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"New National Fourth Reader"



Away, away in the Northland,
Where the hours of the day are few,
And the nights are so long in winter,
They can not sleep them through;
Where they harness the swift reindeer
To the sledges when it snows;
And the children look like bear's cubs,
In their funny, furry clothes:
They tell them a curious story--
I don't believe 'tis true;
And yet you may learn a lesson
If I tell the tale to you.
Once, when the good Saint Peter
Lived in the world below,
And walked about it, preaching,
Just as he did, you know;
He came to the door of a cottage,
In traveling round the earth,
Where a little woman was making cakes,
In the ashes on the hearth.
And being faint with fasting--
For the day was almost done--
He asked her, from her store of cakes,
To give him a single one.
So she made a very little cake,
But as it baking lay,
She looked at it and thought it seemed
Too large to give away.
Therefore she kneaded another,
And still a smaller one;
But it looked, when she turned it over,
As large as the first had done.


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