Year: 1875

The Two LITTLE PUPPIEs.-"I cant
stand it any longer" said Mrs. Jones, as
she stumbled, for the fourth time within
an hour, over two puppies who were roll.
ing about on the floor. "We have two
gr0wn-up dogs, cat and parrot, and
these puppies are only a bother. No
body wants to buy them, nobody even
must do what | have told you a dozen
times before-take them away and drop
them over the bridge"


ooh, mother, l want them to play
WITH" said Jenny.


But Mrs. Jones was resOlute this time,
and slowly and reluctantly Jenny made
ready stout bag and tumbled the roly
poly little puppies in it. He hated his
errand, but still he started on it, for
there was no other way to do.


As he trudged along the lane to the
bridge he met little May Morris. with
her sun-bonnet tumbled back from her
brown curls. She couldn't think what
in the world Jenny had in that heavy
brown bag, so she asked him, and he
told her il was puppies, and then he had
to tell her what he was going to do with
them.


"Oh, you bad, wicked boy |" she ex-
claimed, looking at him with two re-
proachful blue eyes. 81 shouldn't have
thought you would do such a thing.
Drown those darling little puppies!
Why Jenny Jones!


"Well, l can't help it," said Jenny
"my mother won't have 'em under her
feet any longer. and nobody wants
them."


"I want themv' said pitiful little
May Morris. "My mamma will let me
keep them, l know, and I'll take them
hOme."


GAIL right" said Jenny, glad to get
| rid of his unpleasant errand. "YOu
may have 'em. But the bag is too
heavy for you to carry; there's stone
in it,"


"Well, then, take it out" said May.


So Jenny opened the bag to take the
stone out, but while he was getting hold
of it out jumped the two little puppies,
running this way and that. But May
ran after one and Jenny after the other,
so pretty soon they caught them, and
then May put them both in her little
checked apron and held them tight.


"Now am going straight home," she
said, as she hurried off toward neat
white house little way up the lane.


In the house her father was lying
down, for he was sick, and her mother
was taking care of him. They both
looked surprised enough when May came
in, flushed and eager, and, opening her
apron, let the puppies out on the bed.


"There!" she said, triumphantly.
"Jemmy Jones was gsing to drown
these two little darling dOggies, and
made him give them to me. They're
mine."


"But, my dear child" exclaimed her
mother, in dismay, "we don't want them
around. You must take them right
back to Jenny Jones"


But the tears came in Mays blue
eyes, and her father, who was sick, and
hated to see clouds on his little daugh-
ter's face, said:


"Oh, let the little girl keep them.
They will be pretty pets for her to play
with"


So May made bed in an old box in
the corner of the wood room. She put
in some shavings to make IL soft, and
then an old torn shawl to cover the
shavings, and then she put in the two
little puppies, who huddled close together
and went to sleep.


The next day little girl named Sally
Colt came to gee May, and when she
heard about the puppies she said she
would like one of them for her own. So
May took her to see them. Sally looked
at them both, and then she said:


"I want this one with the brown
feet"


Now this was the prettiest of the two
puppies, and May began to object. She
said if she gave one away she was afraid
the other would feel bad and cry. But
her mother said to never mind that; it
would soon get over it, and they couldn't
keep but one anyhow.


"But, mamma" whispered May in her
mothers ear, she has picked out the
prettiest."


ooh, may be not" said her mother,
cheerfully. "You can't tell which is
the prettiest when they are so little.
Let me look at them."


But when Mrs. Morris came to look at
them she saw that Sally really had
picked out the prettiest one, and then
she began to feel little sorry for May,
for she thought she really ought to have
the first choice. So what do you think
Mrs. Morris did? She went to the work.
basket and found pretty pink ribbon,
and she took that and tied it around the
other puppy's neck-the puppy that
didn't have brown feet. This one was
black all over, and the bright ribbon was
very becoming to him.


So by and by, when Sally was ready to
90 home, and went to the box to get her
puppy, she saw the little black one with
the pink ribbon round his neck, and
changed her mind all in minute. She
said he was the prettiest, and she wanted
him, and off she carried him in her
apron.


Mays little brown-footed puppy cried
for two or three nights, till finally Mrs.
Morris put an old fur cap in the box, and
then the puppy nestled up by that and
slept soundly. suppose it thought 1t
was another puppy.


1t was playful little thing, and as it
grew older May taught it to beg on its
Kind legs and to give its paw. Then she
made it little nightrgown and cap,
and the puppy would let her dress it up
in them; and when she laid IL in her
dolls bed it would shut its eyes and go
to sleep, just ~ good puppies ought to
do. Its name was Posy.


One day Jenny Jones' mother came
to call on Mrs. Morris, and when she saw
what an intelligent and pretty little dog
Posy was she said:


"There, now, that Is just such dog as
should like. He is worth ten times as
much as our two great good-for-nothing
creatures. Where did you get him7"


"Out Of Jemmy's bag" said May, de-
murely.