Miss Muffet

“ I can't have little girls coming over on the banks of the Tigris and taking the bread out of the mouths of my family."
But when he saw that Miss Muffet was beginning to cry, he changed his tone and said, "I am sure you meant no harm, only you didn't understand about the wages. You could easily earn a hundred sequins at listening, and it isn't so hard to learn when you are young. I would give that much myself to have you listen to a queer thing that happened to me once in Bagdad. ”

“ Miss Muffet gave one faint scream, and said, ‘Spider, dear!’ Miss Bones whirled her ox-tail round her head like a sling, and, intending to hit the cow, hit Noah the most awful slap on his false whiskers, which fell off. The giraffe’s head went up the chimney with a pop and a shower of soot descended into the room.
‘Now, run, dearie,’ said the cow to David. ‘Run for your life. ”

“ It counts double this time. But as I was saying, a little curds and whey⁠—⁠oh! it’s tipped up again. What restless things curds are!’
She had not been looking at her bowl, and for several minutes now a perfect stream of curds and whey had been pouring from it over her knees and along the floor, to where the butler lay. He was still repeating, ‘Miss Muffet, David Blaize⁠—⁠David Blaize, Miss Muffet.’ Sometimes, by way of variety, he said, ‘Miss Blaize⁠—⁠David Muffet,’ but as nobody attended, it made no difference what he said.
‘It always happens when I get talking,’ she said. ”

“ It was really extremely awkward that Miss Muffet was so afraid of spiders, and of the Spider in particular, because, you see, the one thing a fairy cannot be is a coward. If a fairy once does a cowardly act, unless he or she immediately makes it right by doing a brave one, he or she will become a mortal at once. And think how dull it would be to become a mere mortal, when you have been used to flying, or dancing, or appearing in dreams, or granting wishes, or doing one of the hundred and one exciting things that fairies do! ”

“ Miss Muffet could not object to this, because it was the kind she liked best herself.
"I never have been so much afraid of giants," she said, "since I learned about their diseases. They are not nearly so strong as they look. There was Giant Despair,—'in sunshiny weather he fell into fits.' It was while he was having a fit, you know, that Christian and Hopeful got away. ”

“ Miss Bones put the ox-tail into her mouth again.
‘So that’s that,’ she mumbled. ‘There’s no accounting for tastes.’
Miss Muffet cleared her throat and coughed, holding her hand up to her mouth in the most genteel way.
‘That leaves me,’ she said. ‘I don’t want to be married, as I told you before. But if you’ll beg my dear spider’s pardon, and he says there’s room for you on the tuffet, I’ll forgive you, and you may sleep in the bathing-machine. There! And you can ride the stuffed horse whenever you like.’
The registrar had been drawing pictures of David on the blotting-paper. ”

“ I like a bit of chaff with my spider. I expect the tuffet will bear, won’t it? But I can’t promise you any curds.’
‘Thank you very much,’ said David politely, ‘but I don’t like curds.’
‘No more do I,’ said Miss Muffet. ‘I knew we should agree.’
‘Then why do you eat them?’ asked David.
‘For fear the spider should get them. Don’t you adore my tuffet? It’s the only indoor tuffet in the world. All others are out-door tuffets. But they gave me this one because most spiders are out-of-door spiders. By the way, we haven’t been introduced yet. ”

“ Allow the pupils to dramatize Little Miss Muffet:
Have a little girl sit on a dry-goods box, holding either a real or a play bowl and spoon. She pretends to eat from the bowl. Have a boy place quietly beside her one of the very realistic Japanese spiders. Suddenly she sees it. She jumps up and runs away. Meanwhile the other children recite the ryhme.
Wednesday
Have the children copy:
Blow, wind, blow! ”

“ She gave one more wild shriek as the spider leaped on to the tuffet, and began running about the room with the most amazing speed, the spider cantering after her. They upset the bathing-machine, and knocked the stuffed horse down, they dodged behind the butler, and sent the beehive spinning, and splashed through the curds and whey, which formed a puddle on the floor. Then the door through which David had entered flew open, and out darted Miss Muffet with the spider in hot pursuit. ”

