Little Frankie and his Mother

CHAPTER VII

FRANKIE'S BREAKFAST

Frankie was now old enough to like to hear stories, and almost every day he asked, "Pease tell me tory, mamma." Sometimes, when he did not feel like playing, he would ask her a great many times in a day.

One morning she went into the nursery, after she had eaten her own breakfast, and found Sally feeding him with his bread and milk.

"He spits it out, ma'am," she said, "and won't let it down his throat."

"Patty want pig, mamma," said the little boy. He meant that he wanted a fig.

"Has he had a fig this morning?" asked mamma.

"Yes, ma'am," said nurse. "Willie came in eating one, and Frankie cried for it. So Willie gave it right up to him, though he had only taken one mouthful. I think he is the generousest boy, ma'am, that I ever see."

Mamma smiled, and seemed very happy when she heard this. You know nothing makes mammas so happy as to know that their little boys and girls are good. She said to herself, "Dear child, I will give him another when he comes in." Then she took Frankie in her arms, and told nurse to go and eat her own breakfast. She tucked the bib nicely around his neck, and then she began to feed him. But, as Sally said, he would not let it down, but spit it all over his clothes and mamma's hand. "Patty want pig," he said again.

"No, darling, you must eat your breakfast now," said mamma. "Though it is not so sweet as a fig, it is very good, and will make my little boy grow and be strong, so that he can run out to play like Willie."

"Patty want pig, mamma," said the baby, putting up his hand to pat mamma's face. "Patty want pig vely much."

"Frankie shall have a fig by and by," said mamma; "now I will tell him a little story.

"Once there was a little boy; his name was Harry. He had no kind mamma to give him good breakfasts. His mamma had gone to heaven to live with God.

"Little Harry was poor, and often when he woke up he was very hungry. But he could not lay his head on his mamma's breast, because she was dead, you know. Poor little Harry used to cry for somebody to come and take care of him. All babies need some person to hold them and rock them."

"Patty got mamma," cried the little boy.

"Yes, darling, Frankie has a mamma who loves him dearly, and tries to take good care of him, and makes him nice warm clothes. But Harry had none. The woman who let him live in her house was too busy to attend to him; so, when he was cold, or hungry, or tired, and wanted to lay his poor, weary head in her lap, she had no time to let him do so. Dear little fellow, it would have done him so much good to have some kind mamma take him in her lap and squeeze him close to her breast, as mamma does Frankie, and call him her darling, dear little Harry. I think he would have stopped crying at once, and he would have looked up in her face and smiled his thanks."

Frankie was so much pleased with the story, that he put up his little mouth to kiss mamma; and when he had done so, he patted her face softly, and said, "Patty love oo." He could not say "you."

"One day," said mamma, "a kind lady called at the poorhouse where Harry lived. He was sitting on a little bed in the corner, crying; but he stopped when the lady went in. His hair had not been combed for many days; his face was very dirty where the tears had run down over his thin, pale cheeks; his clothes were soiled and torn; but the lady pitied him very much. When she found he had no mamma, and that his papa was at work a great way off, she wrapped her shawl about the poor baby, and took him home in her carriage.

"First of all she gave him a cup of milk to drink, and then she told nurse to bring some warm water in a tub, and some soap and towels, for she was going to wash the poor baby. She did not wonder then that the poor little fellow cried, for he was all sore, because he had had no kind mamma to wash him and put on nice powder. She kept him in the water a long time, and washed him very clean; and then she told the nurse to go up garret and bring a small trunk with some baby clothes in it. She had a little baby once, and these were his clothes. Then she tried to get the snarls out of his hair, and by this time Harry was so tired, he was glad to go to sleep.

"When he woke up he began to cry again, for he thought he was back in his old home; but as soon as he saw the kind lady, he smiled very sweetly. He held out his arms for her to take him. She had some warm bread and milk all ready, and she took him in her lap and put a towel round his neck and fed him.

"He did not spit it out on his clean clothes, but he ate it all, and liked it very much; and then he looked up in the kind face that was bending over him so fondly, and smiled, and tried to stroke her cheek. This was all the way he knew how to thank her for his good breakfast."

When mamma had told the story, she took Frankie's cup and began to feed him, and he did not spit out one mouthful, but ate the whole, even the last drop.

CHAPTER VIII

FRANKIE'S DOLLY

When Willie was a little boy about two years old, a good lady came to see his mother. Her name was Bryant, but Willie could not speak such a very hard word; so, after trying a long time, he called her Bear. Papa and mamma laughed heartily, and said that was a funny name; but in a few days they began to call her Bear too; and after a while they thought it was a very pretty name. Do you know why they liked it so much? Because good Bear was fond of Willie, and very kind to him, and because Willie said it in such a cunning way. One day mamma folded up a little blanket for Willie to carry to bed for a baby, and Bear said, "I will make him a pretty dolly, and dress it all up, so that he can have it to play with."

That very day she began to work upon it. Mamma gave her nice pieces of cloth, and she made a black face, and curly hair, and red lips, and a very flat nose, and white eyes. Papa laughed when they showed it to him, and said, "he hoped Willie wouldn't be afraid of it."

Then Bear made arms, and hands, and legs, with red shoes, on the feet. Then she made a skirt, and a dress, and a sack for Dinah to put on when she was cold, and a bonnet for her to wear when she went to walk. She did not let Willie see it until it was all ready for him to play with, and then she, and mamma, and nurse stood looking to see what he would do with it.

"Pretty Dinah," said mamma, kissing the dolly, and then putting it into Willie's arms.

At first the little fellow looked and looked, but did not touch his new baby or smile at all; but presently, when mamma said, "Willie got two babies," and putting the one made of a blanket by the side of it, he began to understand what it was for. When Willie was four years old, Bear made some new clothes for Dinah, a jacket and pantaloons, and changed her name to John. This, Willie did not like; and one day hung dolly by a string to the nob of the shutter, because he was not good, he said.

When Frankie was old enough to play with a baby, dear kind Bear had gone away where they could never see her pleasant smile again; but mamma made a new dress, and put it on over the pantaloons, and called dolly Dinah again. While she was sewing on it, the tears ran out of her eyes and dropped on her work. Willie ran to ask her what was the matter, and she said, softly, "I am thinking of Bear, my dear, and how she would have loved our little Frankie if she had lived."

"I am going to heaven some day," said Willie; "and I'll ask her to come back. I know she will, when I tell her you cry so."

"If we are good, my dear boy," said mamma, wiping her eyes, "and try to please the Saviour, and to obey all his holy commands, we shall go to live with her in heaven; but she can never come back to us."

"I'm trying to grow good every day, mamma," said Willie.

This was a long time before. Now Frankie loved Dinah dearly; and when he went to ride, she had to go too. He used to hug her and kiss her just as mamma did him; and in all his plays with Margie, Dinah was set up in a chair, and had to play too.