THE BEWITCHED TOYS; OR, QUEEN MAB IN CHILD-WORLD.
I
HERE comes Queen Mab in her coach-and-six!
Look out for mischievous fairy tricks!
Look out, good girls! Look out, brave boys!
I know she comes to bewitch your toys!
Hither she floats, like the down of a thistle!—
So mind the pegtop; and mind the hoop;
Bring down the kite with a sudden swoop;
Hide the popgun; and plug up the whistle;
But don’t say Dolly’s a-bed with the croup:
For, if you tell her a fib, my dear,
She’ll fasten the door-key to your ear!
II
Then the Kite went flying up to the Moon,
And the Man with the Sticks, who lives up there,
Kick’d it through with his clouted shoon,
And the tail hung dangling down in the air.
But Harry wouldn’t let go the string,
Although it nearly broke with the strain;
Said he: “Well, this is a comical thing,
But the kite is mine, and I’ll have it again!”
“Now whistle three times,” cried cunning Nell,
“And over your shoulder throw your shoe,
And pull once more, and say this spell:
Fustumfunnidostantaraboo!”
But Harry made a mistake in the charm,
Saying, “Fustumfunnidostantaboorack!”
And a dreadful pain went all up his arm,
And he fell down, shouting, right on his back.