The Nursery, March 1881, Vol. XXIX / A Monthly Magazine for Youngest Readers

VOLUME XXIX.—No. 3. BOSTON: THE NURSERY PUBLISHING COMPANY, No. 36 Bromfield Street. 1881.
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1881, by THE NURSERY PUBLISHING COMPANY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

VOL. XXIX.—NO. 3.
REAR and cold is the winter outside; but within there is a bright fire on the hearth. Jane and Susie, and Charles and John, and their elder sister Ann, are all seated comfortably in front of it. And now the children call on sister Ann to tell them a story; and this is what she tells them:—
When I was a girl, and wanted to hear a story, and the grown-up people didn't feel like telling me one, they would say,—
'I'll tell you a story about Jack O'Nory; And now my story's begun. I'll tell you another about Jack and his brother; And now my story's done.'
Now, every time this was said to me, I would think that I really should hear the story about Jack O'Nory, or the other one about Jack and his brother. But it was always the same; just as I thought the story was coming, I would hear, instead, 'And now my story's done.'
One day, when I begged for one of the stories, my aunt told me that I couldn't hear about Jack O'Nory or his brother, because Mother Goose never told the stories about them; that she just began, and then thought better of it. After that I didn't ask any more; but I said to myself, 'If ever I get big, I'll find out those stories.' And so, sure enough, I did. And I am going to tell one of them now,—the one about Jack O'Nory himself.
'It is a story that all came of his having a great liking for buns. Jack lived in the next house to Mother Goose, and every morning, if she peeped between the curtains, she was sure to see Jack waiting on the pavement for the bun-man. You see the bun-man went around very early, so that people could have their buns for breakfast.
'But one morning Jack slept too late, and, when he ran out, the bun-man had already gone by and was almost out of sight. Jack ran after him, but could not catch him.