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 The Library Adventures 
 of Bob and Elizabeth 
 
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The Library Adventures 
 of Bob and Elizabeth 
 
 Marie Louise Prevost, Assistant Librarian 
 Free Public Library, Elizabeth, N. J. 
 
 The H. W. Wilson Company 
 White Plains, New York, 1915 
 


 The Library Adventures 
 of Bob and Elizabeth 
 
 \-L 
 
 P ooh !” said Bob. “It doesn’t.” 
 
 “But sister said the lady said it did,” re- 
 ^ turned Elizabeth staunchly. 
 
 O “Dare me to find out?” queried Bob. 
 
 “Yes,” laughed Elizabeth, and across the 
 £ street and into the Library building dashed the 
 S two cousins, Bob remembering just in time to 
 pull off his cap as they entered the children’s 
 room. “Please,” said he to the lady who was 
 standing near the desk, “the Library doesn’t 
 belong to us, does it?” 
 
 “Why, yes,” said the lady, “ if you live here. 
 It belongs to everyone living in town.” Then 
 noticing Bob’s puzzled expression she added, 
 “Just as your home belongs to you and to 
 everyone else in the family too. You know the 
 Library is just a big book home for the big 
 family that all the citizens make.” 
 
 “And that’s the reason we have to take care 
 of the books, because we wouldn’t like it if our 
 f* brothers and sisters broke the furniture and 
 j spoiled the garden,” said Elizabeth. You see 
 2 her sister had been quite enthusiastic and Eliza- 
 -I beth had a good memory. 
 
The lady smiled pleasantly. “You seem to 
 know all about it though I don’t remember 
 your being here before.” 
 
 “No, this is the first time we’ve come,” re- 
 plied Elizabeth, and Bob added, grinning, “We 
 thought it was time we looked after our prop- 
 erty!” 
 
 The lady saw the joke and smiled back. 
 Then she told them just what they had to do to 
 get their cards and what the children’s hours 
 were and as they started to go, for it was nearly 
 closing time, she added, “And I hope you are 
 going to get well acquainted with your new 
 property very soon.” 
 
 “If Elizabeth has anything to do with it, I 
 guess we will,” said Bob. “She’s always been a 
 book-worm,” and they both laughed softly (as 
 one must in libraries) and ran out together. 
 Bob and Elizabeth had always been chums. 
 
 Sure enough it was Elizabeth who reached 
 the Library first on the following day though it 
 was hardly Bob’s fault. He had to stop and see 
 some of the fellows after school about Satur- 
 day’s ball game and that takes time. 
 
 Elizabeth found the lady in the children’s 
 room busier than she had been the day before 
 and while waiting her turn to speak to her she 
 watched what was going on at the desk. 
 
 First there was a boy who was getting 
 books for his teacher to use in school. He 
 brought a note and when the lady had read it 
 
she said that one of the books was out but as 
 soon as it came in she would let Miss Brown 
 know and keep it for her. Elizabeth wondered 
 if this was where her teacher got the stories 
 they read to make the geography lesson so 
 much more interesting and, later, she found 
 out that it was. 
 
 Next came another boy who wanted to see 
 some books about baseball but the lady could 
 not let him have them because his hands were 
 too dirty. He had forgotten to wash them 
 after sliding for a base on the diamond so he 
 had to go out now and come back later for what 
 he wanted. 
 
 After that came an older girl who had to 
 pay a fine because she had left her book where 
 the baby could reach and tear it. The lady 
 said it would take half an hour to mend it and 
 then it would never look really nice again. 
 
 And last in line before Elizabeth was a 
 little girl who looked as though she had been 
 crying. 
 
 She said she had lost her card and her book 
 had been due day before yesterday and she was 
 afraid to bring it back without the card. Eliza- 
 beth had been wondering what would happen if 
 she lost her card, so she listened with interest. 
 
 ‘‘You mustn’t be afraid to bring a book 
 back, ever,” the lady was saying, “because you 
 have to pay a fine for every day you keep it 
 overtime. You’d better go home and get it.” 
 
“But I haven’t got the money now,” sobbed 
 the little girl. 
 
 “Never mind,” said the lady. “Bring the 
 book back today and the fine will not grow any 
 bigger if you don’t pay it till next week or even 
 next year. Run home now for the book and 
 perhaps if you look a little harder you may find 
 the card.” 
 
 Then it was Elizabeth’s turn and when she 
 had gotten her card the lady showed her how to 
 find the books in the low cases along the walls. 
 “Here,” she said, “is the fiction, the make- 
 believe, made-up stories. They are put on the 
 shelves according to the authors’ names, like 
 the alphabet, A’s first, B’s next, C’s next and so 
 on. And here is the non-fiction, as we call the 
 true stories, books about real people and places, 
 about animals and birds and flowers and games 
 and pictures and how to make things.” 
 
 Elizabeth was fond of learning pieces to re- 
 cite so she thought of something the lady had 
 not mentioned. 
 
 “Which is poetry?” she asked. 
 
 “I don’t wonder you ask,” said the lady, 
 “because it certainly is often make-believe, but 
 we put it with the non-fiction over here and 
 just before it are the books on drawing and 
 painting. If you like pictures you will love 
 some of these that tell of beautiful paintings by 
 the great artists.” 
 
 Elizabeth thought she would like them but 
 
she was more interested in the poetry just now. 
 “I wish I could find the funny piece a girl said 
 in school the other day,” she said, “but I guess 
 there’s no use wishing because I don’t know its 
 name.” 
 
 “What do you know about it?” 
 
 “Just that it begins: ‘The gingham dog and 
 the calico cat side by side on the table sat.’ ” 
 
 “Oh,” said the lady, “that is easy because we 
 have a book that tells us what thousands of 
 recitations are by their first lines. But I hap- 
 pen to remember this one without looking. It 
 is called ‘The Duel’ and is right here in this 
 book by Eugene Field.” 
 
 Then the lady had to go back to her desk 
 and after Elizabeth had read the poem through 
 she went back to the shelves to find something 
 else. 
 
 “Hullo, Elizabeth! What are you looking 
 for?” 
 
 Elizabeth turned to find her big sister stand- 
 ing behind her. 
 
 “I was looking to see if they have ‘Little 
 Women’ but it’s not here so I guess they 
 haven’t.” 
 
 “Oh yes, they have!” said her sister. “It’s 
 just out, probably.” 
 
 “How can you tell that?” asked Elizabeth. 
 
 “Well, you could ask the lady but it’s nicer 
 to find out for yourself. Come here and I’ll 
 show you,” and they walked over to a case full 
 
of little drawers that Elizabeth’s sister called 
 the catalog. 
 
 “There are cards in here for all the books 
 the Library owns. The cards are put in like 
 the alphabet, A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s ” 
 
 “Just like the story books over there,” inter- 
 rupted Elizabeth. 
 
 “Yes, but sometimes there are three cards 
 for one book, one card with the name of the 
 book first, one card with the name of the author 
 first, and one with what it’s about first.” 
 
 “What’s that for?” 
 
 “So you can find a book if you only know 
 one thing about it. Suppose you didn’t know 
 who wrote ‘Little Women’ — I’d be ashamed of 
 you if you didn’t, but just suppose — where 
 would you ldok for it?” 
 
 “In the drawer that has the L’s in it, I 
 guess,” said Elizabeth and she looked at the 
 little labels outside the drawers and read the 
 letters on them. “A to B, C to D, E to I, J to 
 M, J. K. L. — this must be it,” opened the 
 drawer, turned over the cards till she came to 
 the L’s and read : “ ‘Little Sunshine’s holiday,’ 
 ‘Little travellers around the world’ — here it is 
 ‘Little women: Alcott, Louisa May.’ Now I 
 know the author and can find the book over 
 there where the A’s begin.” 
 
 “And suppose you wanted some more books 
 by Miss Alcott but didn’t know their names?” 
 
 “Oh, I see now !” said Elizabeth. “I’d go to 
 
the drawer with the A’s in it,” and she pulled it 
 out as she spoke. “Abbot — um um — Alcott: 
 Eight cousins; next card, Alcott: Jo’s boys; 
 next card, Alcott: Little men; Alcott: Little 
 women ; Alcott : Rose in bloom. Why, it’s 
 ever so easy when you know how, isn’t it?” 
 
 “Yes, and the third card’s the most useful of 
 all sometimes. If you wanted a book about 
 Christmas but didn’t know the names or the 
 writers of any, the catalog would find that for 
 yop, too.” 
 
 Elizabeth pulled open the C drawer and sure 
 enough there under Christmas was card after 
 card giving the names of books about that 
 pleasant time. Crothers, “Miss Muffet’s Christ- 
 mas party”; Dier, “Children’s book of Christ- 
 mas”; Miller, “Kristy’s queer Christmas”; 
 Page, “Captured Santa Claus,” and many more. 
 
 “It’s just like a game,” said Elizabeth and 
 she ran off to practice finding as she called it. 
 
 Now Bob after he had left the other boys 
 walked on down to the Library in a somewhat 
 bothered frame of mind. It was about that de- 
 bate they were going to have at school, the first 
 one in which he and two of his especial friends 
 had ever taken part. Father had promised them 
 a treat if their side won but Bob was very 
 doubtful of their doing so. Why he himself 
 could think of three reasons for the affirmative 
 side and of only one for the negative side which 
 was theirs. 
 
“It’s mean to be put on the side that hasn’t 
 any reasons,” he said to himself. “It isn’t fair !” 
 and he pulled open the Library door feeling 
 rather glum. That treat of Father’s certainly 
 did look miles away ! 
 
