A PET READER

by

EDITH WILHELMINA LAWSON, A.B.

Primary Teacher, Rockford (Ill.) Public Schools
Author of Better Health for Little Americans

Illustrated by
Ludwig and Regina
and Leone Schwem

BECKLEY-CARDY COMPANY
CHICAGO

Copyright, 1926
By Beckley-Cardy Company
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America

THE STORIES

Kindness to Animals

Little children, never give

Pain to things that feel and live.

Let the gentle robin come

For the crumbs you save at home.

As his meat you throw along,

He’ll repay you with a song.

Never hurt the timid hare,

Peeping from her green grass lair;

Let her come and sport and play

On the lawn at close of day.

The little lark goes soaring high

To the bright windows of the sky,

Singing as if ’twere always spring

And fluttering on an untired wing.

Oh! let him sing his happy song,

Nor do these gentle creatures wrong.

Our Pets

Boys and girls, do you like pets?

Have you any pets?

Thirteen children in our room have pets.

Marion has a little kitten.

Fred has a cat, a little dog, and eight puppies.

A little puppy is Helen’s pet.

Edwin has a mother cat and a baby kitten.

Leslie’s father has a fox and a little rabbit.

Frances has a pet chicken.

Edna has a little billy goat.

Norman has a pet cat.

Eight little chickens are Lucile’s pets.

The children love their pets.

They try to take good care of their pets.

We are going to tell you about our pets.

We shall tell you about other pets, too.

We hope that you will enjoy reading about them.

A Little Dog

I have a little dog,

With soft, long hair that curls,

And bright, black, sparkling eyes—

And he loves little girls.

He never barks or bites,

His temper is so mild,

And he dearly loves to play

With every little child.

My Dog

My dog plays with me.

He plays with the grass, too.

Sometimes he barks at me.

My dog licks my hand.

That is the way he tells me that he likes me.

Once, when I went to school, my puppy ran after me.

He tore my dress.

When I play with my jacks, my puppy takes them.

My dog is a very good playmate.

Other Dogs

I like my own dog, but I like other dogs, too.

I know one dog that carries a package of meat in his mouth.

Another dog tries to catch a ball.

When a boy throws a ball, the puppy runs after it.

One naughty dog chases rabbits and squirrels.

Spot pulls a little wagon.

Pet likes to cuddle down in the clothes basket.

Lassie digs holes in the garden.

Dogs and puppies do many interesting things.

A True Dog Story

This is a true story.

My mother told it to me.

When Earl was a little baby, his father had a dog.

Earl used to run away from home.

One day he went down to the railroad tracks.

The dog saw him and followed.

Later, the dog walked ahead of Earl.

Earl did not know the way home.

So the dog showed him the way home.

Earl followed the dog and so found the way home again.

My Uncle’s Dog

My Uncle Frank was a soldier.

He had an army dog.

The dog’s name was Buster.

Buster learned how to do many things.

He knew how to mind quickly.

When Uncle told him to pick up a stick, he did it at once.

He would pick up a bat, too.

My uncle had the dog for a long time.

A Little Doggy

I had a little doggy

That used to sit and beg;

But doggy tumbled down the stairs

And broke his little leg.

Oh! doggy, I will nurse you,

And try to make you well,

And you shall have a collar

With a little silver bell.

Harriet and the Dog

Harriet is little girl two years old.

One day in June her mother was giving her a ride in the carriage.

Harriet saw a little dog.

The dog ran after the automobiles and tried to catch them.

When Harriet saw this, she turned to her mother and said, “Dog chase car.”

The dog chased other cars, too.

Harriet thought it was great fun to watch the dog do this.

She enjoyed watching the dog chase the cars.

The dog, too, had a good time.

Ben

Ben is a little pet dog.

He lives in a brick house near our school.

One day the man who owned him was out in the yard.

He had a big football.

A leather strap was fastened to this ball.

The man threw the ball.

He said, “Ben, get the ball.”

Ben ran and got the ball.

He carried the ball by the leather strap.

He brought it back to his master.

One time the ball hit the dog on the head.

Then the dog rolled over on the ground.

He ran after the ball many, many times.

But after a while the man said, “This is the last time.”

He took the ball and went into the house.

He said, “Come on, Ben.”

The dog obeyed his master and followed him into the house.

I wish that I had a dog like that.

Do you?

Donald’s Pet Dog

Donald had a pet dog.

His name was Ted.

One day Ted ran away.

He stayed away for a long time.

Then one day he came back.

He was glad to be home again.

But Donald was afraid that Ted might run away again.

So, at first, he tied him to a long clothes line.

Soon he noticed that the dog was panting.

Then he took him to the garden.

He filled a pail with fresh water.

Ted was very thirsty.

He drank and drank.

Ted was grateful to his master for the cool drink of water.

He looked up at Donald and wagged his tail as if he were saying, “Thank you.”

