AN AUNT (_who finds the excellent Catalogue a mine of useful
information_). Look, Bobby, dear (_reading_). "Here we have
Constantine's Cat, as seen in the _Nights of Straparola_, an Italian
romancist, whose book was translated into French in the year 1585--"
BOBBY (_disappointed_). Oh, then it _isn't Puss in Boots_!
A GENIAL GRANDFATHER (_pausing before Crusoe and Friday_). Well, Percy,
my boy, you know who _that_ is, at all events--eh?
PERCY. I suppose it is Stanley--but it's not very like.
THE G. G. Stanley!--Why, bless my soul, never heard of _Robinson Crusoe_
and his man _Friday_?
PERCY. Oh, I've _heard_ of them, of course--they come in Pantomimes--but
I like more grown-up sort of books myself, you know. Is this girl
asleep _She_?
[Illustration: "THAT'S PLAY-ACTIN', THAT IS--AND I DON'T 'OLD WITH IT
NOHOW!"]
THE G. G. No--at least--well, I expect it's _The Sleeping Beauty_. You
remember her, of course--all about the ball, and the glass slipper, and
her father picking a rose when the hedge grew round the palace, eh?
PERCY. Ah, you see, Grandfather, you had more time for general reading
than we get. (_He looks through a practicable cottage window._) Hallo, a
Dog and a Cat. Not badly stuffed!
THE G. G. Why, that must be _Old Mother Hubbard_. (_Quoting from
memory._) "Old Mother Hubbard sat in a cupboard, eating a Christmas
pie--or a _bone_ was it?"
PERCY. Don't know. It's not in _Selections from British Poetry_, which
we have to get up for "rep."
THE AUNT (_reading from Catalogue_). "The absurd ambulations of this
antique person, and the equally absurd antics of her dog, need no
recapitulation." Here's _Jack the Giant Killer_, next. Listen, Bobby, to
what it says about him here. (_Reads._) "It is clearly the last
transmutation of the old British legend told by Geoffrey of Monmouth, of
Corineus, the Trojan, the companion of the Trojan Brutus, when he first
settled in Britain. But more than this"--I hope you're listening,
Bobby?--"_more_ than this, it is quite evident, even to the superficial
student of Greek mythology, that many of the main incidents and
ornaments are borrowed from the tales of Hesiod and Homer." Think of
that, now!
[BOBBY _thinks of it, with depression_.
THE G. G. (_before figure of Aladdin's Uncle selling new lamps for
old_). Here you are, you see! "_Ali Baba_," got 'em all here, you see.
Never read your _Arabian Nights_, either! Is that the way they bring up
boys nowadays!
PERCY. Well, the fact is, Grandfather, that unless a fellow reads that
kind of thing when he's _young_, he doesn't get a chance afterwards.
THE AUNT (_still quoting_). "In the famous work," Bobby, "by which we
know Masudi, he mentions the Persian Hezar Afsane-um-um-um,--nor have
commentators failed to notice that the occasion of the book written for
the Princess Homai resembles the story told in the Hebrew Bible about
Esther, her mother or grandmother, by some Persian Jew two or three
centuries B.C." Well, I never knew _that_ before!... This is _Sindbad
and the Old Man of the Sea_--let's see what they say about _him_.
(_Reads._) "Both the story of _Sindbad_ and the old Basque legend of
Tartaro are undoubtedly borrowed from the _Odyssey_ of Homer, whose
_Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ were translated into Syriac in the reign of
Harun-ur-Rashid." Dear, dear, how interesting, now! and, Bobby, what
_do_ you think some one says about _Jack and the Beanstalk_? He
says--"This tale is an allegory of the Teutonic Al-fader, the red hen
representing the all-producing sun; the moneybags, the fertilizing rain;
and the harp, the winds." Well, I'm sure it seems likely enough, doesn't
it?
[BOBBY _suppresses a yawn_; PERCY'S _feelings are outraged by
receiving a tin trumpet from the Lucky Tub; general move to the
scene of the Hampstead Tragedy_.