The Fairchild Family

by Mrs. Sherwood

  The Two Books

  "Please choose a book for me"]

  It was the time of the Midsummer Fair, and John asked Mr. Fairchild'sleave to go to the fair.

  "You may go, John," said Mr. Fairchild; "and take the horse, and bringeverything that is wanting in the family."

  So John got the horse ready, and set out early in the morning to go tothe fair; but before he went Emily and Lucy gave him what money theyhad, and begged him to bring them each a book. Emily gave him twopence,and Lucy gave him threepence.

  "You must please choose a book for me with pictures in it," said Emily.

  "I do not care about pictures," said Lucy, "if it is a pretty book. Sopray don't forget, John."

  In the evening, after tea, the children and their father and mother, asusual, got ready to take a walk; and the children begged Mr. and Mrs.Fairchild to go with them to meet John. "For John," said Henry, "willbe coming back now, and will have brought us some pretty books."

  So Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild took the road which led towards the townwhere the fair was held, and the children ran before them. It was afine evening. The hedges were full of wild roses, which smelt mostsweet; and the haymakers were making hay in the fields on each side ofthe road.

  "I cannot think where John can be," said Henry. "I thought he would behere long before now."

  By this time they were come to the brow of a rising ground; and lookingbefore them, behold, there was John at a distance! The children all ranforward to meet him.

  "Where are the books, John? Oh, where are the books?" they all saidwith one voice.

  John, who was a very good-natured man, as I have before said, smiled,and, stopping his horse, began to feel in his pockets; and soon broughtout, from among other things, two little gilt books; the largest ofwhich he gave to Lucy, and the other to Emily, saying:

  "Here is two pennyworth--and here is three pennyworth."

  "Indeed, John, you are very good," said the children. "What beautifulbooks!"

  "My book," said Emily, "is 'The History of the Orphan Boy,' and thereare a great many pictures in it: the first is a picture of afuneral--that must be the funeral of the poor little boy's papa andmamma, I suppose."

  "Let me see, let me see," said Henry. "Oh, how pretty! And what's yourbook, Lucy?"

  "There are not many pictures in my book," said Lucy; "but there is oneat the beginning: it is the picture of a little boy reading tosomebody lying in a bed; and there is a lady sitting by. The name of mybook is 'The History of Little Henri, or the Good Son.'"

  "Oh, that must be very pretty," said Henry.

  By this time Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild were come up.

  "Oh, papa! oh, mamma!" said the little ones, "what beautiful books Johnhas brought!"

  "Indeed," said Mr. Fairchild, when he had looked at them a littlewhile, "they appear to be very nice books, and the pictures in them arevery pretty."

  "Henry shall read them to us, my dears," said Mrs. Fairchild, "whilstwe sit at work; I should like to hear them very much."

  "To-morrow," said Mr. Fairchild, looking at his wife, "we begin to makehay in the Primrose Meadow. What do you say? Shall we go afterbreakfast, and take a cold dinner with us, and spend the day under thetrees at the corner of the meadow? Then we can watch the haymakers, andHenry can read the books whilst you and his sisters are sewing."

  "Oh, do let us go! do let us go!" said the children; "do, mamma, sayyes."

  "With all my heart, my dears," said Mrs. Fairchild.

  The next morning early the children got everything ready to go into thePrimrose Meadow. They had each of them a little basket, with a lid toit, in which they packed up their work and the new books; and, as soonas the family had breakfasted, they all set out for the PrimroseMeadow: Mr. Fairchild, with a book in his pocket for his own reading;Mrs. Fairchild, with her work-bag hanging on her arm; Betty, with abasket of bread and meat and a cold fruit-pie; and the children withtheir work-baskets and Emily's doll, for the little girls seldom wentout without their doll. The Primrose Meadow was not a quarter of a milefrom Mr. Fairchild's house: you had only the corner of a little copseto pass through before you were in it. It was called the PrimroseMeadow because every spring the first primroses in the neighbourhoodappeared on a sunny bank in that meadow. A little brook of very clearwater ran through the meadow, rippling over the pebbles; and there weremany alders growing by the water-side.

  The people were very busy making hay in the meadow when Mr. Fairchildand his family arrived. Mrs. Fairchild sat down under the shade of alarge oak-tree which grew in the corner of the coppice, and Lucy andHenry, with Emily, placed themselves by her. The little girls pulledout their work, and Henry the new books. Mr. Fairchild took his book toa little distance, that he might not be disturbed by Henry's reading,and he stretched himself upon a green bank.

  "Now, mamma," said Henry, "are you ready to hear my story? And have youdone fidgeting, sisters?" For Lucy and Emily had been bustling to makea bed for their doll in the grass with their pocket-handkerchiefs.

  "Brother," answered Lucy, "we are quite ready to hear you--read away;there is nothing now to disturb you, unless you find fault with thelittle birds who are chirping with all their might in these trees, andthose bees which are buzzing amongst the flowers in the grass."

  "First," said Henry, "look at the picture at the beginning of thebook--the picture of the funeral going through the churchyard."

  "Let me see, brother," said Emily.

  "Why, you have seen it several times," said Henry; "and now I want toread."

  "Still, my dear," said Mrs. Fairchild, "you might oblige your sister.Good manners and civility make everybody lovely. Have you forgottenMrs. Goodriche's story of Master Bennet?"

  Henry immediately got up, and showed his sister the picture, afterwhich he sat down again and began to read the story in Emily's book.

  "_Henry reads the story._"--Page 91.]