“If you will make their coats, I will make them some shoes,” said the shoemaker.  “Their little feet were bare.”

When the clothes and shoes were ready, they were put upon the bench.

[Illustration]

The shoemaker and his wife again hid behind the curtain.

Just as before, when the clock struck twelve, in jumped the tiny elves.

They went skipping and dancing, skipping and dancing, to their work.

They saw the little coats, the tiny stockings, and the neat little shoes.

They clapped their hands for joy.

Then, slipping on their clothes, they skipped, hand in hand, out of the window.

The shoemaker and his wife never saw the little elves again, but after that night, good luck seemed always to be with them.

English Folk Tale

    THE SHIP

    laden move

    I saw a ship a-sailing,
      A-sailing on the sea;
    And, oh, it was all laden
      With pretty things for thee!

    There were comfits in the cabin,
      And apples in the hold;
    The sails were made of silk,
      And the masts were made of gold.

    The four and twenty sailors
      That stood between the decks
    Were four and twenty white mice,
      With chains about their necks.

    The captain was a duck,
      With a jacket on his back;
    And when the ship began to move,
      The captain said, “Quack! quack!”

    Old English Rhyme

[Illustration]

THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN YOUNG KIDS—­I

quietly rough piece scissors learned thought chalk youngest

There was once an old goat who had seven little kids.

She loved them all as much as any mother ever loved her children.

One day the old goat wished to go into the woods to get food for her kids.

Before she started she called them all to her and said: 

“Dear children, I am going into the woods.

Now do not open the door while I am away.

If the old wolf should get into our hut, he would eat you all up, and not a hair would be left.

You can easily tell him by his rough voice and his black feet.”

“Dear mother,” cried all the young kids, “we will be very careful not to let the old wolf in.

You need not think of us at all, for we shall be quite safe.”

So the old goat went on her way into the dark woods.

She had not been gone long when there came a loud rap at the door, and a voice cried: 

“Open the door, my dear children.  I have something here for each of you.”

But the young kids knew by the rough voice that this was the old wolf.

So one of them said, “We shall not open the door.  Our mother’s voice is soft and gentle.  Your voice is rough.  You are a wolf.”