sends them to sea.
And, nestled high up on her sheltering lap,
Is a little red house, with a little straw cap
That bears a blue feather of smoke, curling high,
And a bunch of red roses cocked over one eye.

I have tried here to draw the Little Red House for you as well as I
can; and it isn't my fault if it happens to look just a little like
somebody's face. I can't help it, can I? if the stones of the door-step
look something like teeth, or if the climbing roses make the windows
look like a funny pair of spectacles. And if Emily Ann will hang bib
fluffy bobs on the window blinds for tassels, and if they swing about
in the breeze like moving eyes, well, I am not to blame, am I? It
just happens. The only thing I am sorry for is that I couldn't get
the big Blue-gum into the picture. Of course, I could have drawn it
quite easily, but it was too big.

Sym and Emily Ann were fond of the Little Red House, and you may be
sure the Little Red House was fond of them--he was their home. The
only thing that bothered him was that they were sometimes away from
home, and then he was miserable, like all empty houses.

Now, Sym was a tinker--a travelling tinker. He would do a little
gardening and farming at home for a while, and then go off about the
country for a few days, mending people's pots and pans and kettles.
Usually Sym left Emily Ann at home to keep the Little Red House
company, but now and then Emily Ann went with Sym for a trip, and
then the Little Red House was very sad indeed.

One morning, just as the sun was peeping over the edge of the world,
the big Blue-gum woke up and stretched his limbs and waited for the
Little Red House to say "Good morning." The Blue-gum always waited
for the greeting because he was the older, and he liked to have
proper respect shown to him by young folk, but the Little Red House
didn't say a word.

The big Blue-gum waited and waited; but the Little Red House wouldn't
speak.

After a while the Blue-gum said rather crossly, "You seem to be out
of sorts this morning."

But the Little Red House wouldn't say a word.

"You certainly do seem as if you had a pain somewhere," said the
Blue-gum. "And you look funny. You ought to see yourself!"

"Indeed?" snapped the Little Red House, raising his eyebrows just as
a puff of wind went by. "I can't always be playing the fool, like
some people."

"I've lived on this mountain, tree and sapling, for over a hundred
years," replied the big Blue-gum