Hot-cross buns! Hot-cross buns! One a penny, two a penny, Hot-cross buns! Hot-cross buns! Hot-cross buns! If ye have no daughters, Give them to your sons. MY BLUE-EYED BABY BOY. You ask me why I’m smiling so, When every stock and bond is low; Why my heart seems full, and running o’er with joy. Can’t you guess the reason, say? I am sure ’tis plain as day— I’ve been romping with my blue-eyed baby boy. Though I faint beneath my cares, And my wheat seems full of tares, I can still have fullest peace without alloy; For in the twilight gloam, I shall hasten to my home, And be greeted by my blue-eyed baby boy. Let the morbid fellow groan, In a melancholy tone, Seeing only thorns and thistles that annoy; Missing all the roses nigh, And not once suspecting why— He has never had a blue-eyed baby boy. —_Ellen Brannan Tawney._ [Illustration: The Nursery Express.] PLAYING TABLEAUX. Mother dressed us up for tableaux, Little Cousin Lu and me; And I heard the people saying, We were cute as we could be! Maybe Lu looked rather pretty, But a boy dressed up like that, With a great long coat around him, And his Father’s new silk hat, Feels like running off and hiding; And I would have done it, too, If I hadn’t promised Mother, I would be as good as Lu. Lu was dressed in shining satin, With a veil fixed on her head, Just like Aunt Lucille last summer, When she married Uncle Ned. But I mean to marry Mother, When I’ve grown up big and strong; I was six years old last Sunday, So it won’t take very long. When I told her all about it, She just laughed and shook her head, “When you’re quite grown up, my laddie, You’ll ask someone else instead.” —_Lillian Howard Cork._ _Old Mother Hubbard._ [Illustration] Old Mother Hubbard Went to the cupboard, To get her poor dog a bone; But when she came there, The cupboard was bare, And so the poor dog had none. She went to the baker’s To buy him some bread; But when she came back, The poor dog was dead. [Illustration] She went to the joiner’s To buy him a coffin; But when she came back, The poor dog was laughing. [Illustration] She took a clean dish To get him some tripe; But when she came back, He was smoking his pipe. [Illustration] She went to the fishmonger’s To buy him some fish; And when she came back, He was licking the dish. She went to the ale-house To get him some beer; But when she came back, The dog sat in a chair.