Then she whispered something in Molly’s ear, and she whispered something in Polly’s ear, and each Ink-Bottle Baby whispered to the next one.
Then they carried their twenty-five little baskets with them and they all scampered down to the cellar. The farmer’s wife went with them and showed them five barrels of apples.
The farmer’s wife said, “Help yourselves. Fill your baskets full.”
What fun they had, picking apples first out of one barrel and then out of another!
They were all ready to start home at last, when the farmer said, “Where are the apples for the Ink-Bottle Mamma?”
Then the farmer’s wife gave her a bag of apples and a bag of nuts.
The farmer hitched up his horses to the wagon, and the Ink-Bottle Mamma and the Ink-Bottle Babies all piled in.
“Crack!” went the whip, and they were off and away singing and whistling as they went.
The Ink-Bottle Mamma said to the farmer, “It is very kind in you to take us home in your wagon!”