Children's Literature: A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training ClassesCurry, Charles Madison
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Children's Literature: A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes
Curry, Charles Madison
Children -- Books and reading; Children's literature -- Study and teaching
Once upon a time there was a teeny-tiny woman lived in a teeny-tiny
house in a teeny-tiny village. Now, one day this teeny-tiny woman put on
her teeny-tiny bonnet, and went out of her teeny-tiny house to take a
teeny-tiny walk. And when this teeny-tiny woman had gone a teeny-tiny
way, she came to a teeny-tiny gate; so the teeny-tiny woman opened the
teeny-tiny gate, and went into a teeny-tiny churchyard. And when this
teeny-tiny woman had got into the teeny-tiny churchyard, she saw a
teeny-tiny bone on a teeny-tiny grave, and the teeny-tiny woman said to
her teeny-tiny self, "This teeny-tiny bone will make me some teeny-tiny
soup for my teeny-tiny supper." So the teeny-tiny woman put the
teeny-tiny bone into her teeny-tiny pocket, and went home to her
teeny-tiny house.
Now when the teeny-tiny woman got home to her teeny-tiny house, she was
a teeny-tiny tired; so she went up her teeny-tiny stairs to her
teeny-tiny bed, and put the teeny-tiny bone into a teeny-tiny cupboard.
And when this teeny-tiny woman had been to sleep a teeny-tiny time, she
was awakened by a teeny-tiny voice from the teeny-tiny cupboard, which
said:
"GIVE ME MY BONE!"
And this teeny-tiny woman was a teeny-tiny frightened, so she hid her
teeny-tiny head under the teeny-tiny clothes and went to sleep again.
And when she had been to sleep again a teeny-tiny time, the teeny-tiny
voice again cried out from the teeny-tiny cupboard a teeny-tiny louder,
"GIVE ME MY BONE!"
This made the teeny-tiny woman a teeny-tiny more frightened, so she hid
her teeny-tiny head a teeny-tiny farther under the teeny-tiny clothes.
And when the teeny-tiny woman had been to sleep again a teeny-tiny time,
the teeny-tiny voice from the teeny-tiny cupboard said again a
teeny-tiny louder,
"GIVE ME MY BONE!"
And this teeny-tiny woman was a teeny-tiny bit more frightened, but she
put her teeny-tiny head out of the teeny-tiny clothes, and said in her
loudest teeny-tiny voice,
"TAKE IT!"
150
The very old story that follows is taken from
Halliwell, and is, according to Jacobs,
scarcely more than a variant of "The Old Woman
and Her Pig." Like that story, "The Cat and the
Mouse" appeals to small people by its
pronounced rhythmical structure, accentuated by
the rhyme which marks the transition to each
new section, and by the "run" at the close.
THE CAT AND THE MOUSE
The cat and the mouse
Played in the malt-house:
The cat bit the mouse's tail off. "Pray, puss, give me my tail."
"No," said the cat, "I'll not give you your tail till you go to the cow
and fetch me some milk."
First she leapt, and then she ran,
Till she came to the cow, and thus began:
"Pray, cow, give me milk, that I may give cat milk, that cat may give me
my own tail again."
"No," said the cow, "I will give you no milk till you go to the farmer
and fetch me some hay."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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