CHAPTER II
LITTLE SUSY'S SIX BIRTHDAYS.
CHAPTER II.
THE SECOND BIRTHDAY.
Susy lived three hundred and sixty-four days, and then came her second birthday.
I suppose you think she was very old indeed, if she had lived so many days.
But no, she was only two years old.
When she awoke, on this bright Tuesday morning, she was carried into her mamma's room; and her mamma took her right into her bed and gave her two birthday kisses, one on her mouth and one on her cheek.
Then Susy began to play with something.
What do you think it was?
Adoll?
No!
A kitty?
No! it was a little live baby! her own darling brother, Robbie!
He was about as many months old as Susy had lived years.
Susy loved him dearly.
She never cried when she saw her mamma take baby i» her arms and kiss
LITTLE SUSY'S SIX BIRTHDAYS.
? him.
She would have liked to take him in her own little arms.
By and by, her mamma said to her, "Susy! you are two years old to-day!'
Now Susy did not know what this meant, so she only smiled, and said, "Robbie! Robbie! you got two eyes!"
It was now time for Susy to be washed and dressed.
Her mamma did not do this for her now.
You know she had a little baby to take care of.
After breakfast Susy came to her mamma with an orange in her hand.
Her papa had given it to her.
Susy told her mamma it was a ball.
I suppose she could not say orange.
Her papa took the great Bible in his hand, and Susy knew she must sit still in her little chair.
She went all round the room before she could find it.
Then she sat down in it by her papa, and said to Robbie, " Baby, be 'till; papa say, be 'till.".
You see she could not say "still."
While her papa prayed Susy was playing with pins.
She did not know it was naughty to do so.
After prayers, she began to make a pretty baby-house in one corner of the room.
It was very pretty indeed.
But Susy thought she
LITTLE SUSY'S SIX BIRTHDAYS.
could make a better one; so she pulled it down, threw her toys all about the floor, and began again.
When she had played in this way more than an hour she began to feel tired.
Then her mamma thought it was time to give her her birthday present; so she put baby down upon the bed, and went into the closet and brought out alittle table.
It had a drawer in it, and Susy was so pleased when she saw that!
She thought she must say a big word now; so she lifted up her little hands and said, "Oh my! I 'tonished !" This made her mamma laugh, and she took down Susy's box of cups and saucers and placed them upon the table, and gave Susy a cracker, broken in small pieces; then Susy sat down at the table and began to make believe to pour out tea, and to eat the cracker.
Pretty soon she got up and offered Robbie a cup of tea; but Robbie did not take it.
Then Susy looked grieved, but soon she began to smile again, for her mamma took the tiny cup and drank all the tea there was in it. By this time Susy was very tired, and said she was going "aheep."
She could not say asleep.
So she went and
LITTLE SUSY'S SIX BIRTHDAYS.
stretched herself on a box and fell fast asleep.
Her mamma covered her up with one of Rob. bie's blankets.
Susy had taken a fancy to sleep on this box.
It was soft, and covered with chintz.
Some of Robbie's clothes were kept in it.
Little Susy slept two hours.
When she awoke her cheeks were very red, and she looked as sober and grave as a judge.
Her mamma had been making a new dress for her, but she knew it would not do to try it on now, because
Susy did not feel very pleasant.
Robbie was asleep, so his mamma took Susy in her arms and kissed her, and said, "Now we must cut paper babies."
So she began to cut rows of babies, and Susy grew bright and happy, and patted her kind mamma's face, saying, " Darling mamma!" over and over again.
It was snowing, or Susy would have had a nice walk.
She liked to see it snow.
She used to sit in her high chair at the window, watch the white flakes coming down, and try to catch them in he hands.
So, when she grew tired of playing with the babies her mamma took her to the
LITTLE SUSY'S SIX BIRTHDAYS.
window; but just then Susy's dinner was brought in.
I must tell you what it was.
There was a slice of toast, sprinkled with salt and covered with rich new milk.
Then there was a mealy potato and a small piece of boiled chicken.
So Susy ran to her little table, pulled off the cups and saucers, and made room for her dinner.
The toast was cut in little square pieces, and she ate that first.
She liked it very much.
Then she ate the chicken, and that tasted so good that she thought it would be a fine plan to cry for more.
But just as she was drawing her dear little face up into very ugly wrinkles her mamma came toward her and said, "Susy! do you want to go to the fair?"
Now Susy did not know what that meant, but she smiled and said she should like to go.
A lady had called for her in a carriage, so her mamma, as soon as Susy stopped eating, put on her new dress, and was going to finish dressing her, but Susy felt so happy and so refreshed by her dinner that she could-not keep still.
She kept running all about the room, making funny little courtesies, and saying, "How d'ye do,
LITTLE SUSY'S SIX BIRTHDAYS.
mamma?" and "Susy go away, leave mamma!"
At last her mamma caught the little witch ; and her coat and hat and mittens, and I don't know what not, were put on, and then away went Susy in the carriage with that kind friend who loved her so dearly.
When they got back from the fair it was beginning to grow dark a little.
Her mamma had kept running to the window and saying, "Oh, I wonder Susy does not come!"
Susy had her hands full of toys, and candy and cake.
She ran to kiss her dear mamma and Robbie, and offered all her candy to her papa, who thanked her and put it in his pocket.
He did not like to have Susy eat candy. And now it was time for bed.
But Susy was so full of fun that it was hard to hold her.
She ran and hid behind the great chair and crept under the bed, and laughed and shouted, and clapped her little hands, till at last she was tired out.
So then she came and stood still, and ate a little bit of toast, and pretty soon went to bed.
Her mamma put her to bed herself, and then she sat down by Robbie's cradle and sung to him:
LITTLE SUSY'S SIX BIRTHDAYS.
'* Sleep, sleep, sleep, little darlings !
Sleep, for your mother is nigh ; She, she watches your slumbers, Sees that no danger is nigh.
Sleep! sleep! sleep! sleep !
Sleep, for your mother is nigh !
"Sleep, sleep, sleep, little darlings, Sleep, for the angels are nigh !
They, they watch o'er your slumbers, See that no danger is nigh.
Sleep ! sleep! sleep! sleep!
Sleep, for the angels are nigh !
"Sleep, sleep, sleep, little darlings !
Sleep, for the Savior is nigh!
He, he watches your slumbers, Sees that no danger is nigh.
Sleep! sleep! sleep! sleep !
Sleep, for the Savior is nigh !