Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1886-05-20
FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE.
The storY of nPumns.r

aBouCs, ana Two little people call him
Pumps He is a. long as your school
penholder, and as high as your hand il
long from the tip Of your index finger to
where you buttonyour glove at the wrist
that is, if your glove should happen to be
the old-fashioned kind, with just one but
ton; but then, cometo think Of it, sup
pose it isn't.
Well, then, "Pumps" is as long as your
mama's hand was when she was little
girl eight years old or SO.
Bright eyes have vainly tried 10 dis
cover if the little twinkIers under
Pumps" sleepy eyeIids are black, or
red or navy blue; and they don't know
yeti But no matter so long as they're so
bright and quick to see everything going
on in this big green world around him.
And he's such white little atom
amidst the green-like snowflake, if
he'd only keep still long enough for you
10 think so.
Every day he is dressed up in silky
white coat that shines in the sun, and
such tidy, such pretty pink stockings
and little brown bootsl And just thinkl
The little fellow wears four Of them; and
he seems to be always walking on just
the tips of his toes.
He is 50 patient and persevering in his
little efforts to say pretty things that I'm
sure you would love to listen to him.
These two little people-Jiddy and
Ben-that love him and chase with him
after June bugs, maybe-all around
the yard, and hide from him just to hear
him calling from every nook and Granny
in his sunny home, think he is all the
time trying to say that pretty name,
s'Sweet Eglantine.n But he can as yet
say only the first parts Of it-.'esp-''ee"
for ''sweet, and then ''eg- -eg-egn for
the other; and he likes that so well that
be says it nearly all day long. Sometimes
I feel quite anxious lest he should like
them so well that he will never try to
learn to say any more; and then, after a
little I Danish my fears and get hopeful
again
To-day he missed his young cousins
sPeek-a-boo and SNOWFALL, who are
small and quite lovely members Of the
famous s'Lambkinn family-and he ran
distractedly hither and yon, with his
little round fiat nose, that just makes
you think of cracker with two eyelet
holes in it, now lifted into the air, and
now burrowing through the laughing
grasses, searching for the trail Of the
missing cousins Then 'sPeek-a-boo"
hears the anxious ''eg eg-ee-ee-eg- eg" of
small Pumps, as he calls louder and
faster, and then the gentle cousin lifted
is small voice into a plaintive sweet
tenor and called sMah-ah-GH, Mea 0h;'
which is, of course, corrupted from
s'meah, meah, " as spoken more politely,
and with quite a high-toned Boston ac-
cent by older Lambkins. Peek-a-boo
and SNOWFALL have not yet learned to
say it quite properly, that is all. ''Meah"
means, of course, when correctly trans
lated into King James English, come
heah, and then we who speak the plain
Yankee English would say it ''come
here"
And little silky Pumps, he heard it,
aud stopped short in his reckless race
among the shining yellow dandelions, and
shifted the air, and tapped his ears
almost the same way dear old Jumbo"
did, and, well, he thought: eyes,
will come there" But OH the grass
was high under the greening tree, the
sun had not warmed it, and the grass
was wet, and the little silky Pumps
could not endure for one little mome eni
even to have dew drop touch his pretty
pink stockings
All the same ''Peek-a-boon was ou
among the strawberry vines, and SO was
Cousin ow-ball, and they had gone
again to nibbling nanghtily and content
edly, the round white blossoms that every
one would make such lovely red straw
berry If they didn't eat them. ''Ee-ee-
eg-eg- -eg'' little Pumps frettcd, skimming
around the edges Of the grass plot between
him and the strawberry blossoms. Hi,
little cracker nose fairly tingled as he
thought of the rich dirt right there where
the blossoms grew that he would SO love
to dig trenches and build Notifications
in. 'Tweal1, t-p-e-a-k, tw-eakn lazily
sang out the old Hammock round the
corner. Pumps heard-and turned
listened tiredly, with slow meditative
blinks of the sleepy eyelids; then with {
despairing Whit and toss Of his head At
the little cousins, made one dive again
at his much battered milk basin, nudg-
ing it with the little cracker nose all
among the frightened dandies; then
turned and scampered around the corner
to the old hammock. And there he
begged so piteously and zealously-with
every little trill and treble he could put
into the ''Sweet Byzantine neo-that the
two little people swinging there lifted
him up on to their pinafores-two little
brown boots on one, two on the other
while they rocked and kept n singing
'sWhen the bough bends the cradle
will fall"; and the sleepy lids dropped
suddenly over the little red eyes,
and dainty Pumps" who; little
Jiddy and Ben whispered in sorrow
ful confidence to each other, would be
called by bic. giant people only a little