The Penn's Grove record., 1921-03-04
H PANSY STORY
(By y. V. Smiley

"Got any new stories ready,
Auntie?' And Bobby smiled ingrati-
tatingly up at his Aunt as they walked
through the little garden back of the
house.
"What-again ?" laughed Auntie.
II believe I've pretty nearly run out of
stories.
think hard-maybe there's one
sticking in the back of your head yet"
urged Bobby anxiously.
So Auntie thought a minute and
then she laughed and said, 81 don't
believe l W told you the Pansy
story yet"
"Good-no you didn't"-and Bobby
settled himself ready to listen.
Then Auntie picked a big yellow and
purple pansy that was just beginning
to fade and which should have there
fore been picked anyway, and smooth
ing out it's petals began:
"Well, once upon a time cthat's the
way to start interpolated Bobbie ad-
miringly) there lived a nice meek
gentleman whose wife had died and
left him with two daughters. After a
time he became very lonely and finally
married again-this time to a rich
widow who also had two daughters.
At first this lady tried to be very
pleasant to her husband and step
daughters but afterward her true ma
lure asserted itself and she began to
be very unkind to her husband and his
family. She was quite a large wide
lady, as you will see there Auntie
smoothed out the big double petal at
the bottom of the pansy) and always
dressed magnifcently in velvets with
much trimming on her gowns. AS she
was so wide she took two chairs to
sit upon. See"-(here Auntie showed
Bobby the two tiny green leaves be-
hind the wide petal of the pansy.)
Then each of the woman's daugh-
tiers had a fine velvet gown, also with
trimming-tho not so much as their
mothers, and each of them had a nice
chair to sit on. See'-(and Auntie
showed Bobby the petals, n on
either side of the fat mother petal,
each with a little green chair under
meath, and with nice yellow trimming
on their little velvet d~resses). But"
resumed Auntie, "the bad stepmother
was so unkind to the mans two daugh-
tiers that not only did she not allow
them any trimming whatever on their
dresses, having them very plain and
dark, but both of them had to sit on
one chair" Here Auntie showed
Bobby the two top petals of the pansy,
and beneath them the tiny green chair:
"But, where was the papa?" asked
Bobby anxiously. "Well, that was
the worst of ALL" resumed Auntie.
"The poor little man had caught a bad
cold and had to wear a strip of red
flannel around his neck, and not only
that, he had no chair at all, and had
to sit in the middle of the room on the
floor and put his feet in a tub-sup-
posed to be hot water for his cold
See; I'll show him to you" Then
Auntie gently pulled off the petals, one
by one, and there sat the little green
man, with a red strip around his neck
and with his little thin legs down in
side what looked like a bowl. Auntle
carefully pulled off the little green
bowl and one could see his thin little
legs, and he looked for all the world
like a tiny green man about a quarter
of an inch long. "Oh, gee!" gasped
Bobby in astonishment " he looks pretty
near like a little fairyman. And how
did it all end, Auntie; l want them all
to have good times again"
"Oh, | expect it all ended happily,
with the cross getting good to
all of them and the poor mans
daughters getting trimming on their
dresses, too, and verything else nice"
That's good" said Bobby happily
I'm glad l know the Pansy story"