MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2016
Child Play
Child Play
By Laura E. Richards
Once a child was playing on a log that lay by the roadside. Another child came along and stopped to speak to him. What are you doing asked the second child. I am sailing to the Southern Seas, replied the first to get a cargo of monkeys coconuts and crystal balls as a large as oranges. Come up here and you may sail with me if you like. So the second child climbed up on the log. Look said the first child See how the foam bubbles up before the ship and trail and float away behind. Look the water is so clear that we can see the fishes swimming about blue and red and green. There goes a parrot-fish. My father told me about them. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a whale in a minutes. What are you talking about asked the second child peevishly There is no water here only grass. And anyway this is nothing but a log. You can't find islands in this way. But we have found them cried the first child Here they are now. I see palm-treeing waves and the white sand glittering. Look There are people gathering to welcome us on the beach. They have feather cloak and necklaces and anklets of copper and gold. Oh there is an elephant coming straight toward us. I should think you would be ashamed said the child that is the Widow Slocum. It is all the same said the first child. The second child climbed off the log. I'm going to play stickball he said I don't see any sense in this. I think you are pretty dull to play things that aren't really there. And he walked away. The first child looked after him a moment I think you are pretty dull he said to himself to see nothing but what is under your nose. But he was too well mannered to say this aloud and taking his cargo he sailed for another port.
By Laura E. Richards
Once a child was playing on a log that lay by the roadside. Another child came along and stopped to speak to him. What are you doing asked the second child. I am sailing to the Southern Seas, replied the first to get a cargo of monkeys coconuts and crystal balls as a large as oranges. Come up here and you may sail with me if you like. So the second child climbed up on the log. Look said the first child See how the foam bubbles up before the ship and trail and float away behind. Look the water is so clear that we can see the fishes swimming about blue and red and green. There goes a parrot-fish. My father told me about them. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a whale in a minutes. What are you talking about asked the second child peevishly There is no water here only grass. And anyway this is nothing but a log. You can't find islands in this way. But we have found them cried the first child Here they are now. I see palm-treeing waves and the white sand glittering. Look There are people gathering to welcome us on the beach. They have feather cloak and necklaces and anklets of copper and gold. Oh there is an elephant coming straight toward us. I should think you would be ashamed said the child that is the Widow Slocum. It is all the same said the first child. The second child climbed off the log. I'm going to play stickball he said I don't see any sense in this. I think you are pretty dull to play things that aren't really there. And he walked away. The first child looked after him a moment I think you are pretty dull he said to himself to see nothing but what is under your nose. But he was too well mannered to say this aloud and taking his cargo he sailed for another port.