Then hand in hand, Gretchen and Peterkin hurried from the pond and fled into the wood just as the sun began to show beyond the trees. There they built themselves a cottage and lived in it happily ever afterwards. The kind Cook and the wise Nurse found them and visited them. But Gretchen and Peterkin never went near castle ground until the Cook told them the Queen was no more.—Laura F. Kready.
How the Birds came to Have Different Nests Time….
Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme,
And monkeys chewed tobacco.
And hens took snuff to make them tough,
And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O!
Place. … Madge Magpie's Nest up in a Tree-top.
Characters: Madge Magpie, the Teacher; Thrush, Blackbird, Owl, Sparrow, Starling, and Turtle-Dove.
All the Birds. "We have come to you, Madge Magpie, to ask you to teach us how to build nests. All the Birds tell how clever you are at building nests."
Magpie. "Make a circle round about the foot of this old pear-tree. I will sit upon this limb near my nest and show you how to do it. First I take some mud and make a fine round cake with it."
Thrush. "Oh, that's how it's done, is it? I'll hurry home! Goodbye, Birds, I can't stay another minute!
"Mud in a cake, mud in a cake,
To-whit, to-whee, a nest I'll make!"
Magpie. "Next I take some twigs and arrange them about the mud."