Mary and Tommy looked at each other doubtfully, but both of them loved a game and so it was agreed that they should begin by saying the rhymes that fitted their own names. More and more followed until Mary could not think of another one and had to drop out. Tommy thought of three rhymes after that but Muffs knew at least a dozen more.
“I’ll say a beautiful one this time,” she said with a toss of her yellow curls.
“No, an ugly one,” said contrary Mary.
“I like the funny ones best,” declared Tommy. “Then we could start off laughing.”
Miss Muffet scratched her curly head a minute and then her eyes began to dance as they always did whenever she thought of something clever.
“I’ll tell you what,” she cried. “I’ll say a rhyme that’s the prettiest and the ugliest and the funniest all together!”
“You couldn’t!”
“Oh, yes, I could,” and to prove it she began reciting:
There was a man in our town and he was wondrous wise.
He jumped into a bramble bush and scratched out both his eyes.