CHAPTER II
Grandpa Grimes was nowhere to be seen, so the twins went out-doors to play. They had so much fun turning somersaults on the lawn that they forgot all about dinner, and they forgot all about Humpty Dumpty.
Very likely they would have forgotten all about supper, too, if they had not happened to look down the road.
“Hurrah!” cried Freddie. “There is Grandpa Grimes.”
“Hurrah!” cried Teddie. “But why doesn’t he come in! He is going past the gate!”
The twins ran down the road to catch Grandpa Grimes.
Grandpa Grimes was a jolly old fellow. He carried a suit-case and a big umbrella.
He never went anywhere without his umbrella.
He said, “Who can tell whether it will rain or shine?”
One of the twins grabbed his suit-case and the other twin grabbed his umbrella.
Grandpa asked, “Where is Humpty Dumpty?”
“Oh, oh!” cried Teddie and Freddie, “we had forgotten all about him, and we had forgotten all about our dinner, too!”
Grandpa Grimes began to whistle a merry tune and they all went into the house.
GRANDPA GRIMES
Humpty Dumpty did not wake up when they came in.
Grandpa Grimes looked at him and said, “Strange! Extraordinary! Most extraordinary!”
Then he took a good look at Humpty Dumpty and cried, “Get the bottle of glue! Get it quickly!”
What do you suppose Grandpa Grimes saw? He saw that Humpty Dumpty had a crack in his back!
Grandpa put the glue on the poor little fellow’s back. Then Humpty Dumpty woke up and said, “I want Ma, boo-hoo!”
Grandpa Grimes said, “If you will be still I will tell you a story.”
“A story! a story!” cried the twins together. “Do tell us a story!”
Grandpa Grimes said:
“How can I talk with nothing to eat?
Cold bread and butter would be quite a treat!”
The twins took the hint and ran about getting supper ready.
They set the table and warmed up the dinner that Mama Roly-Poly had left them.
Humpty Dumpty cried, “I want supper, too.”
So Grandpa rolled the sofa into the dining-room and for fun they all sat on the sofa and ate their supper.
“How about the red caps?” asked Grandpa Grimes.
He had given the caps to the twins on their last birthday.
Then Freddie hung his head and said, “We were careless,” and Teddie said, “We let them get wet, Grandpa.”
Then Grandpa Grimes chuckled and asked, “What mischief have you been up to, Humpty Dumpty?”
Humpty Dumpty said, “Oh, I only fell down-stairs.”
Then the twins said, “Where can Pa and Ma have gone?”
Grandpa pretended he did not hear. He only said, “This is very good tea for cold tea.”
Freddie said, “I wonder if Ma went up town.”
Teddie said, “I wonder if Pa went to the farm.”
“Speak a little louder,” said Grandpa Grimes. “How can you expect an old man to hear?”
Then he winked one eye at Humpty Dumpty and he winked the other eye at the cat, for he could hear as well as any of them.
Humpty Dumpty said, “Tell us a story, please, Grandpa.”
“Who will wash dishes?” asked Grandpa.
“I will,” said all the children at once.
“Look out, Humpty Dumpty, or you will fall off the sofa,” said Grandpa Grimes.
The twins washed and wiped the dishes and then they shouted, “Now for the story! Tell us the story!”
“Who fed the cat?” asked Grandpa Grimes.
Then Freddie got a saucer, and Teddie poured milk into it, and the old cat purred and drank her milk.
The twins got two little stools and sat down at Grandpa’s feet.
“Did you lock the back door?” asked Grandpa with a twinkle in his eye. “We don’t wish to have any tramps coming in here.”
So Teddie went and locked the door and they thought that now Grandpa would surely begin.
Then Grandpa said:
“How can I tell the story right,
Without a ray of candle-light?”
Freddie lighted the lamp, and then Grandpa said:
“Now then! you are such dear, good children that I will tell you the story of Amaryllis.”
This is the fairy tale that Grandpa told: