The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1898-02-17
CHARMING CHILD STORY:
Ono Written by AIphonse Daudet Found
in an Old Reader,

Ono Written by AIphonse Daudet Found
in an Old Render,
Once upon time a little girl who
hated READERS" because there was new
er any thing interesting to read in
them, opened her brand-new fourth
reader and discovered that, so far as
one story was concerned, the book was
an exception to the rule. That one
story was called How the Crickets
Brought Good Fortune" and in a most
fascinating, taking-it-for- -granted-that
Observation-Disclosures way 1t began:
my friend Jacques strolled into the
bakeshop on the corner one Christmas
eve, when" There was no stopping
when you had got thus far, Greedily
and speedily the little girl devoured
the all-too-few succeeding pages, and
with sigh Of regret she laid the book
down only when the very last period
was reached. The story was really not
about my friend Jacques" but a poor
little boy in thin blue blouse whom
my friend Jacques" saw in the bake
shop and who, hearing the song Of the
crfckets that haunt such places, stood
rs II spellbound with the one long loaf
Of bread tucked under his arm. The
bakers wife asked him why he waited.
'Oh, please" said the little boy, II
hear crickets and crickets bring good
fortune. Oh if you would just be good
enough to let me take some Of those
crickets home, then they might bring
us good fortune and my father would
get well and my mother wouldn't have
to work so hard" The story went on
to say that the bakers wife at once
gave to the little boy fine lot of crick-
cts housed in paper box which he
carried off delightedly, in company
with three long loaves instead of one.
after which my friend Jacques" and
the bakers wife looked at each other
for minute. Then the bakers wife
took down her ledger and crossed off
q whole paye full of charges with
'tpaid," while my friend jacques" took
the little boys address and went
straight to the house, where he made
yet more clear that crickets do indeed
bring good fortune. That was all, but
the little tale was told with such grace,
snch art and, above all, with such SYM
pathy, that 1t won the heart of the little
girl as no other tale had ever done be-
fore. The name of the author was not
given, nor was there any clue to his
identity. None of the elders could place
the story, the teachers knew it merely
as a story in the fourth reader, to be
commended for that reason alone. The
little girl had to content herself there
fore, with remaining her one boy doll
my Friend Jacques" while the story
she tucked away in that corner of her
memory where so many other cherished
but now inexplicable things were stor.
ed, all labeled Things that l mean to
find out about when l grow up" The
little girl had, it so happened, been
growing up good many years be-
fore she found out about the author of
the story of my friend Jacques and the
poor little boy in the thin blue blouse
She had read "Numa Roumestan" and
"Kings in Exile" and "L'Evangeliste"
and "Tartarin," and ever so many
others from the pen of Alphonse
Daudet before she one day CHANGED to
discover, bound in with some more pre-
tentious tale the little story so dear to
her childhood and which no one had
been able even to tell her was transia-
tion. How the Crickets Brought Coed
Fortune. New York Sun.