Jean C. Archer

“ As she slips on her pattens and turns down the page
Of the book she is reading, and starts out to find
The darlings, to give them a piece of her mind!
She takes a big stick and makes tracks for the sea,
Where she’s pretty well sure all the truants will be;
Yama-Guchi, she knows, leads the Twins by the nose,
And they patiently follow wherever he goes. ”

“ So she picks up her pattens, her stick and her fan,
And bundles her hair up as well as she can.
Next minute it all stands on end with surprise:
She stares and she stares, disbelieving her eyes—
For there, as if just newly dropped from the skies,
Are the children, all looking as chirpy as flies ”

“ Fishy-Winkle BY Jean C. Archer Author of “Samuel and Selina”
ILLUSTRATED
IN COLOURS
London:
GRANT RICHARDS
1903
6 CHAPTER I. Mistress O’Hara lives down by the sea,
A skittish and beautiful widow is she;
She has black shiny tresses, and curly buff toes,
And a heavenly tilt to the tip of her nose!
She has three little children, the eldest is four
(Nurse says he is naughty enough to be more) ;
The Twins are dear dumplings, and they and their brother
Are always in scrapes—
Of one kind, or another. ”