The April Baby's Book of Tunes / with the story of how they came to be written

Transcriber's Notes
The cover image was provided by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

‘Watched them go off with their Skates’
BY THE AUTHOR OF “ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN”
ILLUSTRATED BY KATE GREENAWAY
New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 1900
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1900, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Norwood Press J.S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.

Once upon a time there were three little girls called April, May, and June. Their mother thought it simpler to call them after the months they were born in, instead of having to worry over a choice between Jane, or Susan, or Mary, or any of the ordinary girl-names. She had meant to call the eldest one Jane, because it was such a short, tidy little name; but an aunt who was staying with her nearly cried, the bare idea made her so unhappy. You see, the aunt was very fond of Shakespeare, and wanted the baby to be called Ophelia, and there is a great difference between the sound of Ophelia and the sound of Jane; but the mother didn't want to have a baby called Ophelia, and didn't want to argue either, so she settled it by having it christened after the month it was born in, and everybody said how queer.