Nan & Ann in Manners Town

Chapter 1. Manners At Home

One evening Nan said, “Oh, Mother, may we go home with Aunt Matilda?” and Ann said, “Oh Mother, please say ‘y es ’*”

Before Mother could answer a word Aunt Matilda said,

“I want to take you up and down,

All the way through Manners Town.”

Nan giggled and Ann slid right off the sofa on to the floor, and both the Twins ran to Mother and threw their arms around her say¬ ing, “Do please say we can go home with Aunt 7

Matilda, do let us take the trip with her to Seattle and travel through Manners Town.”

Mother said, “How can I spare my Twins?”

Father said, “It will do the Twins good to take a journey, and perhaps they will come home with better manners after they have stopped off in Manners Town.”

Aunt Matilda was very full of fun and said with a merry twinkle in her eye, “Where is Mark?”

She did not explain that she had sent Mark downtown to buy something as a surprise for the Twins.

Just then Mark came in. He set something down in the hall and the Twins ran from the table without stopping to say, “Excuse me,” and Father winked at Mother and said, “I think we had better let the Twins go if Aunt Matilda will promise to take them through Manners Town.”

The Twins set up a shout, for Mark had brought each of them a traveling bag with their name engraved on the silver mounting.

These bags were a present from Aunt Matilda.

“Oh Mother, when can we start to pack?” cried the Twins with enthusiasm.

Mother said, “Dear me, will you always for¬ get your manners? We want Aunt Matilda to stay on with us a long time.”

Aunt Matilda laughed and said, “I must go anyway in two weeks, so you can pack your bags and unpack them several times before we start.”

Quite suddenly, without a bit of warning, a Polite Pixie appeared in the door remarking,

“To be polite if you really care,

I hope you’ll offer me a chair!”

The Twins were up and dressed by this time and were more than pleased to have a real Pixie with them.

The Polite Pixie said, “I have decided to go with you on the journey and I am not going to tell you how or where I shall hide, or when to expect to discover me. I really can manage to hide somewhere in your baggage of course.”

“What fun!” cried the Twins excitedly.

He said, “Little acts of courtesy are worth practising, because strangers judge you more by your manners than anything else.”

Suddenly the Polite Pixie began to sigh and it was seventeen minutes before he would tell what was the matter. Then he confided to the Twins that it was hard to tell them apart when they were dressed exactly alike, and had their hair bobbed exactly alike.

Nan’s eyes sparkled and she said, “I will have a band on my hair and Ann can wear her beads and then unless we exchange these decorations you will know us apart.”

“I have forgotten my manners quite It is time to say ‘Good night’.”

He disappeared and Nan said, “Oh Ann, I fear our Home Manners are really shocking.”

Ann said, “I wonder if our train manners, or street manners, will be any better. What fun it will be for the Pixie to go with us, I wonder where he will hide.”

What a busy time they had next day pack¬ ing their brand new traveling bags and their little steamer trunk.

Aunt Matilda was busy packing too for every hour it grew nearer, and nearer time for them to start.

Nan and Ann ran round the house saying, good-by to everything. They even ran down to the Little Log House where they had spent so many happy hours and shouted “good-by, good-by.”

Mother said the Twins could help put up a fine lunch and Father gave them some shining silver dollars and said they might go into the dining car as often as they liked for meals.

Old Sammy Slow-Coach asked if he was to take them to the train and all went merrily.

Mark said, “I wish I were going with you.”

Mother said to the Twins, “How I shall miss you, but I know you will have a wonderful journey.”

The Twins hugged Mother and said, “We intend to write letters every day and we will have a wonderful journey through Manners Town.”

Just then they heard the Polite Pixie, though they could not see him and he said,

“Nan and Ann I really presume,

There are good manners for every room.”

My ! how the Twins had tossed their things about. They ran now and picked up books and wraps and plaything's.

They said, “Do you suppose there are bed¬ room manners, and bath-room manners, and parlor manners, and kitchen manners? What a very interesting world we are living in.”

