children take the parts
individually but to omit the parts in unison. The joy of the mere noise
makes it difficult to bring them back for the close of the story. All
the children have repeated the refrains after a few readings with
evident enjoyment.

HOW THE ENGINE LEARNED THE KNOWING SONG

Once there was a new engine. He had a great big boiler; he had a smoke
stack; he had a bell; he had a whistle; he had a sand-dome; he had a
headlight; he had four big driving wheels; he had a cab. But he was very
sad, was this engine, for he didn't know how to use any of his parts.
All around him on the tracks were other engines, puffing or whistling or
ringing their bells and squirting steam. One big engine moved his wheels
slowly, softly muttering to himself, "I'm going, I'm going, I'm going."
Now the new engine knew this was the end of the Knowing Song of Engines.
He wanted desperately to sing it. So he called out:

"I want to go
But I don't know how;
I want to know,
Please teach me now.
Please somebody teach me how."

Now there were two men who had come just on purpose to teach him how.
And who do you suppose they were? The engineer and the fireman! When
the engineer heard the new engine call out, he asked, "What do you want,
new engine?"

And the engine answered:

"I want the sound
Of my wheels going round.
I want to stream
A jet of steam.
I want to puff
Smoke and stuff.
I want to ring
Ding, ding-a-ding.
I want to blow
My whistle so.
I want my light
To shine out bright.
I want to go ringing and singing the song,
The humming song of the engine coming,
The clear, near song of the engine here,
The knowing song of the engine going."

Now the engineer and the fireman were pleased when they heard what the
new engine wanted. But the engineer said:

"All in good time, my engine,
Steady, steady,
'Til you're ready.
Learn to know
Before you go."

[Illustration]

Then he said to the fireman, "First we must give our engine some water."
So they put the end of a hose hanging from a big high-up tank right into
a little tank under the engine's tender. The water filled up this little
tank and then ran into the big boiler and filled that all up too. And
while they were doing this the water kept saying:

"I am water from a stream
When I'm hot I turn to steam."

When the eng