5 49. As I went through the garden gap, A stick in his hand, a stone in his throat, If you'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a groat. 10 15 20 25 30 51. THE VOYAGE IN THE ARM-CHAIR. PAPA! dear Papa! we've had such a fine game! The old arm-chair made such a beautiful ship, We made Mary the captain, and Bob was the boy We had for a passenger Grandmamma's cat, And as Tom could not pay, he went free; But oh, only think, dear Papa, when half way, Tom overboard jumped to the floor! And though we called, "Tom! come back! don't be drowned!" But Papa, dear Papa! listen one moment more, Till I tell you the end of our sail: From the sideboard we went at five minutes past three, And at four o'clock saw such a whale! The whale was the sofa, and it, dear Papa, Is at least twice as large as our ship! The captain called out, "Turn the ship round about! And we all cried, "O yes! let us get away home, 5 So we sailed for the fire-side as quick as we could, And we landed all safe on the rug. 52. I ONCE had a sweet little doll, dears, The prettiest doll in the world; Her cheeks were so red and so white, dears, But I lost my poor little doll, dears, As I played in the heath one day; 10 15 And I cried for her more than a week, dears, I found my poor little doll, dears, As I played in the heath one day: Folks say she is terribly changed, dears, 20 For her paint is all washed away, And her arm trodden off by the cows, dears, The prettiest doll in the world. 25 CHARLES KINGSLEY. 53. OUR nursery is a very nice place. It has a large window where we hang up our canary Peter in his wire cage, and where Mary and I keep our dolls' house, and Jack comes to 30 visit us. Sometimes Jack won't play; he says girls are stupid, and he will go and see his pony. There are flowers in pots outside the window, and Nurse lets us water them. We keep our skip ping ropes and hoops 5 and Jack's ninepins in the black cupboard in' the corner, we the kittens one morning among our garden - hats. When it is wet, and we can't go out, Nurse tells us stories. I like fairy tales best, but Jack likes sailors' stories. Or else we swing each other in the swing, or play puss-in-the-corner, till it is tea-time. Mamma comes up to tea, and if she does not, we go down to say good night before going to bed. |