The day finally came for the Twins to start on their journey with Aunt Matilda, and Sammy Slow-Coach drove them all to the sta¬ tion in the old-fashioned victoria and there on the platform, to see them off were their old friends.

“Good-by,” called Eager Ed and Thought¬ less Ted, and even Betty Behind-Hand came running all out of breath to wave a last good-by.

The Twins said, “We thought the Polite Pixie was going with us, but he is nowhere to be seen.”

The bell rang. The whistle blew and the train started and with last good-by’s to all at home the Twins were at last on their way to Seattle and Good Manners Town.

A voice cried,

“ You really did not count on me,

I journey by land and by the sea.”

“The Polite Pixie!” cried the Twins in one breath.

Aunt Matilda smiled and said,

“I have a notion to invite,

Little Peter and Polly Polite,

And Little Edgar Education,

May join us on our vacation.”

Chapter 2

THE JOURNEY. MANNERS ON THE TRAIN.

The Twins were taking a real journey at last!

They were so excited that they fairly shouted “Oh, Aunt Matilda, which seats shall we take.”

She said, “Hush, my dears, do not attract attention of strangers, we have reserved seats of course and if we follow the porter he will show us the way.”

The Twins were excited when they found the number of their berth was 13, for they said, “Thirteen is an unlucky number, and they al¬ ways thought that riding in berth 13 had some¬ thing to do with the things that happened on that journey.”

The first unlucky thing that happened was that Aunt Matilda was taken ill, and had to have her berth made up so she could go to bed.

Nan and Ann said, “Will we sleep on the shelf above?”

The Patient Porter made friends with them at once and said they did not have to go to bed, but could sit in seats across the aisle until bed¬ time came.

The Twins did not want to go into the din¬ ing car alone and Aunt Matilda said as she would probably be well by breakfast time, if they were neat and careful they might eat their lunch on the train now.

They got out the lunch that Mother had put up for them.

Aunt Matilda said,

“Well mannered children I adore,

Don’t spill your crumbs upon the floor.”

Nan put a piece of newspaper in her lap and Ann used the lid of the box, and they ate

Naa and Ann in Manners Town 17 quietly for they were determined to be well mannered.

The Patient Porter brought a ladder and the Twins said as t they climbed into the upper berth to sleep for the night, “It makes us think of Jack and the Bean Stalk, this wonderful climb.”

Aunt Matilda reminded them that they must think of the comfort of other passengers on the train and not talk so loud.

Everybody knew next day that there were Twins on the train, and they could not help answering questions, but as Aunt Matilda was quite well again they enjoyed their breakfast in the dining car. They were amused at the call, “First Call for Breakfast, Second Call for Breakfast, and Last Call for Breakfast in the dining car.”

Ann said, as they sat in the diner, “How fast the telegraph poles fly by,” and Nan said, “How very fast we are traveling.”

Aunt Matilda said, “Look out of the win¬ dow and see the wonderful country we are go¬ ing through. To-day I will order breakfast, and Ann can order lunch, and Nan can order dinner, so you will get used to ordering a meal on the train.”

The Twins were delighted with this idea of course.

Nan liked to run up and down the aisles for exercise but the Pixie frowned and said she could certainly walk which was more dignified, and on no account should any one stand on the platform before the train stopped, or get off the car unless an older person got off in your company.”

“Dear me,” said the Twins in one breath “If we traveled alone we would never learn any of these things.”

Only once, the Patient Porter scolded both the Twins. He found them leaning out of a window, and he said they must never, never do such a thing, as it was very dangerous, and ac¬ cidents had often happened in that way, by a person leaning from a train and being struck from something outside.

The Patient Porter made them think of Sammy Slow-Coach, but he moved a little faster and by and by he took the Twins out on the observation car. They stayed there until he came back saying, “Aunty says you all have a surprise waiting for you.”

The Twins just couldn’t walk back to their seats but ran in a hurry and Aunt Matilda in¬ troduced them to Peter and Polly Polite, and Edgar Education.

