l, let them try a tale of joy or woe, all
in words of three letters and less. Mother Goose could never have made
her precious "high-diddle-diddle" nonsense in this way. I have tried
frantically to spell "jolly" in three letters and "darling" in one
syllable. How I have succeeded the books are submitted to show.

The mothers have wanted them, and I have written them--begging pardon
of Mother Goose and Mr. Murray--and entreating that all short-comings,
which in this case will mean all words too long, will be set down to
want of power, not want of will, to delight and amuse the dear little
darlings, the writing for whom is so rare a comfort to their loving

AUNT FANNY.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE, 4

THE BAD OLD APE, 11

MOP, THE PET CAT. A POEM, 19

SAM, THE BAD BOY, 28

BEN AND SUE, AND THE SEE-SAW, 35

THE HEN AND FOX. A POEM, 43

BEN AND BOB, 50

THE OLD GRAY RAT, 64

POOR WILL, WHO WAS SHOT IN THE WAR, 96

ANN, THE GOOD GIRL, 130

JOE, WHO DID NOT MIND, 157

THE

BAD OLD APE.

One day Ned got a pie to eat. It was too hot, so he put it out in the
air, on the lid of a big tin pot.

And now he ran off to see his dog who had a pup, and his cat who had a
kit.

The pup lay in a box. Ned had got hay to put in the box for a bed; the
pup lay on the hay, and the kit lay on a bit of rug.

Ned did pat the pup on his ear, and say: "O you pet! let me hug you."
By and by, he did pat the kit too, and say: "Kit, kit, kit, can you
eat pie--can you? Let me go and get you a bit." So he ran to his
pie--but, O my! it was not on the lid of the big tin pot.

"Why, who _can_ it be who has got my pie?" Ned did say. "Did it fly up
in the air?"

"Why, Hal! did _you_ get my pie?"

"No, not I. It is a tom-tit you see--not a pie."

"O yes! so it is, a wee tom-tit. If I can get my pie, the tom-tit, and
you and I can eat it."

He got up on top of the tin pot to see far off, and he did cry out: "O
my! I see it now! I see my pie! The sly old ape has got it, and he
has eat a big bit out of it, too! Oh! oh! he will eat it all up! How
can I get at him?"

And now the sly old ape, who had the pie in his paw, saw Ne