A Brave Dog

I read this story in a newspaper.

It was midnight.

The people were all fast asleep.

The house was burning.

A pet dog saw the smoke, and knew there was a fire.

The dog barked and barked,

until he awoke all the people.

He saved the lives of all the people.

He saved the life of a baby, too.

But the dog himself was so badly burned that he died.

The people buried him

in a little grave in a back yard.

They will never forget this brave dog.

Pal

One day in April we drove to a farmhouse.

The farmer had a little puppy only three weeks old.

He was brown and white.

We bought the dog for ten dollars.

We brought him home in a little basket.

Now he lives at our house.

We feed him toast and milk.

He is still a puppy.

Sometimes he is very naughty.

He even goes into our beautiful pansy bed.

But he is slowly learning how to behave.

His name is Pal.

When he grows up, he will be a big, beautiful collie.

“Doggy, You Must Promise”

Oh, doggy, you must promise

(And mind your word you keep),

Not once to tease the little lambs,

Or run among the sheep;

And then the little yellow chicks

That play upon the grass,

You must not even wag your tail

To scare them as you pass.

A Queer Mother Dog

I live on a farm, and own a dog named Happy.

One summer day I missed Happy.

I looked for her near the farmhouse, but could not find her.

Then I went out into the field.

Suddenly I came upon Happy.

I was so surprised when I found her.

She was playing “Mother.”

Guess who her children were!

They were not little puppies at all.

They were little rabbits.

I do not know where the mother rabbit was.

I never saw her.

But every day Happy would go into the field.

She watched to see that no harm should come to the little rabbits.

One day I heard Happy barking in the field.

When I came near, I found that she was barking because the rabbits had disappeared.

Happy missed them very much, and for many days she seemed lonesome without her baby rabbits.

Now, was not Happy a queer mother dog?

One Little Dog

Four little doggies sit in a row—

Bow-wow, bow-wow-wow, all of them go.

Three little dogs can add to the fun,

Two little dogs are better than one,

But one little dog is better than none.

Spot

When I go to school, my dog Spot follows me.

I try to get him to go back home.

I say to him, “Spot, go home!”

But he wants to say “Good-by” to me.

He lifts his paw as if he wished to shake hands and say “Good-by.”

I shake his paw and then Spot goes home.

When he sees my mother, he barks.

I think he wants to tell my mother that I have gone to school.

When my sister and I come home from school, Spot is so glad that he runs to meet us.

When my father comes home, Spot says “Bow, wow!”

That is his way of saying “Hello.”

A Loving Friend

Ah! doggy, don’t you think

That you should very faithful be,

For having such a loving friend

To comfort you as me?

And when the school is over,

And we can run and play,

We’ll have a scamper in the fields

And see them making hay.

The Dog and the Frog

One day my dog Jip went out into the garden.

A frog came into the garden, too.

Jip had never seen a frog.

Perhaps the frog had never seen a dog.

So Jip and the frog were both surprised.

Of course the frog was much smaller than Jip.

I thought that the frog would be frightened.

But he didn’t seem to be.

He just looked at Jip and blinked his eyes.

Jip looked at the frog, too.

He really wanted to touch the frog.

But Jip was afraid of the little frog, and ran back to the house.

I didn’t believe that Jip would be such a coward.

I was ashamed of him.

The Story of a Dog and a Cat

One day I was out in our back yard.

I was making a bird house.

While I was working, I noticed a dog and a cat.

The dog started to chase the cat.

The cat put up her back, and ran away quickly.

At first she ran in a zigzag way.

Then she got on a fence.

Next she jumped upon the barn near the fence.

The dog barked and barked.

The cat was badly frightened.

She almost fell off the barn roof.

She slid part way down, but caught herself on a shingle.

The dog walked round and round.

He must have wanted to make the cat dizzy.

After a while, the dog gave up trying to make the cat come down.

He went away.

Then the cat came down.

I picked up the poor kitty and petted her until she went to sleep on my lap.

Why can not dogs and cats be friends like little boys and girls?

Kitty didn’t know—neither did I.

The Dog’s Food

I feed my dog.

After we have eaten our meal, we give doggy the food that is left.

We always put his food on a saucer.

Then doggy eats the food.

Dogs like meat and bones.

Our dog drinks milk, too.

My puppy is fond of bread and milk.

I saw one dog eat some salmon.

A dog named Sport eats potatoes.

Another dog, Skip, eats candy.

He likes candy as well as I like it.

One dog eats oatmeal.

I think he knows that oatmeal is good for him.

Still another dog likes apples.

My sister’s dog eats cornflakes.

One dog even likes beans.

Once we saw a dog eating popcorn.

Some dogs have to hunt their own food.

But most dogs are fed by people who give them good food.

All dogs should have water to drink and good food to eat.

We take good care of our pet dogs.

We feed them every day.

Willing to Help

Six little mice sat down to spin,