erry tree in his garden and Dumpty's Mother hadn't. One day when
Dumpty got in from school he found that a horrid great rat had got into
the empty hutch where he kept all his grain for feeding his pets and had
eaten it all and bitten one of the baby pigeons! He was so sad about
it--but Binkie's father soon brought in his dogs and they caught the
nasty rat. Dumpty's Mother often said she didn't know what she would do
without her kind neighbour the Blacksmith.

Well, by the time Master Dumpty got in from school it was pretty well
tea time, and in the summer he and his Mother often had it in the
garden, not _too_ far from the house, so that if anyone came into the
shop they could hear, that is to say they _might_ hear if he banged on
the counter loud, or shut the shop door with a slam;--then Dumpty would
run fast and serve in the shop for his Mother. Sometimes the customers
were such a long time choosing a peppermint stick or a few glass
beads that Dumpty thought he should never get back to his tea;--and they
had radishes and lettuce out of their own garden. And directly after tea
Little Dumpty did _just_ what he liked till bed-time.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

I must tell you now about the things Little Dumpty _did_ like: there
were lots of things, and he liked them all in turn.

One thing he loved was ponding, which began as soon as the days were
warm enough. He used to go with a net and a little tin pail and catch
all kinds of fish and little insects out of the pond and put them in his
aquarium, but he called it his "acquair." His "acquair" was a glass
bell stood on its end and filled at the bottom with sand, and on top
with water for the things to swim about in. Minnows, and sometimes
sticklebats (but not _generally_ sticklebats, because, though they
looked nice they used to eat up the other things so), and of course
tadpoles (when they were "in") and water-snails with pointed shells and
caddis-worms and water boatmen, and "little reddies"--oh! and anything
he caught in his net. Little Dumpty used to bring them all home in his
pail and keep them in the "acquair."

That's what Little Dumpty and his Mother used to talk about at
breakfast, "how long before the tadpoles lost their tails."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Once when Mrs. Dumpty went away to see a sick friend and Dumpty was
left all to himself he thought he would have a lovely acquair in the
middle of his own garden, just like a re