“ Muffs sang back to him.
“I’m a great discoverer,” he said, sliding out of the tree and leaning against its trunk. “My name’s Tommy Tyler.”
“And I’m Miss Muffet. I’m staying with the dragons who live at the end of this road. Didn’t you see the big sign, BEWARE OF DRAGONS? That means Mr. and Mrs. Lippett.”
“I live at the other end,” said Tommy, “with Mom and Daddy and Great Aunt Charlotte and Donald and Mary and the baby.”
“My! What a lot of people!” Muffs exclaimed. “In my family there’s only Mother and me. Daddy went off and left5 us when I was just three years old. ”

“ Fig. 151 is the Little Crooked Man who ran a crooked mile.
Fig. 152 is Little Miss Muffet, who is so terribly afraid of the spider.
Fig. 153 is Peter White, who follows his nose wherever he goes.
Fig. 154 is Doctor Foster, who went to Gloster in a shower of rain, and he is stepping very high to avoid falling into the puddle we have all heard about.
The little twig people do not look quite as real when separated from the tree as when you see them dancing in the [80] breeze, so it is necessary to help out their appearance with paper heads and hands and feet. ”

“ Whatever he was, none the less, it couldn't otherwise have come to her that it was possible to feel lonely in the Strand. That showed, after all, how thick they must constantly have been—which was perhaps a thing to begin to think of in a new, in a steadier light. But it showed doubtless still more that her companion was probably up to something rather awful; it made her wonder, holding her breath a little, about Beadel-Muffet, made her certain that he and his affairs would partly account for Bight's whirl of absence. ”

“ When, at last, the rain did leave off, those who went to see, found that the old Witch's cottage had been quite washed away. Nothing remained to show where once it had been but one or two rotting casks, and a worn-out elastic bag. The old Witch herself was never seen or heard of in the village again, but she is probably still wandering about somewhere. So don't be too anxious for the rain to leave off, in case she should hear you, and come and steal all your water!
LITTLE MISS MUFFET "Cowards are cruel
But the brave
Have mercy, and delight to save" ”

“ For the hat, cut a circle of tissue-paper the color of the dress, put a little paste in the centre, and pinch it down on the top loop of Miss Muffet's hair, tipping it a little to one side. This will give a crown. Turn up the brim at the back and lift it in front to stand out straight. Fringe a small piece of black paper for a feather and paste it to the crown of the hat.
Peter White
Fig. 153—Peter White.
is sturdy compared with the other people (Fig. 153) . He came from the cherry tree and is ten inches high. ”

“ Ever conscious of empty pockets, she had yet always a penny, or at least a ha'penny, for a paper, and those she now scanned, she quickly assured herself, were edited quite as usual. Sir A. B. C. Beadel-Muffet K.C.B., M.P., had returned on Monday from Undertone, where Lord and Lady Wispers had, from the previous Friday, entertained a very select party; Sir A. B. C. Beadel-Muffet K.C.B., M.P., was to attend on Tuesday the weekly meeting of the society of the Friends of Rest ”

“ She herself, poor creature—as she also mentally put it—she herself was shamelessly on the prowl, but it wasn't, for her self-respect, to get herself puffed, it wasn't to pick up a personal advantage. It was to pick up news of Beadel-Muffet, to be near the extra-specials, and it was, also—as to this she was never blind—to cultivate that nearness by chances of Howard Bight. The blessing of blindness, in truth, at this time, she scantily enjoyed—being perfectly aware of the place occupied, in her present attitude to that young man, by the simple impossibility of not seeing him. ”

“ It's like making, in one of those big domestic siphons, the luxury of the poor, your own soda-water. It comes cheaper, and it's always on the sideboard. 'Vichy chez soi.' The interviewer at home."
Her companion took it in. "Your place is on my sideboard—you're really a first-class fizz! He steps then, at any rate, into Beadel-Muffet's place."
"That," Maud assented, "is what he would like to do." And she knew more than ever there was something to wait for.
"It's a lovely opening," Bight returned. But he still said, for the moment, nothing else ”

“ Mother Goose and Mother Hubbard may knit, the Old Woman tend her babies, Jack and Jill nudge and push one another, or tease others. Miss Muffett sulks, Cross Patch strikes at the boys who tease her, etc. The Bachelor occasionally tries to join some group, but is always brought back by his wife, who lectures him in pantomime. Tom Tucker is all taken up with the Milk Maid. Simon, when not eating, stares, open-mouthed, and backs away from Jack Horner, who is inclined to fight with him. Once in a while, Georgie scares one of the girls with his spider. ”

