Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-04-03

'~~ SNS
mouse with mother, and he thought he
would try and draw some nice pictures
to send to his little friends for valen-
tines, but he could not find a lead
pencil anywhere.
Now Jacks mother had a dear little
gold pencil-at least the pencil had q
gold case, and inside of it was tina
leaa OF the pencil. You Just screwed
q lutte part of the case and out came
me lead, ell ready to mark with, '.but
! Only use 1t very, very little, and am
Always careful of it, for M own dear
mother gave it to me when I was a
little girl" she said.
20 JACK was very, very gentle with
u, ana when he was done drawing the
valentfne-a beautiful bird with q LET.
Ler IN It's mouth-he gave the pencil
PACK to mother. Then she put it in q
ilttle drawer in her writing desk. saw.
ing as she did so:
see, Jack, this is where I keen n.
u no one ever takes it out Of the
drawer but myself, for 1 would feel
very badly if anything happened to II"
so Jack looked in the little drawer.
I'M saw the gold pencil. He thought
II vas very kind of his mother to end
u TO him and show him where she,
kept it. 0o sne
Now, they kept hens at Jacks
mouse, or rather they kept them in the
Darn. One of the hens had inst thn
cutest family of little chickens-bahy
mems, % know. Jack liked to feed
these chickens, so mother bought him
a nice little basket in which he could
axe crumbs to them. He had, the
basket lined with paper to keep the
crumbs from dropping through.
one day Jack went out to feed the
When he had given them
nearly all the crumbs, he took out tbe
paper to shake the last ones from II.
ana what did he spy at the side Of
the basket, between the p and II.
u his mothers gold pencil. He was
SO surprised that he dropped the pen.
Gil, basket and all. Just then big Rex
came along and spied the nice gold
pencil on the ground. He thought Il
was something just meant, for pups to
play with, SO he picked it up in his
mouth and ran off with it. Jack ran
after him to get the pencil, calling at
the top of his voice:
Drop it, Rex! Drop It, Rex!"
rex thought Jack wanted to have
some fun with him, SO he a all the
faster; but in a little while he drop.
ped the pencil, put his paw upon It.
n began to "Bow-wow.wow" in his
very loudest voice.
Mother, hearing the noise, ran to
the yard.
Why. Jack, what has Rex in his
mouth?" she said.
"Oh, he has your gold pencil" said
Jack.
My gold pencil! However did he
get that?" said mother in such a yery
surprised voice.
Then Jack did the queerest thing.
He began to cry. He cried and cried
n forgot where he was and sat right
down among the hens and cried
ooh, mother, l did not take vour
gold pencil out of the drawer at alln,
he sobbed. Somebody must have
dropped it in my basket, and it coined
out when shaked the paper, and
then Rex a away with it," and he
sobbed as though his little heart was
going to break right in two.
But the first thing he knew, a pair
OF loving arms were around him, lift
ing him gently from the ground, and
mothers voice was saying SO softly
and sweetly, 'Why, Jack, dear, Of
course mother never thought of it's be-
ing her w little boy who took her
pencil from the drawer. No, no,
never thought of such a thing, be-
cause-don't you remember told
you it stayed in the drawer, except
when mother took 1t out herself. and
SO how could it be you who took 1t
out? Well find out after a while how
it got in your basket, but never mind
about that now, dear,-just come and
help me get it away from Rex"
"Why, mother" said Jack, very
much surprised, haven't you got It
from Rex YETI"
Why, no, how could II" said moth
er. did you think mother thought
more of the gold pencil than she did
of her W dear boy? I saw you were
in trouble, and l came to help you
first. See, there is Rex bringing the
pencil back. He was only playing
with it."
Then Jack Rugged and Rugged his
mother.
Il think mothers are just the incest
people in the whole world. didn't
know before that they loved their lit
tie boys better than nice gold pencils
that their own darling mammas had
given them; and that they were al
ways just sure, sure that their little
boys did just nice things-1 never
it, mamma said Jack.
But l think little boys are the incest
people in the world, and mothers can
just show them their very incest
and where they keep them, too"
said Jacks mother.
"Bow-wow-wow-wow," barked Rex.
II think SO too," is what he seemed to
say-at least that is what both jack
and mother thought it sounded like.
TOILETS OF THE BIRDS.