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Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith, 1856-1923

"A Summer in a Canyon"


It looked simple enough:-
1. The grass is dry.
2. The fruit is ripe.
3: The chaparral is green.
4. The new road is all right.
5. The bay-'rum' tree is fresh and pretty.
But as no Chinaman can pronounce the letter 'r,' it was laboriously
rendered thus, when the unhappy time of the lesson came:
1. The-glass-is-dly.
2. The-fluit-is-lipe.
3. The-chap-lal-is-gleen.
4. The-new-load-is-all-light-ee.
5. The bay-lum-tlee-is-flesh-and-plitty.
Finally, when she attempted to introduce the sentence, 'Around the
rough and rugged rock the ragged rascal ran,' Hop Yet rose hurriedly,
remarking, 'All lightee; I go no more school jus' now. I lun get
lunchee.'
Bell came running down the path just then, and linking her arm in
Polly's said, 'Papa has the nicest plan. You know the boys are so
disappointed that Colonel Jackson didn't ask them over to that rodeo
at his cattle ranch--though a summer rodeo is only to sort out fat
cattle to sell, and it is not very exciting; but papa promised to
tell them all about the old-fashioned kind some night, and he has
just remembered that to-morrow is Admission Day, September 9, so he
proposes a real celebration round the camp-fire to amuse Elsie. She
doesn't know anything about California even as it is now, and none of
us know what it was in the old days. Don't you think it will be
fun?'
'Perfectly splendid!'
'And papa wants us each to contribute something.'
'A picnic!--but I don't know anything.


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