if she may come in and get a light for her pipe. She must pretend to
be very old and walk with a stick.

"Come in," says the eldest daughter; "what do you want?"

"To light my pipe at your fire."

"Very well, but you must not dirty the range."

"Certainly not; I'll be very careful."

While the eldest daughter pretends to look on the shelf for something,
the witch puts her dirty shoe on the range, catches hold of Monday
(the youngest child) and runs off with him. The child who is the pot
now makes a hissing noise and pretends to boil over. The daughter
calls out:

"Mother, mother, the pot boils over."

"Take a spoon and skim it."

"Can't find one."

"Look on the shelf."

"Can't reach."

"Take the stool."

"The leg's broken."

"Take the chair."

"The chair's gone to be mended."

"I suppose I must come myself."

The mother comes in from the washtub, drying her hands.

"Where's Monday?" she asks.

"Please, mother, some one came to beg for a light for her pipe, and
when my back was turned she took Monday."

"Why, that was the witch."

The mother pretends to beat the eldest daughter, tells her to be more
careful another time, and goes back to the washtub. The game then goes
on as before, and each time the witch comes she takes away a child,
until at last even the eldest daughter is taken. The pot boils over
for the last time and then the mother, finding all her children gone,
goes to the witch's house to find them, when this conversation ensues:

"Is this the way to the witch's house?"

"There's a red bull that way."

"Then I'll go this way."

"There's a mad cow that way."

But the mother insists upon going into the witch's house to look for
her children. The witch generally hides the children behind chairs.
The mother stoops over one child: "This tastes like Monday," she says,
but the witch replies: "That! it is a barrel of pork."

"No, no," says the mother, "it is my Monday, and there are the rest
of the children." The children now jump out and they and their mother
begin to run home; the witch runs after them, and whoever she catches
becomes witch, while the witch becomes the eldest daughter.

* * * * *

THE ANTS AND THE GRASSHOPPER

Lots are drawn in order to decide who shall be the grasshopper; the
ants then seat themselves in a circle, while the grasshopper writes on
a piece of paper the name of a grain or food which a grasshopper might
be supposed