MARCH 16: The Naughty Colds
Mr. and Mrs. Cold were having a very good time. Now, when most people have a good time it means that they’re playing or singing or laughing or dancing or reading or hearing music.
Perhaps it means they’re having a party of some sort, or perhaps it may mean they’re in swimming or having a picnic. Oh, there are lots and lots of ways of having good times as every one knows.
But when Mr. and Mrs. Cold have a good time it is something very different from what we mean by a good time. In the first place, Mr. and Mrs. Cold are very disagreeable people. They have always been disagreeable. Their daddy and mother were the same way, and as for Aunt Grippe and their Uncle Bronchitis—well, they’re horrid old creatures, I can tell you.
Mr. and Mrs. Cold have very mean children, too. There is Sadie Sneeze, for example. She has the worst sort of a disposition! She just loves to plague people and make them as uncomfortable as she can.
Then there is Charlie Cough. He likes to hurt creatures. You can just imagine how mean he is. And there is Susy Sore Throat, and Hatty Headache. They are all children of Mr. and Mrs. Cold.
“Let’s go on a trip,” they said to the children.
“All right,” said the children. They always agree to go a-traveling, and the worst thing about them is that they have many cousins andrelations, and their cousins and relations are just as busy a-traveling as they are!
“I think,” said Mrs. Cold, “we’ll go and call on a little girl named Annette. She is such a nice little girl, I’d like to make her feel uncomfortable. Let’s give her a good dose of us.”
And the Cold children clapped their hands.
“Is she nice?” they said. And when their mother and daddy said:
“Oh, she is wonderfully nice,” they were just overjoyed. That is how mean they are. They love to be horrid to nice, nice boys and girls and grown-ups!
So they picked up their suitcases with plenty of Sadie Sneeze’s best frocks, and plenty of Charlie Cough’s extra neckties, and lots of Hatty Headache’s hair ribbons and Susy Sore Throat’s collars and off they went. Their hair ribbons and collars and dresses aren’t like nice children’s, for they are mean like themselves!
“Oh, please,” said Annette, when they all arrived, “I didn’t ask you to come and see me. I don’t need you. I have a nice daddy and a nice mother all of my own. I don’t want Mr. and Mrs. Cold, and I have two nice brothers, and I don’t want any others, or even any sisters. Please go away.”
But the Cold family paid no attention. They were so mean they liked being where they weren’t wanted.
But the time passed and the dream king found out that Annette had some horrid visitors. The dream king hurried to tell the fairy queen about it.
“Did you ever hear of such rudeness and such unkindness as that horrible Cold family show?” he said.
“We’ll put a stop to this, Dream King,” said the fairy queen. “Thank you for telling me. I know that little girl Annette. Yes, I know her well. She has golden hair and fair skin and blue eyes. And she lives in a city house. Ah, yes, I know her. Just like that horrid Cold family to go and bother some one who is nice!”
The fairy queen set to work. She called together all her assistants and they hurried to Annette’s house when she was fast asleep.
They gave the Cold family a good talking to and they waved their wands over Annette so that the Cold family were driven away.
And in the meantime the old dream king had told the dream fairies about Annette and they made up the most wonderful package of dreams, lovely dreams sent to her as she was getting all, all well again. But the dream king himself made up this poem for her:
“Annette is so nice, Annette is so sweet,Just Annette herself is a great big treat!”
“Annette is so nice, Annette is so sweet,Just Annette herself is a great big treat!”
“Annette is so nice, Annette is so sweet,Just Annette herself is a great big treat!”
“Annette is so nice, Annette is so sweet,
Just Annette herself is a great big treat!”