fairy element is the magic
key, is _The Key of the Kingdom_, also found in Halliwell's _Nursery
Rhymes of England_:--

This is the key of the kingdom.
In that kingdom there is a city,
In that city there is a town,
In that town there is a street,
In that street there is a lane,
In that lane there is a yard,
In that yard there is a house,
In that house there is a room,
In that room there is a bed,
On that bed there is a basket,
In that basket there are some flowers.
Flowers in the basket, basket on the bed,
bed in the room, etc.

_The Old Woman and Her Pig_ illustrates the second class of
accumulative tale, where there is an addition, and like _Titty Mouse
and Tatty Mouse_, where the end turns back on the beginning and
changes all that precedes. Here there is a more marked plot. This same
tale occurs in Shropshire Folk-Lore, in the _Scotch Wife and Her Bush
of Berries_, in _Club-Fist_, an American folk-game described by
Newell, in Cossack fairy tales, and in the Danish, Spanish, and
Italian. In the Scandinavian, it is _Nanny, Who Wouldn't Go Home to
Supper_, and in the Punjab, _The Grain of Corn_, also given in _Tales
of Laughter_. I have never seen a child who did not like it or who was
not pleased with himself for accomplishing its telling. It lends
itself most happily to illustration. _Titty Mouse and Tatty Mouse_
pleases because of the liveliness of its images, and because of the
catastrophe at the end, which affects the child just as the tumble of
his huge pile of blocks--the crash and general upheaval delight him.
This tale has so many variants that it illustrates well the diffusion
of fairy tales. It is Grimm's _The Spider and the Flea_, which as we
have seen, is appealing in its simplicity; the Norse _The Cock Who
Fell into the Brewing Vat_; and the Indian _The Death and Burial of
Poor Hen_. The curious succession of incidents may have been invented
once for all at some definite time, and from thence spread to all the
world.

_Johnny Cake_ and _The Gingerbread Man_ also represent the second
class of accumulative tale, but show a more definite plot; there is
more story-stuff and a more decided introduction and conclusion. _How
Jack Went to Seek His Fortune_ also shows more plot. It contains a
theme similar to that of _The Bremen Town Musicians_, which is
distinctly a beast tale where the element of repetition remains to
sustain the interes