They were jolly children and had such nice manners that the Twins liked them at once.

Then and there on the fourteenth of the month great fun began. The children played authors and other games and made up stories, and wrote letters home, and had a jolly time.

That night Nan said, “I shall not be satisfied until I tell the story. The engine that carries our train is number 13.”

While Nan was talking Ann fell asleep, and Nan soon followed her into dreamland.

It was strange but they had the same dream that night and in the morning told their new friends that they had dreamed the Polite Pixie took them down the river in a glass-bottomed boat, and they dreamed that they saw wonder¬ ful plants growing in the water and sea-weed, and pebbles, and colored shells.

The children asked Aunt Matilda if they could sit in the other end of the train, and she said they might if they would not be noisy and forget their manners.

Polly and Peter Polite said, “Thank you, Aunt Matilda.” Edgar Education carried a book under his arm. He said, “I want to have good manners wherever I am,

Here is a book that will explain,

How to have good manners on the train.”

On arriving in Manners Town every one was polite and they found their way to their own car while the red-caps took their baggage.

The children said, “Oh Aunt Matilda, what a long journey that was, have we really arrived at last?”

They were glad to undress and tumble into bed. Nan said, “I wonder where we will go to¬ morrow?”

Chapter 3

STREET MANNERS. A WALK AND TALK WITH PETER POLITE.

Everything might have gone well next day if Nan had not gotten into disgrace the very first thing before Ann was dressed, and before any one even thought of breakfast.

The Pixie tried to stop her and shouted, “Heave-ho, mind your craft”; but nothing stopped Nan when she made up her mind.

What do you suppose Nan did?

She put on her hiking togs and ran out into the street and talked to a strange boy and jumped right up on his bicycle beside him, and they rode away! By eight o’clock that morn¬ ing Nan was lost in a strange city, for the strange boy got tired of the remarks people 23 made and he made her get off the wheel while he rode away.

Poor Nan was frightened and she was not thinking at all about street manners when she looked right ahead of her, and as good luck would have it, she flew right into the arms of Uncle Phil.

“Where? and when? and how?” she cried. “Oh Uncle Phil we did not know you were in Seattle.”

He said, “I think we will go in a street car, here is the money, watch sharp, now we pay as we go in.”

Uncle Phil said, when they were riding along, “Just suppose you had met a Bold Pi¬ rate instead of me, what would have become of you, Ann?”

Nan laughed and said, “Uncle Phil, you cannot tell us apart yet can you?”

When they got home all the children hugged Uncle Phil for he was the finest story¬ teller in the whole wide world, and all the chil¬ dren loved him.

Aunt Matilda said it was a serious thing for Nan to run away and if she could not learn manners she must go right straight home, as it was she might spend the day in bed.

So it was, that Ann accepted Peter Polite’s invitation and went out for a walk.

Peter walked by the curb on the outside and said, “I am so glad you came to visit Aunt Ma¬ tilda, we will have so much fun together.” Peter politely raised his hat when he met any one he knew.

“Said dear little, queer little Peter Polite, Be careful, Ann, please pass to the right.”

As they met a good many people, Peter Po¬ lite said it would make much confusion on the street if there was not some rule for passing.

A boy across the street shouted to Peter but he and Ann crossed over to talk to him, and afterward Peter said, “People in the city as a rule do not shout at one another, and they do not wave at each other across the street. They never try either to attract the attention of strangers but walk in a dignified, business-like

way.”

“Dear me,” said Ann, “Nan will have so much to learn. She is a regular sport and can’t help it.”

Peter spoke first to an old lady they met, and said it was polite to speak first to an older per¬ son if a child recognized them first.

Peter and Ann kept step as they walked and Peter said, “I hope you won’t mind if I do not ofter my arm, I never do so except at night.”

Ann said “I am so anxious to learn good street manners that I wish you would tell me all you know and then I will teach my sister Nan.”

