r his fall)]

"What you must do," continued the Hen, as she wiped
a tear from her bright blue eye, "is to go to the
Farmer's Wife, next door, and tell her to put you into
a pot of boiling hot water; your skin is so hard and
smooth, it will not hurt you, and when you come out,
you may do as you wish, nothing can break you, you can
tumble about to your heart's content, and you will not
break, nor even dent yourself."

So Humpty rolled in next door, and told the Farmer's
Wife that he wanted to be put into boiling hot water
as he was too brittle to be of any use to himself or
to any one else.

[Illustration
(Humpty talks to the farmer's wife)]

"Indeed you shall," said the Farmer's Wife, "what is
more I shall wrap you up in a piece of spotted calico,
so that you will have a nice colored dress; you will
come out, looking as bright as an Easter Egg."

[Illustration
(Humpty in his calico bundle goes into the pot)]

So she tied him up in a gay new rag, and dropped him
into the copper kettle of boiling water that was on
the hearth.

It was pretty hot for Humpty at first, but he soon got
used to it, and was happy, for he felt himself getting
harder every minute.

He did not have to stay in the water long, before he
was quite well done, and as hard as a brick all the
way through; so, untying the rag, he jumped out of the
kettle as tough and as bright as any hard boiled Egg.

[Illustration
(Decorated Humpty emerges from the pot)]

The calico had marked him from head to foot with big,
bright, red spots, he was as gaudy as a circus clown,
and as nimble and merry as one.

[Illustration
(Humpty jumps from a high shelf)]

The Farmer's Wife shook with laughter to see the
pranks of the little fellow, for he frolicked and
frisked about from table to chair, and mantelpiece; he
would fall from the shelf to the floor, just to show
how hard he was; and after thanking the good woman
most politely, for the service she had done him, he
walked out into the sunshine, on the clothes-line,
like a rope dancer, to see the wide, wide world.

* * * * *

[Illustration
(Full Page: Humpty walks a tightrope while farmer's
wife looks on)]

[Illustration
(Humpty sits on a wall playing the banjo)]

Of the travels of Humpty-Dumpty much could be said;
he went East, West, North and South; he sailed the
seas, he walked and rode on the land through all the
Countries of the Ear