Warren sheaf., 1899-11-30
! How Mary Emma ::
/ Took Care Of the Baby.
By SOPHIE SWEET.

V OUR sister Eunice wants you to
keep house for heryand take care
of the baby while she goes to Linyille
to buy the baby's winter cloak said
3 Mary Emma's mother. s
And, according nggly, Mary Emma
: brushed her tow-colored hair tightly
back from her round, freckled face and
tied it with blue ribbon, and t on
her brand-new blue-and-whi checked
gingham dress, and set out for the
Pillslury settlement, off on the edge OF
the prairie, where her sister Eunice
! lived
''Do take good care Of the house, and
don't let anything happen to the baby,
and keep your wits about you!o her
mother called after her.
ssAnd, if the house gets afre, don /
run for the oil can to- put it out" said
her brother Noah, facetiously.
Noah wouldn't forget the time when
he cut his finger. and Mary Emma
3 brought the mustard to dresssit with;
nor the time when little Shadrach fell
off the haymow and bumped his fore
head, and Mary Emma got the varnis!l
instead of the arnica, and vanished him
SO that he was sticky for days.
And her mother was continually say
ing that she didn't suppose Mary En-.
ma ever would learn to keep her wits
about her.
These little reminders which her
mother and Noah gave her made Mary
Emma feel for time as if her gingham
dress might just as well have been old
as; new, and asif she didn' 'tcare wheth-
er Eunice had saved any Of the high-
top sweetings' for her or not. But be
fore she reached the farm her spirits
had risen again.
The farm was delightful place to
go to on a pleasant autumn day. There
was little house, as bright and shining
as new paint could make it; and big
barn, and a garden and orchard that
Hiram, her sisters husband, was very
proud Of; and great fields of grain that
stretched away to the prairie
broad prairie thatrolled and rolled, like
a vast green and misty-blue sea, and at
last seemed to roll itself into the sky.
And besides all this, and much more
than all this, there was the baby. She
was the smallest baby in the TOWN.
mere crumb of a baby-but she had
two pearly teeth and a golden curl on
her neck, and her name was Alice Maud
Grace Eyangeline, because her mother
didn't see why her baby shouldn't have
as many names as the queen of Eng
lands.
And one couldn't stay in the house
ten minutes without discovering that
she was considered the most remark
able baby that ever lived, and that moths
in the world was of much Importance
except so far as it affected her.
It was a grea trespo bi1ity to be the
aunt Of such a baby, especially when
one; was only II. Althoug gh it it made one
very proud, it was quite a fearful re
sponsibility to be left to take care Of it
all alone.
The huge buggy il which Eunice was
to drive herself to Linyille was already
waiting at the door, and wi th more cau-
,tions and charges about the baby than
anyone an could possibly remember,
Eunice drove off, and Hiram wen tsaWay
TO the distant field VIII ere he was gath-
sering he last Of he harvest.
Baby Alice WASH t sleepy, but shewas
very good-natured, and graciously per-
mitted herself. to be samuse ed by patty
cakes and rides to Banbury Gross, 9
and when these diversions were ex-
\, tod NTp,