The children saw two people kissing on the street, and they stopped and blocked the way so other people had to pass around them.

Peter said,

“Bow to any friends you meet.

But never kiss upon the street.

Just so we will not forget,

Let’s write a book of Etiquette.”

“That is a big word,” said Ann, “but I sup¬ pose ‘Etiquette’ means manners.”

They went into a book store and each of them bought a five cent blank book and said they would write down everything they could learn about manners.

They saw many beggars and strange look¬ ing people on the city streets and Ann asked, “Should we drop pennies in the beggar’s cup?”

Peter said, “By no means speak to a beggar, or give him pennies. He may be an impostor and should not be begging on the street.”

Suddenly the street cars stopped and great crowds gathered and the children, with the rest of the crowd stood still. They asked a Police¬ man what was the matter and he said, “THE CIRCUS PARADE IS COMING!”

Ann was very glad that Peter was with her and saw how foolish it would have been if she had come downtown alone.

The great Circus Parade came down the street.

There were Camels, and Elephants, and animals in cages, and even the old-fashioned Calli¬ ope was there, making music by steam. All the traffic had to wait for the Circus Parade to pass.

The ponies looked so inviting that Ann longed to have a ride on one, and the Clowns threw out candy and flowers and made every¬ body laugh.

After the Circus parade passed Peter took

Ann into the Library. He said, before they went in, “We must not say a single word out loud, for it is good manners to keep still in a Library.”

Peter took off his cap and the children tip¬ toed in quietly while Peter asked for a book, as it was not in, they tiptoed out again.

What do you suppose Nan was doing?

She just could not possibly content herself in bed all day, and so she thought Aunt Matilda would not care if she crept about the garret.

She sat a while on one of the trunks.

Of course she did not mean to open any of the trunks or even peep in. A horsehair trunk way over in the corner stood open. “Oh,” breathed Nan. “This seems like a Fairy Tale come true, for there is a trunk open. I must just take a peep and see what is in the old horse¬ hair trunk.”

So she plunged into the old trunk and took out piles and piles of fancy dress clothes!

She put on the costume of a Pierrot, with one side red and one side yellow, and wore a great white ruff at her neck, and a cap with a silver bell.

Nan danced before the very mirror Mother had written about, singing, a pretty little song, for she forgot that she had been sent to bed, and how could you blame her, for it is such fun to dress up in other people’s clothes!

It was at this very minute that Ann and Peter came in and began to tell Aunt Matilda and the other children about the big Circus Parade, and Nan danced downstairs and for half an hour every one thought she belonged to the Circus of course.

Nan had taken fancy dancing lessons and found it no trick at all to dance on her toes!

Aunt Matilda said she had been punished enough if she would promise not to go out on the street any more in this strange city alone. Of course Nan gladly promised.

That evening the Polite Pixie handed the Twins some blank books and pencils and asked each one to draw a picture that they had seen on the street.

Nan drew a picture of a girl helping an old lady across the street and wrote under her pic¬ ture, “Good Street Manners.”

Ann drew a picture of one girl kissing an¬ other on the street, and she wrote under her picture, “Bad Street Manners.”

Chapter 4

HOUSEHOLD MANNERS. IN LOOKING GLASS LAND.

Next day Nan awoke and said, “Dear me, I had a wonderful dream! I thought I was help¬ ing a Mermaid comb her golden hair.”

“Did she have the tail of a fish?” asked Ann.

Nan nodded and said, “Tell your dream.”

Ann said, “I dreamed about a Merman and he showed me his lovely corals and shells.”

Just then, suddenly without any warning whatever a voice piped up,

“I have said this thing before,

Pick your clothes up from the floor.

You can be careful if you choose,

And find a place’to put your shoes.

Oh, it is a shocking sight,

To see things thrown around at night, Please pick up your shoes with care,

Place them underneath the chair.”

The Twins laughed for everything sprang to order as the voice talked and they said, “What a funny room we are in, it must be a magic room! One thing we did well any way, we slept with windows open.”

