f dancing, and then the minstrels would be commanded to entertain
them. Invariably the flea, who was a rattle-headed fellow, would
discourse some such incoherent song as this:

COQUETRY

Tiddle-de-dumpty, tiddle-de-dee--
The spider courted the frisky flea;
Tiddle-de-dumpty, tiddle-de-doo--
The flea ran off with the bugaboo!
"Oh, tiddle-de-dee!"
Said the frisky flea--
For what cared she
For the miseree
The spider knew,
When, tiddle-de-doo,
The flea ran off with the bugaboo!

Rumpty-tumpty, pimplety-pan--
The flubdub courted a catamaran
But timplety-topplety, timpity-tare--
The flubdub wedded the big blue bear!
The fun began
With a pimplety-pan
When the catamaran,
Tore up a man
And streaked the air
With his gore and hair
Because the flubdub wedded the bear!

"I remember with what dignity the fairy queen used to reprove the flea
for his inane levity:

Nay, futile flea; these verses you are making
Disturb the child--for, see, he is awaking!
Come, little cricket, sing your quaintest numbers,
And they, perchance, shall lull him back to slumbers.

"Upon this invitation the cricket, who is justly one of the most famous
songsters in the world, would get his pretty voice in tune and sing as
follows:

THE CRICKET'S SONG

When all around from out the ground
The little flowers are peeping,
And from the hills the merry rills
With vernal songs are leaping,
I sing my song the whole day long
In woodland, hedge, and thicket--
And sing it, too, the whole night through,
For I 'm a merry cricket.

The children hear my chirrup clear
As, in the woodland straying,
They gather flow'rs through summer hours--
And then I hear them saying:
"Sing, sing away the livelong day,
Glad songster of the thicket--
With your shrill mirth you gladden earth,
You merry little cricket!"

When summer goes, and Christmas snows
Are from the north returning,
I quit my lair and hasten where
The old yule-log is burning.
And where at night the ruddy light
Of that old log is flinging
A genial joy o'er girl and boy,
There I resume my singing.

And, when they hear my chirrup clear,
The children stop their playing--
With eager feet they haste to greet
My welcome music, saying:
"The little thing has come to sing
Of woodland, hedge, and thick