And, goodness me! it was such wonderful music that even Puss couldn't
keep still, but must needs dance with a little girl in a blue dress
until Tom was out of breath and too tired to play any longer.
OLD DAME TROT
AS soon as Tom, the piper's son, stopped playing everybody sat down to
rest, even the little pig who had been waltzing about on his hind legs.
He didn't try to run away. I guess he was too tired for that. Pretty
soon he took out a yellow handkerchief and wiped the perspiration from
his pink nose, and after that the little girl in blue asked Puss,
Junior, where he had learned to dance.
"At Mademoiselle Feline's dancing school," replied Puss. "She taught
twenty-one little kittens twice a week."
Just then, all of a sudden, Tom, the piper's son, jumped to his feet and
started off, and before very long
He met Old Dame Trot with a basket of eggs;
He used his pipe and she used her legs;
She danced about till the eggs were all broke;
She began to fret, but he laughed at the joke.
"I think it very mean of you to break an old lady's eggs," cried Puss.
"I'm sorry your eggs are broken," cried Tom to Old Dame Trot. "If you'll
come with me I'll show you where there's a nest full of eggs; it's in
the dry grass under the raspberry bushes in yonder meadow."
But the old lady had gone only a few steps when
Tom saw a cross fellow beating an ass
Heavy laden with pots, pans, dishes, and glass;
He took out his pipe and played them a tune,
And the jackass's load was lightened full soon.
"It serves that fellow right," cried Puss. "His donkey had too heavy a
load."
And while the tin pans were flying about and clattering on the stones
the old lady climbed over the fence.
"There goes the hen to her nest now!" shouted the children.
"I'll play her a tune and while she's dancing you pick up the eggs and
give them to Old Dame Trot," cried Tom.
Of course as soon as the music commenced the little hen began to dance.
And when all the eggs were in the old lady's basket he stopped playing,
but the little hen was so provoked that she went straight home to the
barnyard.
BOBBY SHAFTO
AS Puss, Junior, rode along on his Good Gray Horse he passed a pretty
cottage near the roadway. And the roses that climbed over the front
porch were so fragrant and the voice of the girl floating through the
open window was so sweet that he stopped to listen.
"Bobby Shafto roams the skies
With silver goggles on his eyes.
A lonely girl am I who sighs
For pretty Bobby Shafto.
"Bobby Shafto's bright and fair,
Very gay and debonair;
He's the king of all the air,
Bonny Bobby Shafto.
"His airship is the fastest one
That races with the golden sun,
And when his azure voyage is done,
Pretty Bobby Shafto.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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