Broad Street. Nor had I ever ridden in a railway carriage before that
happy birthday.
I ran about the house, talking of where I was going, and rejoicing so
that it was my birthday, that when I got into the train I was tired,
and fell asleep.
When I awoke, I saw green fields on both sides of the train, and the
fields were full, quite full, of bright, shining, yellow flowers, and
the sheep and young lambs were feeding among them. The trees and
hedges seemed to fly swiftly by us, and one field, and the sheep, and
the lambs passed away. Then another field came, and that was full of
cows. There was no end of these charming sights until we came to
grandmamma's house, which stood all alone by itself, no house to be
seen at all near it.
Grandmamma was very glad to see me. She first took me to the farmyard,
and I peeped into the barn. There I saw a man thrashing, and as he
beat the corn with his flail he made a great noise. Then I went to the
pond where the ducks were swimming, and I saw the little wooden houses
where the hens slept at night. The hens were feeding all over the
yard, and the prettiest little chickens were feeding there too. Some
little yellow ducklings had a hen for their mother. She was so
frightened if they went near the water. Grandmamma says a hen is not
esteemed a very wise bird.
We went out of the farmyard into the orchard. Oh, what a sweet place
grandmamma's orchard is! There were pear-trees, and apple-trees, and
peach-trees all in blossom. These blossoms were the prettiest flowers
that ever were seen; and among the grass under the trees there grew
buttercups, and cowslips, and daffodils, and blue-bells. I filled my
lap with flowers, I filled my hair with flowers, and I carried as many
flowers as I could in both my hands. But as I was going into the
parlor to show them to mamma, I stumbled, and down I fell with all my
treasures!
Next, there was a most wonderful garden to see, long and narrow, a
straight gravel path down the middle of it, and at the end of the
gravel walk there was a green arbor with a bench around it.
On one side of this garden there were a great many bee hives, and the
bees sung as they worked. They had a beautiful flower-bed to gather
their honey from, quite close to the hives.
After seeing the garden, I saw the cows milked, and that was the last
sight I saw that day, for while I was telling mamma about the cows I
fell fast asleep, and I suppose I was then put to bed.
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