have that drum, if you like," said the Man. "I only kept it
because its voice reminded me of my wife, and now I have another."

"Thank you, thank you!" said the Monkey. "Now I am rich indeed!" Then he
began to beat upon the drum, and sang:--

"One old Woman, in a fix,
Made me go and gather sticks;
Then she gave me, for the sake
Of the fuel, one sweet cake.
Potter's son the sweet cake got,
Gave me in its place, one pot.
Cow-wife had the pot, and she
Butter gave instead to me.
Bumpkin ate the butter, then
Gave a cow to me again.
King took cow, but was not mean,
For he paid me with a Queen.
Now I have a drum, that's worth
More than any drum on earth.
You are worth a queen, my drum!
Rub-a-dub-dub, dhum dhum dhum!"

So the Monkey capered away into the forest in
high glee, beating upon his drum, and he
has never been heard of since.

The Monkey's Rebuke

IN a certain village, whose name I know (but I think I will keep it to
myself), in this village, I say, there was once a Milkman. I daresay you
know that a Milkman is a man who sells milk; but I have seen milkmen who
also sell water. That is to say, they put water in the milk which they
sell, and so they get more money than they deserve. This was the sort of
Milkman that my story tells of; and he was worse than the more part of
such tricksters, since he actually filled his pans only half full of
milk, and the other half all water. The people of that village were so
simple and honest, that they never dreamt their Milkman was cheating
them; and if the milk did seem thin, all they did was to shake their
heads, and say, "What a lot of water the cows do drink this hot
weather!"

By watering his milk, this Milkman got together a great deal of money:
ten pounds it was, all in sixpences, because the villagers always bought
sixpennyworth of milk a day.

When the Milkman had got ten pounds, that is to say, no less than four
hundred silver sixpences, he thought he would go and try his tricks in
another place, where there were more people to be cheated. So he put his
four hundred silver sixpences in a bag, and set out.

[Illustration]

After travelling a while, he came to a pond. He sat down by the pond to
eat his breakfast, laying his bag of sixpences by his side; and after