The Twins were going into the bath-room when a voice fairly shouted,

“Oh ho, children, wait a minute.

You left your comb with hairs in it.”

Then the Polite Pixie came into view for he had been talking all the time. He said, “Every room in the house has its manners of course,

As I said before, it is a bore,

To say, ‘Pick up things from the floor.’ ”

Nan’s book lay on the floor and Ann’s hair ribbon.

The Polite Pixie said, “At home, or visiting, or anywhere, your dresser or bureau ought to be in perfect order, picked up on top. It ought not to look as though a cyclone had struck it, and,” he added,

“Good Mannered Twins know I suppose, Bureau drawers were made to close.”

The Polite Pixie said, “I suppose you don’t want to make any trouble in this house, then remember you don’t want to draw water for a bath at an unusual hour, and you don’t want to make a noise when people are sleeping. Be sure not to splash water on the floor or walls, and only use what towels you need.

When you’ve finished your rub and scrub, Neatly wash the old Bath Tub,

And children dear before I ask it,

Put soiled things in the clothes basket.”

The Twins aired their beds and were just ready to dance downstairs when the Polite Pixie called,

“There you go heels over head,

Come back at once and make your beds.”

Now the children started to make their beds carelessly and the things pulled this way and

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that way, and they stopped to have a regular pillow fight.

Aunt Matilda looked in the door and called. “Good morning, what jolly little visitors I have.”

“To have good manners I give warning Tear off bed clothing every morning, When the bedding is aired completely You can make your bed up neatly.”

My! those were difficult beds to make!

The Pixie would not allow a fold or wrinkle in the beds, and he made the Twins pound the pillows so they would stand up straight.

At last the Twins had their bedrooms spick and span and danced downstairs saying “Good morning” to every one.

Peter and Polly Polite and Edgar Educa¬ tion rose as they came into the room, and said “Good morning.”

Aunt Matilda said, “Some day I am going to get the Polite Pixie to talk to us about Table Manners.”

He stood at attention in the doorway but soon disappeared.

It began to rain. It rained harder and harder, and though the children begged to go out, Aunt Matilda said,

“I would rather have you stay in please, Good manners will not let you tease.”

So, the children decided to be happy in¬ doors and roamed all about Aunt Matilda’s wonderful house.

Nan danced before a mirror and heard a silvery voice call,

“I’m the Looking-Glass Girl, please under¬ stand,

I live quite near, in Looking-Glass Land.

Ann danced before the mirror and the same voice called,

“Step over the frame, now hand in hand We will travel in Looking-Glass Land.”

Boldly, the Twins stepped over the mirror frame into Looking-Glass Land. What a curious Land it was!

Everybody imitated everybody else. If you smiled, the Looking-Glass people smiled back at you! If you frowned all the Looking-Glass people frowned and scolded.

The Twins said, “We really suppose we ought not to have come, we forgot to ask Aunt Matilda and we are really on our way to Good Manners Town.”

The Twins went into one room where there were big mirrors, and little mirrors, and middle-sized mirrors, and each one had a story to tell. The Twins said, “This is more thrill¬ ing than any Fairy Tale we ever read.”

The little hand mirror began to talk first.

“Your bedroom manners are very sweet,

I see your room picked up and neat,

Your visit to me is quite a treat,

Your bedroom manners are very sweet.”

Nan said, “See, here is a package under my pillow.”

It was addressed, “Nan and Ann from Look¬ ing-Glass Land.”

They eagerly opened the package and found two little hand-mirrors. They laughed and said, “The Looking-Glass Queen could not have been so very angry with us after all.”

They danced downstairs and shouted, “Good morning” to every one and cried,

“We are so happy you understand?

We have a present from Looking- Glass Land.”

Chapter 5. Manners At Table

One evening Aunt Matilda was invited out to dinner and she said the children could have their dinner served as usual, and she asked them to be polite to the maid who waited on them. She said,

“Nan and Ann I know you’re able,

To practice good manners at the table.”

Polly and Peter Polite opened the door for Aunt Matilda and Edgar Education ran and opened the car door and just then, a neighbor child, Greedy Gerty, pushed herself in and said she wanted to stay to dinner.

“Who will sit at the head of the table?” asked Nan.

“I will,” said Ann, but, to her surprise, be¬ fore she could get up into Aunt Matilda’s chair, the Polite Pixie cried,

“Excuse me, though I heard what’s said I will sit here at the head.”

Greedy Gerty was anxious for the meal to begin, but Edgar Education said, “Oh, Polite Pixie do you really ever wave a magic wand?”

“If you sit at table with me,

You will see what you will see.”

Which, you see was really no answer at all.

The boys pulled out chairs for the girls and stood until they were seated, then the children did not know exactly what to do next, so, as the Polite Pixie had used magic, the napkins said,

“Unless you want a sad mishap,

Open your napkin in your lap.”

The Polite Pixie smiled as the children opened their napkins and put them in their laps.

All the knives stood up and made a bow and said in chorus.

“Good mannered children understand, They hold a knife in the right hand;

Do be careful as you should,

The knife is made for cutting food.

Good knife manners say ‘No, no,

To your mouth I never go;’

Good manners we’ll spread far and wide. Lay knife and fork now side by side;

When meal time’s done, at any rate,

The knife and fork lay on the plate.”

Nan said, “Oh we wish the forks and spoons would tell us what to do.”

Ann said, “Hark, the forks are going to talk. Don’t you hear their silvery voices?”

They all listened as the forks said,

“I hope you children understand,

When eating hold me in the right hand;

In the left, when cutting food,

Hold my tines down as you should,

For vegetables, salads and ice cream,

To use a fork I know you mean;

In eating ice cream, it is true,

Either fork or spoon will do.”

The spoons began to dance.

“Ha! ha! ha!” sang each tiny spoon,

“We will play a fairy tune.”

They tapped on the glasses until the Polite Pixie brought them to order and then they stood in a row and said,

"We were made to be taken up,

But don’t leave us in your cup;

You can learn this very soon,

In your saucer leave your spoon.”

Greedy Gerty had begun to stir her cocoa and she left her spoon in the cup, and caught her sleeve in the spoon; over went the cocoa on the nice clean table cloth. She said, “Oh dear, I had no manners with my spoon.”

The children had a jolly meal and the nap¬ kins piped up,

“Good manners are very apt to linger,

Use us for your mouth and fingers.”

When the children were noisy in eating, the Polite Pixie said,

“Good manners for girls, good manners for boys,

When eating do not make a noise,

And never mind what word is spoken,

Do not eat with your lips open.”

Some of the children leaned back carelessly in their chairs and the Polite Pixie said,

“I can tell fairy tale and fable,

Please sit up now at the table;

And I hope you’ve no excuse,

For the humble toothpick’s use.”

“Can’t we use a toothpick at all?” asked Nan and Ann.

The Polite Pixie said, “You can use it away from the table.”

“Ah! ha! sad to relate,

Greedy Gerty, here’s your plate;

Don’t pass it oftener than right,

You can’t eat everything in sight.”

Edgar Education played with his extra knife apd fork while waiting for dessert and the Polite Pixie said,

“To learn good manners you are able, Don’t make noises at the table,

Learn some lessons every day,

With your knife and fork don’t play;

If finger bowls are served politely,

Dip your fingers in quite lightly;

It really makes a Pixie laugh,

To have you splash as in a bath.”

Peter reached for some butter with his own knife and the Polite Pixie scolded, and said never to use your own knife and fork for any¬ thing on the common dish. He scolded Polly for spreading a whole slice of bread and nearly boxed Edgar’s ears for spreading a slice of bread in his hand. He said,

“For good manners we will wait,

Use your bread and butter plate.”

He scolded the Twins in turn for drinking from their saucers. He said they would never arrive in Good Manners Town unless they learned table manners and he said,