Sandman's Goodnight Stories Part 13

Sallie looked at the forefinger all wrapped about with the white cloth, and she thought how dreadful it would be to have her finger big and long as it looked now. Then she looked at Grandmother Great again and her eyes seemed to be looking right at that little burnt forefinger.

Sallie put her right hand behind her, but the eyes of Grandmother Great looked right at Sallie.

Sallie winked her eyes and looked again, for she thought her Grandmother Great smiled at her. Sallie looked hard at the picture, and Grandmother Great seemed to shake her head at Sallie.

"Didn't your little girl ever do anything naughty with her forefinger?"

asked Sallie.

Grandmother Great smiled. "I had several little girls once, but they were all good little girls," said Grandmother Great.

"Always, every bit of the time?" questioned Sallie.

"Yes; I cannot remember now that they ever did anything naughty," said Grandmother Great. "But you know, dear, it was a long time ago. I had my little girls a very long time ago."

"Perhaps you forget when it is a long time ago," said Sallie. "Didn't your little girls ever put their forefinger in anything just to taste it?"

"Oh dear, yes; I remember now that your grandmother did put her forefinger, the right-hand forefinger it was, too, in the wheel of the wringer once to see what would happen," said Grandmother Great.

"Did she cry?" asked Sallie.

"Oh dear, yes, poor little girlie; she cried, and I was so frightened I cried, too. Her poor little finger never grew quite as it should at the end," said Grandmother Great, with a sigh.

"Do mothers cry when little girls get burnt putting their fingers into things they should not?" asked Sallie.

"Of course they do, my dear. Mothers have many a cry over their little girls when they are naughty," said Grandmother Great.

"I don't want mother to cry," said Sallie.

"Of course you don't, my dear," said Grandmother Great. "So you will not put your finger in anything again, will you?"

Before Sallie could promise her Grandmother Great she would be a good little girl she heard some one say, "Sallie, Sallie, come to lunch."

Sallie opened her eyes, for she had been asleep, dreaming all this time, and there stood her mother in the doorway.

"Mother, do mothers forget how naughty their little girls were when they grow up?" asked Sallie.

"I think so," said her mother. "I hope you will be so good before you grow up that I shall forget how naughty you were this morning."

"Grandmother Great told me mothers did forget their little girls were naughty ever, after they grew up," said Sallie.

"You mean your grandmother told you; not Grandmother Great," said Sallie's mother. "You never saw Grandmother Great, dear."

"Well, she told me so just now," said Sallie, "and she said, too, that grandmother put her finger in the wheel of the wringing machine once, and that she cried because grandmother, who was her little girl then, cried, and was hurt."

"What is the child talking about?" said Sallie's mother.

"She has been asleep and dreamed it," said Sallie's grandmother, taking Sallie in her arms. "I showed her my forefinger where it was hurt when I was a little girl and told her she must look out for her forefinger or she might get it terribly hurt just as I did.

"Did you think the picture of Grandmother Great spoke to you?" she asked Sallie, holding her close in her arms.

"She did," said Sallie, "and she said mothers always cried when their little girls are naughty. Oh, mother dear, I don't want to make you cry, and I won't put my finger in anything again, truly I won't!"

sobbed Sallie.

"She isn't half awake yet," said her grandmother as Sallie's mother took her in her arms and kissed her.

Sallie kept her promise, even if she did dream about Grandmother Great talking to her, and the right-hand forefinger did not get her into any more trouble.

Sallie Hicks often looks at the portraits in the hall of Grandmother and Grandfather Great, but Grandmother Great never has spoken to her since that day. But Sallie Hicks smiles at her and sometimes the eyes seem to smile back, and Sallie wonders if they really do.

THE RAIN ELVES

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Rain Elves]

The Rain Elf children had been shut up in their houses for ever so long, for it had been hot and the Rain Elves do not like very hot weather.

Their mothers, the Rain Clouds, awoke one morning and found the sun was not s.h.i.+ning, so they told their children they could drop down and play on the Earth awhile.

"Now, mind you, do not all go. Part of you can go at a time, because there are so many, many millions of you; the poor Earth would be quite overcome if all the Rain Elves went down at once."

So a few from each family of the Rain Cloud's children went out the door as their mothers opened it and down they dropped upon the dry Earth.

Oh, the gardens were so glad to see them! The flowers lifted their drooping heads and smiled a glad welcome. "Where have you been?" they asked. "It is so long since you were here we thought you had forgotten us."

"Oh no, we didn't forget you!" replied the Rain Elves, "but it has been so hot our mothers would not let us come out. We can stay but a little while, because we have many, many millions of brothers that want to come down to the garden, too; so we will have to go back, and the next shower will bring some of the others."

The little flowers were grieved when they heard this, for they were so dusty and thirsty they felt they could never get enough of the s.h.i.+ning little Elves.

"What shall we do to keep them here?" they whispered among themselves.

"If they go back to the clouds, perhaps the others will not come. Oh, if the old Wind Witch would only come along she might help us."

"She might get us all into trouble also," said a slender lily. "I think we better trust the Rain Cloud mothers to do what they think best."

But poor little lily's words were not noticed and a tall hollyhock was asked to find old Wind Witch and request her to help them keep the Rain Elves all day.

The old Wind Witch laughed with glee when she heard the request, for she saw a chance to work mischief and make it appear she was trying to do good.

"Tell the pretty flowers they shall have the Rain Elves all day, and their brothers, too," she said to the hollyhock, and off she flew up to the Rain Cloud homes.

She went about the clouds very carefully and gently, for she knew if the Rain Cloud mothers heard her they would call their children home; but by and by she saw her chance, and while the Rain Cloud mothers were busy she softly opened the door of each cloud one by one and beckoned to the Rain Elves.

"Run along quickly," she said. "Your brothers are having such a fine time they have quite forgotten you; they will not be back today, so run along and be merry with them."

The little Rain Elves did not stop to think they should wait for their mothers to tell them when to go, they were so eager to get out.

Down they went quite gently at first with a patter, patter, pat, and then they quite lost their heads, thinking of the fun they would have, and down they dropped, splash, splash, splash.