No-Time-Land: A Story for Boys and Girls

“Guy, come and play with me.”

“Oh! I can’t, Tina, I have no time; I am going fishing soon with Urie Cass.”

“Oh, dear!” said the little voice; “you never get time, Guy, to have a game.”

“Cannot you have one game with her, sonny!” said his mother; “the wee girlie is dull playing by herself all day.”

“But mother, dear, I have no time now,” and so saying, Guy shouldered his fishing rod and walked off.

But his mother’s sad, grieved expression seemed to haunt him all day, and his little sister’s voice echoed so in his ears, that the fishing was not altogether such an enjoyable time as he expected. He got back tired and hungry, and soon after tea he was glad to go to bed.

He was just dropping off to sleep, when his eyes seemed to wander to the open window, where the moonbeams were dancing in, as if they had come to see what sort of a room it was, and what the inmate was like. They are inquisitive little things, you know; both moonbeams and sunbeams. They like to get into all the odd dark corners, and if people are dirty and slovenly in their work, they show up the dust, and dirt, as much as to say: “Oh, fie, for shame, you slovenly creatures!”

Just as Guy’s eyes alighted on the windows he saw two ladies come floating in on the moonbeams. “There he is,” one of them whispered, “that is the little boy who has no time. Let us carry him off to No-Time-Land.”