Boy Blue and His Friends Part 19

It had been snowing hard all day and they were thinking of the s...o...b..a.l.l.s they would make, and of the snow forts that they would build on the hill.

How could they study when they were thinking of all those things?

"Miss Smith," said Bo-peep, looking up from her work, "won't you please tell us a story? It is getting so dark that I cannot see to write."

Miss Smith thought a minute and then said, "How would you like to play at being a book?"

Every little face brightened. The boys looked at Miss Smith and forgot about the snow forts.

Mary sat up and did not feel one bit sleepy.

"Why, Miss Smith," said Mary, "how can we be a book?"

"I will show you," said Miss Smith.

"We will play that we are the Mother Goose Book.

"You must each think of some child from Mother Goose land whom you would like to be.

"Then each one can come to the front of the room and play at being that little child.

"The rest of us will try to guess who the child is."

The children all thought that would be great fun, and for a few minutes it was so quiet they could almost hear the snow falling.

At the end of five minutes Miss Smith said, "Now it is time to begin.

You may be on the first page in our book, Jack.

"You may use anything in the room you need to help you in acting your part."

Jack went into the hall. In a minute he pushed the door open a little way and looked in.

Then he came into the school-room. He had his books under his arm, and as he came in very slowly he looked at the clock.

"Oh, I know!" said John. "Hickory, d.i.c.kory, dock."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "She looked so funny as she came into the room riding on a broom"]

"No, no," said Mary, "that is:--

'A dillar, a dollar, A ten o'clock scholar, What makes you come so soon?

You used to come at ten o'clock, And now you come at noon.'"

"That is right," said Jack. "Mary guessed it."

Then it was Mary's turn to be a page in the Mother Goose Book.

When she came in she had on Miss Smith's long white ap.r.o.n, her hair was done up high on her head, and she was riding on a broom.

She looked so funny that all the children laughed.

At last Edith stopped laughing and began to sing:

"Old woman, old woman, Old woman, said I.

Oh whither, oh whither, Oh whither so high?

To sweep the cobwebs out of the sky; But I'll be back again by-and-by."

Yes, Edith had guessed right, so she ran out of the room.

When she came back the children all looked and looked.

Who could she be?

She hadn't changed herself one bit, and she only stood still and looked at them.

"We are caught this time," laughed Miss Smith.

Just then a little girl in the back of the room jumped up and said: "Oh, see the curl in the middle of her forehead! I know who she is!

'There was a little girl, And she had a little curl.

And it hung right down on her forehead.

When she was good She was very good indeed; But when she was bad she was horrid.'"

Tommy went out next, and when he came back he had a little toy pig under his arm.

"I can think of ever so many pigs in Mother Goose," said Alice. "Have you been to market, Tommy?"

"No, no," said Tommy, "I did not buy this good fat pig."

"I know who you are, and where you got your pig," laughed Jill.

"Tom, Tom, the piper's son, Stole a pig and away he run."

Mistress Mary came in with her watering pot to water her flowers.

Boy Blue was quickly guessed because he had a horn.

Just as Jack and Jill came in with a pail of water, the bell rang.

It was time to go home!

Every one of the children was sorry not to see all of the book.

"Some day we will play this game again," said Miss Smith. "Then we can see the rest of the pages."

As they ran home together they were all talking of the new game.

That night they got out their Mother Goose books and read them through, so that the next time they would be sure to guess every rhyme.