 The lady wasn’t at her desk. She was 
 standing talking to another boy evidently about 
 a big book that was lying open on a table. 
 “No,” she was saying as Bob drew nearer, “an 
 encyclopedia is different from a dictionary. A 
 dictionary contains all the single words in the 
 language. It tells us what they mean and how 
 to spell them and what other words and lan- 
 guages they came from. But an encyclopedia 
 tells us all about anything we want to know. It 
 is just thousands of little stories about things 
 and events and places and people, all following 
 after one another.” 
 
 “No wonder it’s a big book!” said the little 
 boy. 
 
 “Oh, it’s a great many volumes!” said the 
 lady. “This one came from that shelf where the 
 other ones in the same binding are. You 
 wanted to know something about flying ma- 
 chines so I got the volume with CIR-GAT on 
 the back. That means that this volume starts 
 with the words that begin with C-I-R and goes 
 on through the C’s and D’s and E’s and F’s and 
 G’s as far as the words beginning with G-A-T, 
 and we were looking for the F’s for flying 
 machines.” 
 
“Seems like everything in this place was 
 ’ranged in alphabetical order,” said the little 
 boy. 
 
 “Just about,” said the lady smiling. 
 
 Then Bob joined in. “Would there be any- 
 thing in that about our debate?” he asked. 
 
 “Look and see,” said the lady, “and if you 
 don’t find what you need come and tell me and 
 I’ll show you where else to look for your sub- 
 ject and some books on debating too.” 
 
 Ten minutes later Bob closed the big volume 
 feeling a lot more cheerful. 
 
 “Two reasons already,” he said to himself, 
 “and tomorrow I’ll ask her about those other 
 books. Gee, this is something like !” and he got 
 up to put the encyclopedia back on the shelf. 
 As he did so a hand grasped his shoulder, a 
 piece of paper was waved under his nose and a 
 voice said in his ear: 
 
 “They were all doing the same !” 
 
 It was his friend Dick who was also on the 
 debating (as well as the ball) team. Dick was 
 red-headed and merry and talked about a mile 
 a minute, so Bob did not have to ask what he 
 had been doing. He went right on without 
 stopping. 
 
 “I came in and asked her if there was any- 
 thing good on our side and she said ‘Have you 
 tried the magazines?’ and I said it wasn’t in 
 Saint Nicholas or Something to Do and I didn’t 
 know what others to try, there were so many of 
 
them, it would take too long. And she said “Oh, 
 you look it up in the index first!’ and I said to 
 myself ‘Lead on, madam, you’ve got me!’ and 
 she did lead on to some big books with Readers’ 
 Guide on the outside and turned the pages till 
 she struck our subject and showed me the list 
 of magazine articles under it. I copied the 
 names and dates of four of them on this paper 
 and you’ve got to read half. She said I could 
 find the articles by their names and authors too, 
 but the subject way was good enough for me !” 
 
 “Go it!” said Bob, grinning, as Dick paused 
 for breath. 
 
 “Sure enough, when I’ve got a good thing to 
 go on!” said Dick, “But so long, now — and 
 don’t you forget you have to read two of them,” 
 and with a parting wave of his paper Dick was 
 gone. 
 
 “There seems to be some use in a Library, 
 after all,” said Bob to himself. “I thought it 
 was only books to read, but it’s a regular 
 question-answerer instead. Hullo ! There’s 
 Elizabeth over there in that corner, glued to a 
 book. Bet she won’t see me if I get one myself 
 and sit down next her.” 
 
 Bob looked over several books, decided that 
 “The Master of the Strong Hearts” and “Mid- 
 shipman Farragut” looked pretty good, carried 
 them over to Elizabeth’s table and sat down 
 opposite her without so much as causing her to 
 wink an eye-lash. He only meant to sit quiet a 
 
few moments to tease her but almost before he 
 knew it he was deep in the adventures of Jack 
 Huntington and his Indian friend, Young Wolf, 
 for “The Master of the Strong Hearts” is a 
 story of Custer’s last rally and is as full of 
 Indians and excitement as a boy could wish. 
 For about three-quarters of an hour he sat 
 about as still as a boy can be, not paying atten- 
 tion to anything else. Coming by that time to 
 the end of a particularly thrilling chapter, he 
 looked up to make Elizabeth enjoy it with him. 
 
 “Gee, Elizabeth,” he whispered, “you ought 
 to read this; he wasn’t a bit afraid of that big 
 chief, Sitting Bull !” 
 
 But Elizabeth did not hear, for she was 
 quite lost in a story that began by showing how 
 all little girls were really princesses and went 
 on to tell all the wonderful and interesting 
 things that happened in “The Princess and the 
 Goblin” to one little princess and her friend 
 Curdie in the goblin’s palace way down in the 
 under world. 
 
 Now these are only the very beginning of 
 the Library adventures of Bob and Elizabeth. 
 They are still going on and piling up bright 
 memories at the rate of a new one every time 
 they enter the Library doors. And because 
 every good thing in the world is to be found 
 and learned about and enjoyed through books, 
 there is no reason why these happy experiences 
 should not go on all their lives long. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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