E-text prepared by Greg Bergquist, Matthew Wheaton,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive/American Libraries
(http://archive.org/details/americana)
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/American Libraries. See http://archive.org/details/dooryardstories00pier |
Dooryard Stories
THE VERY RUDE YOUNG ROBINS.
DOORYARD STORIES
Illustrated by F. C. GORDON
NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY
31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
Copyright, 1903
BY
E. P. DUTTON & CO.
Published Sept., 1903
The Knickerbocker Press, New York
To
MY FATHER
WHO FIRST TAUGHT ME TO LOVE
MY DOORYARD FRIENDS
PREFACE
My Dear Little Friends:—These stories are of things which I have seenwith my own eyes in my own yard, and the people of whom I write are myfriends and near neighbors. Some of them, indeed, live under my roof,and Silvertip has long been a member of our family. So, you see, Ihave not had to do like some writers—sit down and think and think howto make the people act in their stories. These tales are of thingswhich have really happened, and all I have done is to write them downfor you.
Many of them have been told over and over again to my own little boy,and because he never tires of hearing of the time when Silvertip was aKitten, and about the Wasps who built inside my shutters, I think youmay care to hear also. He wants me to be sure to tell how the babySwift tumbled down the chimney into his bedroom, and wishes you mighthave seen it in the little nest we made. When I tell these tales tohim, I have great trouble in ending them, for there is never a timewhen he does not ask: “And what did he do then Mother?” But I amtelling you as much as I can of how everything happened, and if therewas more which I did not see and cannot describe, you will have tomake up the rest to suit yourselves.
Besides, you know, there is always much which one cannot see or hear,but which one knows is happening somewhere in this beautiful great