* * * * *

    There was a crooked man, and he went a crooked mile,
    He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;
    He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
    And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

* * * * *

    Cushy cow bonny, let down thy milk,
    And I will give thee a gown of silk;
    A gown of silk and a silver tee,
    If thou wilt let down thy milk to me.

* * * * *

    “Little girl, little girl, where have you been?”
    “Gathering roses to give to the queen.” 
    “Little girl, little girl, what gave she you?”
    “She gave me a diamond as big as my shoe.”

* * * * *

        Little Bo-peep has lost her sheep,
          And can’t tell where to find them;
        Leave them alone, and they’ll come home,
          And bring their tails behind them.

        Little Bo-peep fell fast asleep,
          And dreamt she heard them bleating;
        But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
          For still they all were fleeting.

        Then up she took her little crook,
          Determin’d for to find them;
        She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
          For they’d left their tails behind them.

FIVE LITTLE WHITE HEADS[1]

[Footnote 1:  From Mother-Song and Child-Song, Charlotte Brewster Jordan.]

BY WALTER LEARNED

    Five little white heads peeped out of the mould,
      When the dew was damp and the night was cold;
    And they crowded their way through the soil with pride;
      “Hurrah!  We are going to be mushrooms!” they cried.

    But the sun came up, and the sun shone down,
      And the little white heads were withered and brown;
    Long were their faces, their pride had a fall—­
      They were nothing but toadstools, after all.

BIRD THOUGHTS[2]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid.]

        I lived first in a little house,
          And lived there very well;
        I thought the world was small and round,
          And made of pale blue shell.

        I lived next in a little nest,
          Nor needed any other;
        I thought the world was made of straw,
          And brooded by my mother.

        One day I fluttered from the nest
          To see what I could find. 
        I said, “The world is made of leaves;
          I have been very blind.”

        At length I flew beyond the tree,
          Quite fit for grown-up labours. 
        I don’t know how the world is made,
          And neither do my neighbours!