Captain Horace   By: Sophie May (1833-1906)

[Illustration: CAPTAIN HORACE.]

[Illustration]

LITTLE PRUDY'S STORIES.

BY SOPHIE MAY

ILLUSTRATED

LITTLE PRUDY'S CAPTAIN HORACE.

LEE & SHEPARD BOSTON

LITTLE PRUDY SERIES.

CAPTAIN HORACE.

BY

SOPHIE MAY.

BOSTON 1893 LEE AND SHEPARD PUBLISHERS 10 MILK STREET NEXT "THE OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE"

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by LEE & SHEPARD, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY REBECCA S. CLARKE.

LITTLE PRUDY'S CAPTAIN HORACE.

TO

MY LITTLE NEPHEW

WILLY WHEELER.

FROM HIS AFFECTIONATE

AUNT.

PREFACE.

You wide awake little boys, who make whistles of willow, and go fishing and training, Horace is very much like you, I suppose. He is by no means perfect, but he is brave and kind, and scorns a lie. I hope you and he will shake hands and be friends.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. MAKING CANDY, 5

II. CAMPING OUT, 15

III. TAKING A JOURNEY, 33

IV. AT GRANDPA PARLIN'S, 49

V. CAPTAIN OF A COMPANY, 68

VI. SUSY AND PRUDY, 87

VII. IN THE WOODS, 99

VIII. CAPTAIN CLIFFORD, 117

IX. THE BLUE BOOK, 128

X. TRYING TO GET RICH, 141

XI. THE LITTLE INDIAN, 149

XII. A PLEASANT SURPRISE, 167

CAPTAIN HORACE.

CHAPTER I.

MAKING CANDY.

Grace and Horace Clifford lived in Indiana, and so were called "Hoosiers."

Their home, with its charming grounds, was a little way out of town, and from the front windows of the house you could look out on the broad Ohio, a river which would be very beautiful, if its yellow waters were only once settled. As far as the eye could see, the earth was one vast plain, and, in order to touch it, the sky seemed to stoop very low; whereas, in New England, the gray headed mountains appear to go up part way to meet the sky.

One fine evening in May, brown eyed Horace and blue eyed Grace stood on the balcony, leaning against the iron railing, watching the stars, and chatting together.

One thing is very sure: they never dreamed that from this evening their sayings and doings particularly Horace's were to be printed in a book. If any one had whispered such a thing, how dumb Horace would have grown, his chin snuggling down into a hollow place in his neck! and how nervously Grace would have laughed! walking about very fast, and saying,

"O, it's too bad, to put Horace and me in a book! I say it's too bad! Tell them to wait till my hair is curled, and I have my new pink dress on! And tell them to make Horace talk better! He plays so much with the Dutch boys. O, Horace isn't fit to print!"

This is what she might have said if she had thought of being "put in a book;" but as she knew nothing at all about it, she only stood very quietly leaning against the balcony railing, and looking up at the evening sky, merry with stars.

"What a shiny night, Horace! What do the stars look like? Is it diamond rings?"

"I'll tell you, Gracie; it's cigars they look like just the ends of cigars when somebody is smoking."

At that moment the cluster called the "Seven Sisters" was drowned in a soft, white cloud.

"Look," said Grace; "there are some little twinkles gone to sleep, all tucked up in a coverlet. I don't see what makes you think of dirty cigars! They look to me like little specks of gold harps ever so far off, so you can't hear the music. O, Horace, don't you want to be an angel, and play on a beautiful harp?"

"I don't know," said her brother, knitting his brows, and thinking a moment; "when I can't live any longer, you know, then I'd like to go up to heaven; but now, I'd a heap sooner be a soldier !"

"O, Horace, you'd ought to rather be an angel! Besides, you're too little for a soldier!"