[Illustration: HUMPTY DUMPTY] To ALICE WHO LISTENED TO MY FIRST FAIRY STORIES, THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED [Illustration: THEY ALL THREE STOOD IN A ROW BEFORE HER (_Page 34_)] [Illustration:] THE TRUE STORY OF HUMPTY DUMPTY How he was rescued by Three Mortal Children in Make Believe Land By ANNA ALICE CHAPIN With Illustrations and Decorations BY ETHEL FRANKLIN BETTS [Illustration] NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1905 [Illustration] _Copyright, 1905_ +By Dodd, Mead & Company+ Published October, 1905 THE UNIVERSITY PRESS · CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. [Illustration] CONTENTS +Chapter+ +Page+ I +The Way It All Began+ 1 II +Make-Believing+ 7 III +At the Owls’ Inn+ 19 IV +Mother Goose’s Cottage+ 31 V +Through the Wonderful Wood+ 43 VI +How Bab Rescued the Wooden Cow+ 55 VII +Meg’s Journey to Fairyland+ 67 VIII +The Court of the Fairy Queen+ 81 IX +Under the Sea of Glass+ 93 X +A Fish Tea-Party+ 105 XI +Into the City of the Wicked King+ 117 XII +Princess Star+ 129 XIII “+Harness the Reindeer!+” 137 XIV +Danger!+ 151 XV +By the City Wall+ 163 XVI +Behind the Reindeer+ 175 XVII +Mother Goose Once More+ 187 XVIII +At Last+ 199 [Illustration] LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE They all three stood in a row before her [Page 34] _Frontispiece_ The Owl-Innkeeper’s story [Page 23] 38 Bab and the Sand Man [Page 51] 84 “She was surely the Queen of the Fairy Folk” [Page 89] 120 “‘I don’t think I like you,’ said the Sea Kobold; ‘you may go’” [Page 98] 146 They were all three back on the nursery hearth rug [Page 206] 192 _Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the King’s horses and all the King’s men Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again._ I _The Way It All Began_ [Illustration] [Illustration] Humpty Dumpty