“ The muff is addicted to boasting sometimes, especially when in the company of girls; but when on the playground he hangs on the skirts of society, and sings very small. There are many boys, alas! who are made muffs by injudicious training, who would have grown up to be bold, manly fellows had they been otherwise treated. There are also many kinds of muffs. Some are good-hearted, amiable muffs; others are petty, sneaking muffs. ”

“ Who is Muffin?" asked Lily, feeling as if she had seen both these little people before, and liked them.
"He was Ginger Snap once, but he's a Muffin now. We begin in that way, and work up to the perfect loaf by degrees. My name is Johnny Cake, and she's Sally Lunn. You know us; so come on and have a race." ”

“ A few moments later, the dowager duchess requested admittance to the presence of the new mistress of the manor.
Claire shivered slightly, as she lay on the great carved bed with its hangings of embroidered Genoese velvet, and, drawing her lacy négligée about her, struggled to a sitting position. "If she will pardon—will pardon—!" she stammered. The slow tap of the ebony cane and the heavy step outside her door made her tremble anew. In her weakness, she feared this haughty woman of ice and iron, as she had feared no one else in her life. ”

“ When I want to be a perfect lady, why then I am a swell, and no mistake! Just look at this.”
And she withdrew as far as the window and then came swelling back with the mincing gait and circumspect air of a portly hen that fears to dirty her claws. As to Muffat, he followed her movements with eyes still wet with tears. He was stupefied by this sudden transition from anguish to comedy. She walked about for a moment or two in order the more thoroughly to show off her paces, and as she walked she smiled subtlely, closed her eyes demurely and managed her skirts with great dexterity. ”

“ At least, according to Muffin’s thrilling narrative of her adventures upon the Cambrian railway, she had found herself at a quarter to eleven the previous night at a place called Llan-something, where they have the mountains, with only four shillings and ninepence in her chain purse, together with a return ticket from Dwygyfy, and a canary in a wicker cage, which she had brought from Slocum Magna for Aunt Caroline.
However, “All’s well that ends well,” as Shakespeare says. Muffin accepted the situation in the philosophical spirit for which she had already acquired a reputation. ”

“ Linda steadied her wavering courage. “Tell me, Roland, why have you and Con quarreled? Tell me.”
“How do you know about that?” he demanded sharply. “Ah, of course—Caldwell. Well,” he stared at her coldly, “I don't mind relieving your feminine curiosity. I received a certain letter at the club that was very enlightening. I couldn't imagine to whose kind offices I owed the enlightenment. I never would have guessed. But I had a telephone call from a friend—that friend reminded me of a motive, one I hadn't thought of, and a lot of things became plain. ”

“ She raised her eyes to the face of the woman beside her. It was white as death itself, and as cold.
"These," said the dowager duchess, bending low over the packet in her lap, "are the gloves of Queen Catharine de' Medici. They were embroidered for the wife of Duke Michael. They have never been worn—look, how soft and flexible they are after all these years."
The Duchess Claire took the gloves, silently.
"How sweet they smell," she said, softly, raising them to her face, breathing the strange, dim fragrance they exhaled. "What is it? It's like nothing that I know—it seems hardly of earth." ”

“ He even wiggled the rug for fear that there might be a trapdoor beneath.
"Did the Princess love King Muffin? Of course she did. But she wasn't going to let him know it all at once. Ladies never do things like that. So she looked indifferent, as though she might yawn at any moment. Despite that, King Muffin told her what was on his mind, and when he was finished, he looked for an answer. But she didn't say anything, but just sat quiet and pretended there was a button off her dress. So King Muffin told it again, and moved up a bit. ”

“ She assured him that if he was not her husband, no other man should be, and Moufy, overcome with joy, threw himself at her feet, and in affectionate terms begged her to remember the promise she had given him. The Prince and Princess were betrothed, and Prince Moufy then returned to his principality to make preparations for the marriage. Moufette shed many tears at his departure, for she was troubled with the presentiment of evil which she could not explain. ”