Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1
kill the boys, that they might be ready for the next day's breakfast.
He felt the beds, and finding the crowns on the boy's heads took them
for his own children, left them and went to the other bed and cut off
the heads of his daughters instead. Then he went back to bed.
Directly he was gone, Hop o' my Thumb and his brothers got up, stole
down stairs, opened the door and fled away from the castle. But they
did not go far. Hop o' my Thumb knew that the giant would come after
them in his seven-league boots. So they got into a hole in the side
of a hill and hid. Very soon after, they saw the giant coming at a
great pace in his wonderful boots; but he took such long steps that
he passed right over their heads. They were afraid to move out till
they had seen him go home again. So they remained quietly where they
were.
By-and-bye the giant, who had been many miles in an hour, came back
tired, and lay down on the hill-side and fell asleep. Then Hop o' my
Thumb got out of the hole, and pulled off the giant's seven-league
boots, and put them on his own feet. They fitted him exactly, for
being fairy boots they would grow large or small just as one liked.
He then got his brothers out of the hole, took them in his boots,
marched for home, and although it was a great distance, got there in
almost no time, but when he arrived at the house his father and
mother were not there. He then hastened to make inquiries for them,
and found they had been suspected of murdering their children,--who
had all disappeared suddenly--that they had owned to leaving them in
the wood, and that they were to be put to death for their crime. "We
must go and save them," he said. So he took his brothers into the
seven-league boots, and set out to the place where their parents were
in prison. They arrived only just in time, for the guards were
bringing out the woodsman and his wife to put them to death. Hop o'
my Thumb took off the boors, and all the children called out, "We are
alive! we are alive! Do not kill our mother and father."
Then there was great joy. The woodman and his wife were set free, and
embraced their children. They had repented their wickedness, and were
never unkind and cruel any more; and Hop o' my Thumb kept them all in
comfort by going on errands for the king in his seven-league boots.
Tom Thumb
In the days of good King Arthur there lived a ploughman and his wife
who wished very much to have a son; so the man went to Merlin, the
enchanter, and asked him to let him have a child, even, if it were
"_no bigger than his thumb._" "Go home and you will find one," said
Merlin; and when the man came back to his house he found his wife
nursing a very, very, wee baby, who in four minutes grew to the size
of the ploughman's thumb, and never grew any more. The fairy queen
came to his christening and named him "Tom Thumb." She then dressed
him nicely in a shirt of spider's web, and a doublet and hose of
thistledown.
One day, while Tom's mother was making a plum-pudding, Tom stood on
the edge of the bowl, with a lighted candle in his hand, that she
might see to make it properly. Unfortunately, however, while her back
was turned, Tom fell into the bowl, and his mother not missing him,
stirred him up in the pudding, and put it and him into the pot. Tom
no sooner felt the hot water than he danced about like man; the woman
was nearly frightened out of her wits to see the pudding come out of
the pot and jump about, and she was glad to give it to a tinker who
was passing that way.
The tinker was delighted with his present; but as he was getting over
a style, he happened to sneeze very hard, and Tom called out from the
middle of the pudding, "Hallo, Pickens!" which so terrified the
tinker that he threw the pudding into the field, and scampered away
as fast as he could. The pudding tumbled to pieces in the fall, and
Tom, creeping out, went home to his mother, who was in great
affliction because she could not find him. A few days afterwards Tom
went with his mother into the fields to milk the cows, and for fear
he should be blown away by the wind, she tied him to a thistle with a
small piece of thread. Very soon after a cow ate up the thistle and
swallowed Tom Thumb. His mother was in sad grief again; but Tom
scratched and kicked in the cow's throat till she was glad to throw
him out of her mouth again.
One day Tom Thumb went ploughing with his father, who gave him a whip
made of barley straw, to drive the oxen with; but an eagle, flying
by, caught him up in his beak, and carried him to the top of a great
giant's castle. The giant would have eaten Tom up; but the fairy
dwarf scratched and bit his tongue and held on by his teeth till the
giant in a passion took him out again and threw him into the sea,
when a very large fish swallowed him up directly. The fish was caught
soon after and sent as a present to King Arthur, and when the cook
opened it there was Tom Thumb inside. He was carried to the king, who
was delighted with the little man.
The king ordered a little chair to be made, in order that Tom might
sit on his table, and also a palace of gold a span high, with a door
an inch wide, for little Tom to live in. He also gave him a coach
drawn by six small mice.
This made the queen angry, because she had no a new coach too;
therefore, resolving to ruin Tom, she complained to the king that he
had spoken insolently to her. The king sent for him. Tom, to escape
his fury, crept into an empty snail shell, and lay there till he was
almost starved; when peeping out of the shell he saw a fine butterfly
settled on the ground: he now ventured out, and getting on it, the
butterfly took wing, and mounted into the air with little Tom on his
back. Away he flew from field to field, from tree to tree, till at
last he flew to the king's court. The king, queen, and nobles all
strove to catch the butterfly but could not. At length poor Tom,
having neither bridle or saddle, slipped from his seat and fell into
a pool of water, where he was found nearly drowned. The queen vowed
he should be beheaded, and while the scaffold was getting ready, he
was secured in a mouse-trap; when the cat seeing something stir
supposing it to be a mouse, patted the trap about till she broke it,
and set Tom at liberty.
