shoes, and your pinafore! Come along, I say! You may have some of the
pig-wash for supper, if there is more than I want."

"I don't want pig-wash!" said the child; and he began to cry.

Just then the Tidy Angel came out.

"I have set everything to rights," she said, "and so it must stay. Now,
will you go with the Pig Brother, or will you come back with me, and be a
tidy child?"

"With you, with you!" cried the child; and he clung to the Angel's dress.

The Pig Brother grunted.

"Small loss!" he said. "There will be all the more wash for me!" And he
trotted off.

THE CAKE[1]

[Footnote 1: From _The Golden Windows_, by Laura E. Richards. (H.R.
Allenson Ltd. 2s. 6d. net.)]

A child quarrelled with his brother one day about a cake.

"It is my cake!" said the child.

"No, it is mine!" said his brother.

"You shall not have it!" said the child. "Give it to me this minute!" And
he fell upon his brother and beat him.

Just then came by an Angel who knew the child.

"Who is this that you are beating?" asked the Angel.

"It is my brother," said the child.

"No, but truly," said the Angel, "who is it?"

"It is my brother, I tell you!" said the child.

"Oh no," said the Angel, "that cannot be; and it seems a pity for you to
tell an untruth, because that makes spots on your soul. If it were your
brother, you would not beat him."

"But he has my cake!" said the child.

"Oh," said the Angel, "now I see my mistake. You mean that the cake is
your brother; and that seems a pity, too, for it does not look like a
very good cake,--and, besides, it is all crumbled to pieces."

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN TOWN[1]

[Footnote 1: From traditions, with rhymes from Browning's _The Pied Piper
of Hamelin_.]

Once I made a pleasure trip to a country called Germany; and I went to a
funny little town, where all the streets ran uphill. At the top there was
a big mountain, steep like the roof of a house, and at the bottom there
was a big river, broad and slow. And the funniest thing about the little
town was that all the shops had the same thing in them; bakers' shops,
grocers' shops, everywhere we went we saw the same thing,--big chocolate
rats, rats and mice, made out of chocolate. We were so surprised that
after a while, "Why do you have rats in your shops?" we asked.

"Don't you know this is Hamelin town?" they said. "What of that?" said we.
"Why, Hamelin town is where the Pied Piper came," they told us; "surely
you