JUNE 6: The Green Canoe
“I think I will tell you about a very lucky little girl who once received a canoe from her big brother,” said daddy.
“This little girl loved the water. She had always lived near a lake, and she could swim and row.
“Now, this little girl had a great big brother who worked in an office in the big city. He had only a short holiday every year—just two weeks—but during those two weeks he would come home and teach her new strokes in swimming and new ways of diving, for he was very anxious that no one should be able to excel his sister as a swimmer.
“And secretly he longed to give his sister a canoe so she could go on the water just as much as she wanted to, and, as she was such a good swimmer, he felt it would be perfectly safe for her to own one.
“But, of course, a canoe is quite expensive, and the heads of offices in the big city do not consider that the big brothers may want to buy their little sisters canoes with the money they earn. Perhaps they think it is very silly to even dream of such things as canoes. But slowly during the winter the big brother had saved just as much money as a canoe would cost, and in June he wrote his sister a little note.
“In the note he said that he had a ‘little present’ for her which he had had put in the cellar and that she would find it there if she went and looked.
“Now, the little girl could not for a moment imagine what kind of a present would be put in the cellar. But she hurried down to see.
“And there—right before her eyes—was a lovely big green canoe—just the very nicest shade of green—and there beside it were the two paddles. Well, she could hardly speak. She had never dreamed that she would own a canoe, or, anyway, not for years and years and years.
“On the canoe was printed ‘Indian Girl,’ but she at once named it Papoose, which means, you know, a little Indian baby.
“You see, her big brother had arranged that the canoe should be taken down into the cellar when the little girl was asleep, so the surprise would be perfect. And it certainly was!
“In another week the big brother came up from the city, and they spent all their time in the green canoe on the lake.”