e ring, and he had lots of animals in his procession. Two elephants
and a bear on hind legs, and a bear on four legs, a zebra, a tiger,
a big squirrel, some tin horses, and some lovely horses covered with
real hair, a set of performing frogs, and oh! heaps more.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Then for the performance he would sing, and recite the pieces of poetry
which he and his Mother had made up (that's what I told you they talked
about at breakfast). For instance, there were two geese in a pen which
you wound up, and Dumpty would put on a quackie voice and say:--

Some mischief sure will Satan find
For idle hands--however sweet,
So in your idle moments wind
My little geese, and watch them eat.

And as you wind, this lesson good
Ma' rag-time geese would teach to thee;
Never to grab or snatch your food,
However hungry you may be.

Then he had some performing mice in a cage, with clockwork inside, and
as he wound them up he sang:--

Oh, three performing mice are we,
And when you wind us up you see,
We twirl and twiddle round the cage,
And play at leap-frog on the stage.
And when the master of the ring,
Commands us, we can also sing
That story sad--though true to life,
Of Blind Mice, and the Farmer's wife.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

And then Little Dumpty and his mother sang "Three Blind Mice" together,
very slowly and sadly:--

Three Blind Mice!
See how they run!
They all ran after the Farmer's Wife,
Who cut off their tails with the carving knife,
Did you ever see such a thing in your life
As three Blind Mice?

When he got all his horses on the stage (he put the skin ones in front
because they were the loveliest), he used to pretend they danced while
he whistled a tune on the penny whistle.

Then there was a china girl with a parachute; when she was on the stage
Little Dumpty recited the piece called "Isabella's Parachute" out of a
favourite book he had called "Cautionary Stories":--

Once as little Isabella
Ventured with a large umbrella,
Out upon a rainy day
She was nearly blown away.

Sadly frightened then was she,
For 'twas very near the sea,
And the wind was very high,
But, alas! no friend was nigh.

Luckily her good mamma
Saw her trouble from afar;
Running just in time, she caught her
Pretty little fl