ying daughter.

And if he got an encore, which he often did for this piece, for he
_loved_ saying it, he used to tell the story of Robert:--

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

When the rain comes tumbling down
In the country or the town,
All good little girls and boys
Stay at home and mind their toys.

Robert thought,--"No, when it pours,
It is better out of doors."
Here you see him, silly fellow,
Underneath his red umbrella.

Now look at the silly fellow,
The wind has caught his red umbrella,
Up he flies to the skies;
No one hears his screams and cries.

No one ever yet could tell
Where he stopped, or where he fell:
Only, this one thing is plain,
Bob was never seen again!

And they always used to finish up with the black nigger girl on
horseback:--

Dis yah am de niggah gal
Come to say good night,
Wishin' all de picanninies
Dreams of fairies bright.
Wishin' all de niggah boys,
Plently laugh and fun,
Wishin' dat this circus game
Was only jus' begun,
'Stead of bein' as 'tis now,
Finished, when I've made my bow.

Then Little Dumpty made her jump up on the bareback horse and bow to his
Mother.

At half-past seven Dumpty had to "prepare," as he said, that is he had
to begin to think about bed, just so that bed-time shouldn't come when
he was in the middle of something _very_ interesting, and at a quarter
to eight he had to go. He gave his Mother a kiss, and often when he
had been very good and happy she gave him an acid drop to suck when he
was in bed.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Well, of course there were lots more things Little Dumpty used to do: I
can't tell them all because it would take too long if I were to tell you
all about his chalks and his paints and his stone bricks and his silver
paper ball and his kite--why it would fill ever so many books, but I
_must_ tell you one thing more and that is about his card houses. He was
better at that than at anything, and one night his Mother offered a
prize of a cake of new emerald green paint if he could build eight
houses. And he _did_. He tried ever so many times; and his Mother had
to let him sit up a little later because just as he had got to the sixth
storey safely, safely, after striving very much, the clock struck a
quarter to eight. It would have been too bad to send him off then, when
he longed to do it