Then the gentleman went on his travels again; and he came to a village, and outside the village there was a pond, and round the pond was a crowd of people. And they had got rakes, and brooms, and pitchforks, reaching into the pond; and the gentleman asked what was the matter. “Why,” they said, “matter enough! Moon’s tumbled into the pond, and we can’t rake her out anyhow!” So the gentleman burst out a-laughing, and told them to look up into the sky, and that it was only the shadow in the water. But they wouldn’t listen to him, and abused him shamefully, and he got away as quick as he could.
So there was a whole lot of sillies bigger than those three sillies at home. So the gentleman turned back home again and married the farmer’s daughter, and if they didn’t live happy forever after, that’s nothing to do with you or me.
The Cat and the Mouse
The Cat and the Mouse
Played in the malt-house.
The Cat bit the Mouse’s tail off.
“Pray, puss,” said the Mouse, “give me my long tail again.”
“No,” said the Cat, “I’ll not give you your tail again till you go to the cow and fetch me some milk.”
First she leaped, and then she ran,
Till she came to the cow, and thus began: