favorite story of "Teeny-Tiny" is taken
from Halliwell, who obtained it from oral
tradition, and by whom it was, apparently,
first put into print. "This simple tale," he
says, "seldom fails to rivet the attention of
children, especially if well told. The last two
words should be said loudly with a start." Many
modern story-tellers seem to prefer modified
forms of this story, presumably owing to a
feeling on their part that the bone and the
churchyard have gruesome suggestions. Carolyn
S. Bailey gives one of the best of these
modified forms in her _Firelight Stories_,
where the woman goes into a field instead of
the churchyard, finds a hen at the foot of a
tree, thinks this is a chance to have an egg
for her breakfast, puts the hen in her
reticule, goes home, puts the hen in her
cupboard, and goes upstairs to take a nap. Of
course the "teeny-tiny" goes in at every point.
Substituting "hen" for "bone," the story
continues substantially as given below.

TEENY-TINY

Once upon a time there was a teeny-tiny woman lived in a teeny-tiny
house in a teeny-tiny village. Now, one day this teeny-tiny woman put on
her teeny-tiny bonnet, and went out of her teeny-tiny house to take a
teeny-tiny walk. And when this teeny-tiny woman had gone a teeny-tiny
way, she came to a teeny-tiny gate; so the teeny-tiny woman opened the
teeny-tiny gate, and went into a teeny-tiny churchyard. And when this
teeny-tiny woman had got into the teeny-tiny churchyard, she saw a
teeny-tiny bone on a teeny-tiny grave, and the teeny-tiny woman said to
her teeny-tiny self, "This teeny-tiny bone will make me some teeny-tiny
soup for my teeny-tiny supper." So the teeny-tiny woman put the
teeny-tiny bone into her teeny-tiny pocket, and went home to her
teeny-tiny house.

Now when the teeny-tiny woman got home to her teeny-tiny house, she was
a teeny-tiny tired; so she went up her teeny-tiny stairs to her
teeny-tiny bed, and put the teeny-tiny bone into a teeny-tiny cupboard.
And when this teeny-tiny woman had been to sleep a teeny-tiny time, she
was awakened by a teeny-tiny voice from the teeny-tiny cupboard, which
said:

"GIVE ME MY BONE!"

And this teeny-tiny woman was a teeny-tiny frightened, so she hid her
teeny-tiny head under the teeny-tiny clothes and went to sleep again.