[Illustration: HUMPTY DUMPTY]
To ALICE
WHO LISTENED TO MY FIRST FAIRY STORIES,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
[Illustration: THEY ALL THREE STOOD IN A ROW BEFORE HER
(_Page 34_)]
[Illustration:]
THE TRUE STORY
OF
HUMPTY DUMPTY
How he was rescued by Three Mortal Children
in Make Believe Land
By ANNA ALICE CHAPIN
With Illustrations and Decorations
BY ETHEL FRANKLIN BETTS
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
1905
[Illustration]
_Copyright, 1905_
+By Dodd, Mead & Company+
Published October, 1905
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS · CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS
+Chapter+ +Page+
I +The Way It All Began+ 1
II +Make-Believing+ 7
III +At the Owls’ Inn+ 19
IV +Mother Goose’s Cottage+ 31
V +Through the Wonderful Wood+ 43
VI +How Bab Rescued the Wooden Cow+ 55
VII +Meg’s Journey to Fairyland+ 67
VIII +The Court of the Fairy Queen+ 81
IX +Under the Sea of Glass+ 93
X +A Fish Tea-Party+ 105
XI +Into the City of the Wicked King+ 117
XII +Princess Star+ 129
XIII “+Harness the Reindeer!+” 137
XIV +Danger!+ 151
XV +By the City Wall+ 163
XVI +Behind the Reindeer+ 175
XVII +Mother Goose Once More+ 187
XVIII +At Last+ 199
[Illustration]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
They all three stood in a row before her [Page 34] _Frontispiece_
The Owl-Innkeeper’s story [Page 23] 38
Bab and the Sand Man [Page 51] 84
“She was surely the Queen of the Fairy Folk” [Page 89] 120
“‘I don’t think I like you,’ said the Sea Kobold; ‘you may
go’” [Page 98] 146
They were all three back on the nursery hearth rug [Page 206] 192
_Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again._
I
_The Way It All Began_
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Humpty Dumpty
CHAPTER I
_The Way It All Began_
“I hate eggs!” said Meg, and smashed hers viciously with a spoon.
“There, now, Miss Meg,” exclaimed Nurse, reprovingly, “you’ll never be
able to eat it prettily out of the shell now!”
“I don’t want to eat it prettily,” declared Meg. “I’m going to mix it
up in a mess!”
Bab made a face at hers, and did not even break the shell. Dick, being
a boy and always hungry, ate his, but grumbled all the time.
“Why do we always have eggs for tea?” demanded Meg. “I hate ’em!”
“You oughtn’t to hate poor Humpty Dumpty!” said Nurse, smiling and
shaking her finger at her.
“Humpty Dumpty!” scoffed Meg. “So silly!”
“Nursery rot!” cried Dick.
“Nurse, what an old goose you are!” said Bab, eating bread and jam as
fast as she possibly could.
From all this you will see just what disagreeable children Dick and
Meg and Bab were. If they had not been, this story would never have
been written, for they would not have had to be taught better by being
summoned to—But that comes later on!
Our three children found fault with everything, particularly their
food, and were discontented and quarrelsome most of the time. Poor
Nurse loved them dearly, but found them very trying to take care of,
and the children only laughed at her mild scoldings, and made fun of
the fat finger which she shook at them as she sighed, “My dears, my
dears!”
They were quite pretty children. Meg had yellow hair, Bab black, and
Dick brown; and they looked far too nice to be so horrid. And as a
matter of fact, they were really, down in their hearts, much nicer
than they seemed. The whole trouble with them was that—and this is
a dreadful thing to say of any child!—they would have nothing to do
with Make Believe Land! They did not believe in elves or goblins or
giants or brownies, or anything really important and sensible, and they
thought fairy tales silly!
“Tell us a story, Nurse,” said Bab, when they had finished their tea.
But Nurse shook her head.
“You don’t care for my stories,” she said. “I only know the old ones,
about the Fairy Queen—”
“Silly!” said Meg.
“And Santa Claus—” went on Nurse.
“Rubbish!” cried Bab.
“And Mother Goose—” Nurse continued.
“Stuff and nonsense!” exclaimed Dick.
Nurse looked really very sad and shocked.
“My dears, my dears!” she said solemnly. “Some day, if you are not
careful, you will be sorely punished for the things you have said about
the friends of all the children of the world! Why, it’s downright
wicked for a child not to love the Fairy Queen and Santa Claus and
Mother Goose!”
“If there ever was a Fairy Queen,” said Meg, scornfully, “she was a
disagreeable thing,—turning people into spiders and toads and things!”
“If there ever _had_ been a Santa Claus, he would have been an awful
bore!” remarked Bab.
“If there ever _could_ be a Mother Goose,” declared Dick, “she’d be a
regular goose, and no mistake!”
“Oh, dear! Oh, dear! However can you talk so, my lambs?” cried poor
Nurse. She piled some wood on the fire, and cleared away the dishes
that were on the nursery table. Then, while the children sat on the
hearth-rug and chattered, she left the room, shaking her head, and
muttering:
“Oh, dear! I hope they’ll never be punished for the dreadful things
they say. Poor lambs! Just to think of not believing in the Make
Believe folk!”
Now, as our three children sat on the rug in front of the nursery fire,
they all fell asleep; and a very strange thing happened. Whether the
events that followed were real or only dreamed, they never could know
quite surely. But if it was all a dream,—_if_ it was all a dream, I
say,—there is something very odd about it: _for they all dreamed the
same thing_!
The first thing that happened was that a hum and buzz like that of a
great big bumblebee filled the room. Next moment a small, anxious voice
was exclaiming:
“At last I’ve found you! I’ve nearly worried my wings off; I have
indeed!”
They all three started up, rubbing their eyes. Just alighting on the
hearth-rug before them, was a little green sprite, with goggle eyes,
and gauzy wings like a dragon-fly.
“Heavens!” gasped Meg. “What in the world is it?”
“I am the Bizzybuzz,” answered the small creature. “And I have been
sent by Mother Goose to summon you all three to Make Believe Land!”
[Illustration]
II
_Make-Believing_
[Illustration]
[Illustration]