St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1908-12-16
Lost and Found.

How long ago it was I'm not going to
tell you, because time does not natter
anyway. Some places there isn't any
time, really. This is funny, but it is true,
and the little boy found such place,
too, as you will see at the end of the
story.
1t was pleasant and nice where the lit
tie boy lived all the year round. The
meadows and woods were right near his
home at the end of the wide old village
street, and he managed to have pretty
good time, as most little boys do, except
on Sundays On this day his father told
him that he must never go out of the
yard without permission, and that he
didn't often get. The little boy eoudn't
understand the difference in days. as the
out-ofdoors looked just the same, but on
The whole he was pretty happy and con-
tented, as most good little boys are.
Sometimes he was allowed to go over
to the river with the other boys, where
he sat on the banks and tished This
was great fun, whether they caught any
fish or not. Anyway, they always were
expecting to, and the expectation of boy
hood is happiness in itself. However
always except when sleeping or eating
or while at school he had the fields sMd
the groves and the sunshine around HIM
and the big wide sky above, and what
more can any little boy want?
Of course there are dogs and birds and
squirrels and lots of things TO interest a
little boy out IN the country under the
sky, and he was never lonesome except
sometimes Sundays. He went to church
with his father and mother Sunday
mornings, and aiterward to Sunday
school, but after dinner he was expected
to stay in the house or yard. His father
and mother were good to their only lit
tie boy, but they dldn' think it was best
tor him TO wander off to play Sundays,
as he did on other days.
So it was often very lonesome day
for him All the big out-oi-doors seemed
to call to him to come out, and every.
thing looked nicer than on Tuesday or
Friday or any other day I'm sure you
have seen the out-otdoors look just like
that, when for some reason you couldn't
90 out I'm told that lots of grown
men and women sometimes want things
that they ought not to have, or cannot
get, and that makes them feel Just as the
ittle boy did.
So when he couldn't 60 out he would
stand at the window or SIT on the door
step and look at the clouds go over,
away down to the edge of the sky, where
it looked as if they fell right over the
edge Then he wondered where they all
came from and went to, and lots and
lots of other things that he could not
understand Grown-up boys know
about these things, but the little boy
saw many others, besides the clouds, Of
which he knew as much as grown-up
folks. Really, there isn't so much differ
ence in the amount that little boys and
grown up people know, after all.
Well, there came a Sunday afternoon
after a while that seemed awiully long
to the little boy, quite the longest ever.
He had read over and over again all the
stories in the books he had, and was
very tired indeed, of staying indoors.
The world outside never looked so nice,
and the fields and the trees and the skv
looked as If they were very lonesome
without him. He had asked to 60 just a
little way, only out under some big trees
back of the house and near the edge OF
the woodruff his father told him he
must not in a way that seemed to settle
it. know Just how it sounded TO the
little boy, if you don't. Perhaps you do
though SO he went out on the back
steps and sat down, and tried to think
it out.
He did want to 90 out Just under the
trees, because there was a swing there,
and he had little house made of a few
bricks and farm all fenced off around
it, and he couldn't see what harm that
would do. He wouldn't play, only just
sit down there and look at things. And.
do you know after a little he went out
there and sat down very quiet and still
behind a tree. But it was different out
there today, some way, and it didn't
seem so nice, after all.
There was nothing to be afraid of,
really, except that he had done some
thing that his father had told him not
to, and he had never done anything like
that before. Perhaps you have, and
maybe you wouldn't have been afraid at
all, but he was. The longer he stayed
the more afraid he was to go back to the
house, and he just thought and was
afraid and didn't know what to do.
And while he was thinking about it a
great, big, beautifully colored butterfly
came sailing along and lit down in front
of him 1t was the funniest and prettiest
butterfly he had ever seen, and, as some
title boys do he wanted to catch and
keep it. When he got up, though, to put
his hand over it, it flew away toward
the edge of the woods but only a step or
two ahead. He followed it and saw 1t
20 into the woods, but he thought it
stopped again just a little way in. So
he went in after it, and soon saw it
waving its wings on a little bush Again
he saw it and again it got safely away,
and he saw it no more.
Then he thought of what he had done
and where he was, and he started for
/ home. But the woods, in which he had
/ never been alone before, were all around
/ him and he could not see the way out.
! All this, or something very like it, has
happened many times to grown-up folks,
4 who have found themselves just as
surely lost as was the little boy. This
sounds funny, know, but it is true.
SO, which is also funny, he found him
self lost, and began. to run. Soon the
tears came, many of them, but he kept
on running and crying, You see, he
didn't know what else to do, and, really
there wasn't anything else he could do