Sometimes Tom rode out on a mouse for a horse. One day a big black
met him along the road, and wanted to kill the mouse. Tom jumped off
the mouse's back, drew his sword, and fought the cat, and made her
run away.
In order to show his courage and please the queen, the new knight
undertook a terrible adventure.
In one corner of the palace garden there was found a great black
spider, of which the lady was very much afraid.
Tom undertook to kill this insect; so he took a gold button for a
shield, and his sharp needle-sword, and went out to attack the
spider; the knights went also, to witness the combat.
Tom drew his sword and fought valiantly, but the spider's poisonous
breath overcame him.
King Arthur and his whole Court went into mourning for little Tom
Thumb. They buried him under a rose-bush, and raised a nice white
marble monument over his grave.
[Page 34--Naughty Boys]
Mr. Brown, the grocer, having nearly emptied a cask of sugar in front
of his shop, a number of naughty boys, seeing his back turned,
commenced to steal some. Mr. Brown, spying them through the window,
came out, and the reader can see what happened--A bystander informs
us that muttered howls of agony arose from the cask, and all the
boys' interest in sugar was at an end.
Boy Who Stole Out Without Leave
I remember, I remember,
When I was a little Boy,
One fine morning in September
Uncle brought me home a toy.
I remember how he patted
Both my cheeks in his kindliest mood;
"Then," said he, "you little Fat-head,
There's a top because you're good."
Grandmamma--a shrewd observer--
I remember gazed upon
My new top, and said with fervour,
"Oh! how kind of Uncle John."
While mamma, my form caressing--
In her eyes the tear-drop stood,
Read me this fine moral lesson,
"See what comes of being good."
I remember, I remember,
On a wet and windy day,
One cold morning in December,
I stole out and went to play.
I remember Billy Hawkins
Came, and with his pewter squirt
Squibbed my pantaloons and stockings
Till they were all over dirt.
To my mother for protection
I ran, quaking every limb;
She exclaim'd, with fond affection,
"Gracious goodness! look at him!"
Pa cried, when he saw my garment,
'Twas a newly purchased dress--
"Oh! you nasty little varment,
How came you in such a mess?"
Then he caught me by the collar,
--Cruel only to be kind--
And to my exceeding dolour,
Gave me--several slaps behind.
Grandmamma, while I yet smarted,
As she saw my evil plight,
Said--'twas rather stony-hearted--
"Little rascal! serve him right!"
I remember, I remember,
From that sad and solemn day,
Never more in dark December
Did I venture out to play.
And the moral which they taught, I
Well remember: thus they said--
"Little Boys, when they are naughty,
Must be whipp'd and sent to bed!"
[Page 35--Boy Land]
Dirty Jack
There was one little Jack,
Not very long back,
And 't is said to his lasting disgrace,
That he never was seen
With his hands at all clean,
Nor yet ever clean was his face.
His friends were much hurt
To see so much dirt
And often and well did they scour,
But all was in vain,
He was dirty again
Before they had done it an hour.
When to wash he was sent,
He reluctantly went
With water to splash himself o'er,
But he left the black streaks
Running down both his cheeks,
And made them look worse than before.
The pigs in the dirt
Could not be more expert
Than he was, in grubbing about;
And people have thought
This gentleman ought
To be made with four legs and a snout.
The idle and bad
May, like to this lad,
Be dirty and black, to be sure.
But good boys are seen
To be decent and clean,
Although they be ever so poor.
Throwing Stones
Johnny Jones, why do you do it?
Those who throw stones
Surely will rue it;
Little of pleasure, evil may flow,
Mischief past measure comes of a blow.
Yes, yes! stone flinging.
Laugh as you may,
Woe may be bringing
Upon you some day.
Someone is watching,
Armed by the law,
Truncheon from pocket
Soon he will draw.
Off he will march you--
Dreadful to think!--to a dark prison:
Light through a chink,
Bread without butter, water for drink.
Dirty Dick
Dirty, noisy, mischievous Dick,
Struggled and tore, and wanted to fight
Susan, the nurse, who in the bath
Began to wash him on Saturday night.
Her hair he tried to pull up by the roots,
The water he splashed all over the floor,
Which ran downstairs, and one night made
A terrible slop at the parlour door.
To give him advice was a waste of time,
So his father resolved to try a stick,
And never since then has he been called
Dirty, noisy, mischievous Dick.
Boy That Stole the Apples
A boy looked over a wall,
And spied some lovely apples;
"But," says he "the tree is tall,
And belongs to 'Grumpie Chapples!'
Still, I think some could be got
By a climbing lad like me:
I'll try and steal a lot,
So here goes up the tree."
The wall he then got over,
And up the tree he went;