty things we have he
ave which would you rather do, stay h
[ with me or go back to your MANN
nee You would like to stay here, would
ith your
ind "No, I thank you, would rather
our back to my mamma"
her The Queen was sorry that he did
18th want to stay with her, but she smiled 6