Mother Carey's Chickens eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 276 pages of information about Mother Carey's Chickens.

Mother Carey's Chickens eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 276 pages of information about Mother Carey's Chickens.

  On waking I can
  Pray for Gilly and Nan;
  Eat breakfast at seven. 
  Or ten or eleven,
  Nor think when it’s noon
  That luncheon’s too soon. 
  From twelve until one
  I can munch on a bun. 
  At one or at two
  My dinner’ll be due. 
  At three, say, or four,
  I’ll eat a bit more. 
  When the clock’s striking five
  Some mild exercise,
  Very brief, would be wise,
  Lest I lack appetite
  For my supper at night. 
  Don’t go to bed late,
  Eat a light lunch at eight,
  Nor forget to say prayers
  For my cousins downstairs. 
  Then with conscience like mine
  I’ll be sleeping at nine.

Mrs. Carey had a sense of humor, and when the weeping Julia brought the two documents to her for consideration she had great difficulty in adjusting the matter gravely and with due sympathy for her niece.

“The F-f-f-fergusons never mentioned my appetite,” Julia wailed.  “They were always trying to g-g-get me to eat!”

“Gilbert and Nancy are a little too fond of fun, and a little too prone to chaffing,” said Mrs. Carey.  “They forget that you are not used to it, but I will try to make them more considerate.  And don’t forget, my dear, that in a large family like ours we must learn to ‘live and let live.’”

XIV

WAYS AND MEANS

It was late June, and Gilbert had returned from school, so the work of making the Yellow House attractive and convenient was to move forward at once.  Up to now, the unpacking and distribution of the furniture, with the daily housework and cooking, had been all that Mrs. Carey and the girls could manage.

A village Jack-of-all-trades, Mr. Ossian Popham, generally and familiarly called “Osh” Popham, had been called in to whitewash existing closets and put hooks in them; also, with Bill Harmon’s consent, to make new ones here and there in handy corners.  Dozens of shelves in odd spaces helped much in the tidy stowing away of household articles, bed-clothing, and stores.  In the midst of this delightful and cheery setting-to-rights a letter arrived from Cousin Ann.  The family was all sitting together in Mrs. Carey’s room, the announced intention being to hold an important meeting of the Ways and Means Committee, the Careys being strong on ways and uniformly short on means.

The arrival of the letters by the hand of Bill Harmon’s boy occurred before the meeting was called to order.

“May I read Cousin Ann’s aloud?” asked Nancy, who had her private reasons for making the offer.

“Certainly,” said Mrs. Carey unsuspectingly, as she took up the inevitable stocking.  “I almost wish you had all been storks instead of chickens; then you would always have held up one foot, and perhaps that stocking, at least, wouldn’t have had holes in it!”

“Poor Muddy!  I’m learning to darn,” cried Kathleen, kissing her.

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Project Gutenberg
Mother Carey's Chickens from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.