Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 9, 2025
"I wonder what it's going to be," Marmaduke repeated. Jehosophat was pretty sure he knew. "I'll bet it's a boat," he said. The Toyman chuckled. "Right you are, Son. It's the Good Ship well, let's see. All boats have a name, you know. What do you think would be a good name for a fine ship?" Jehosophat had one, right on the tip of his tongue. "The Arrow." The Toyman thought this over.
And that was the finest present any boy could have ever. The name was a very important matter. The boys each had a dozen they could think of, but Mother and Father and the Toyman couldn't think of any. At least they wouldn't give any suggestions. They thought it was Jehosophat's right to name his own pony. It was settled at last, "Little Geeup." Where-ever Jehosophat got that name nobody knew.
But not now, for Mother had explained it was very bad manners. And Jehosophat and Marmaduke were trying hard to be "Little Gentlemen," and to show Hepzebiah a "Good Example." Of course, just as Mother had expected, when she suggested all this, Marmaduke asked, "But how can a girl be a Little Gentleman?" Mother made it clear.
There were so many of them, boys and girls from the neighborhood all around! Some were at the top, and some at the bottom, and some in the middle, sliding merrily down. When the Three Happy Children reached the top of the hill the Toyman cried: "I'll sit in front to steer and hold little Hepzebiah. You boys sit in back, Jehosophat at the end, and hold on to the grips."
She kicked at Jehosophat and over went the pail of milk which his father had almost full. The children like to see their father and Frank sit on their three-legged stools in the stalls and milk the cows. The milk spurts into the pails and it sounds very pleasant. The milk is very warm when it comes from the cows so Farmer Green puts it in great cans as tall as Jehosophat.
And this is the piece they made of it you never would have recognized poor Casabianca at all: "The boy stood on the burning deck Eating peanuts by the peck. His father called, he would not go Because he loved his peanuts so!!!" "Stop," yelled Jehosophat, "that isn't it at all."
So she kissed them good-night and tucked them under the coverlids as they had covered the tiny seeds in their brown beds. Jehosophat, Marmaduke, and Hepzebiah were very happy as they watched the fairy story of the flowers. They were happier still because they helped it grow. But of course that did not take all of their time.
But that was the least of Jehosophat's worries. He had been given a piece to learn to recite before a big crowd! It was poetry all about a boy who had stuck by his ship and gone down with it, too. The piece was called by the boy's name a queer sort of word Casabianca. If the piece was as hard as its name, Jehosophat thought he never would learn it.
Still she didn't care what she was called as long as she could sail on that fine ship. So they sailed and they sailed, the white flag with the skull and the dead men's bones floating merrily in the breeze. And at last Dick Deadeye called, "Cracky! Look where we are! You'd better go back. Remember what the Toyman told us." But Captain Jehosophat Kidd knew better. "Pshaw! It isn't deep at all.
This is the way it began: That morning Jehosophat had gone with the Toyman to Sawyer's Mill over on Wally's Creek. Marmaduke felt lonely, for there was nobody but Hepzebiah to play with, and she wouldn't leave her dolls, and he had long ago gotten past playing with them. As he was wandering forlornly around the barnyard, wondering what he could do, he heard a shout over by the Miller farm.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking