Welcome to Homeschool Story Time: Week 14.
This story takes place on a warm, rainy day in May.
It’s about a little boy named Francis who wants to go out and play, but he can’t.
Then a robin comes along and teaches him a valuable lesson.
Read on to see what that lesson is.
The Singing Heart
by Elizabeth Noyes
It was a warm May afternoon: all the little flowers were stretching up their heads to catch the rain that was falling patter-spatter everywhere. Francis stood by the window pouting. He had been playing lovely games outside, and now the rain had spoiled his fun.
Mother was at her sewing machine. She felt sorry for Francis, he was such a little boy and he had no playmates, but she was too busy to invent games for him. But he began to make up one for himself. He came and stood by the machine and hummed as it hummed, louder and louder. Then the humming almost died away, as mother ran the wheel slower.
“Oh, dear.” Francis said. “I want something to do.” Just then he heard a robin singing in the rain. He tried to sing with the bird, as he had hummed with the machine, and was surprised that he couldn’t.
“Why can’t I, mamma?” he asked.
“Because you are Francis, and the robin is robin, I suspect,” said mother, laughing. “You can do many things that the robin can’t, you know.”
Francis threw himself down on the sofa and watched the bird as it swung back and forth in the apple tree, and by and by he dropped asleep. When he woke up he ran to the window to find the robin.
“Oh, he’s gone,” he said, very disappointed. “Did you hear what he told me, mamma?”
Mother shook her head.
“Why, he said to me that little boys can’t sing with their lips as sweetly as birds can, but they can sing with their hearts: are you sure you didn’t hear him, mother?”
“I’m sure as sure,” said mother. “But I know that’s what you heard him say in your dream for it’s true as can be.”
“What did he mean, mother?”
“He meant that in spite of rain, little boys can be happy, just as the birds are, and can carry smiling faces to show they have singing hearts.”
Francis laughed happily. “I’ll try to have a singing heart. Oh, the sun’s out, and I’m going out to find the robin.”
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Many blessings,
