Then Silver was sorry he had not obeyed the wise old squirrels and he told himself that, next year, he would surely begin early to prepare for winter.  But there might not have been a “next year” for Silver, if a little boy had not found him in the woods and taken him home to keep and feed until the spring-time.

* * * * *

Johnnie Jones and the Peach Preserves

Everyone knows that people prepare for winter during the summer and fall. (Bees and squirrels and caterpillars do, too.) Almost everybody lays in the coal and kindling wood for the winter fires while the weather is still warm, and buys warm clothing before it is time to wear it.

In the summer, farmers cut the long grass, and after it has been dried by the sun, store it in the barns for the cows and horses to eat in the winter.  In the summer and the autumn, people do not eat all the berries, and grapes, and pears and peaches; some they make into preserves and jelly for the winter.

Mrs. Jones could make delicious preserves.  She enjoyed making it and Johnnie Jones liked to help her.  He could really help a great deal because he was a careful little boy.  Every member of the Jones family liked peach preserves better than any other kind, therefore Mother usually made enough of it to fill many jars.  This year, however, she had been so busy that she did not start her preserving very early, and when she was ready to begin, she found it was too late to buy many good peaches.  She bought a few, though, and preserved them with Johnnie Jones’s help.

When the preserves was made.  Mother had enough to fill four glass jars.  “Not very much,” she told Johnnie Jones, “but there is one jar for Father, one for you and one for me, and then one more for company.”  She left the jars on the kitchen table while she went upstairs to change her dress.

Johnnie Jones ran out into the yard to play.  He saw Sammy Smith, Elizabeth, and Ned across the street, and called them.  “I want to show you something,” he said.

When they came, he led them to the kitchen and showed them the preserves.

“I should like to have some of it,” said Ned,—­“may I?”

“We made it to use in the winter,” Johnnie Jones explained, “when there isn’t any fresh fruit.”

“I’d like some now on a piece of bread.”  Ned insisted.

“You said one jar of preserves was yours; give us each a taste,” begged Sammy Smith.

“I don’t think Mother meant that I might eat it whenever I wanted it,” Johnnie Jones answered.  “But perhaps she wouldn’t care if we should each take a taste,” he added.

Now Johnnie Jones knew he was not allowed to eat between meals, but the preserves did have an attractive appearance, and he thought that just one taste would not matter.

The top of the jar had not yet been sealed, so it came off very easily.  Johnnie Jones gave a piece of bread, with a very little of the preserves, to each child, and took some for himself.