One sunshiny summer day, Little Miss Muffet said:
“I will give invitation hearty, This very day, to my picnic party.”
The Spider peeped in the door and said:
“The invitations I will make,
And deliver them without mistake.”
Miss Muffet was no longer afraid of the friendly Spider, so she replied:
“If the Mother Goose children all are good,
They may come to my picnic in the wood.”
The Spider went to work and made beautiful invitations to the picnic, and he wove pretty patterns on each invitation.
Little Miss Muffet knew she must do some cooking for the picnic, so she put on her apron and cap and made a fire, and
When she got out her rolling pin,
She was almost ready to begin.
“Rap-a-tap” was heard on the door, and in walked Mother Goose, singing:
“Old Mother Hubbard, so empty’s her cupboard,
Who’ll help fill the cupboard for Mother Hubbard?”
Little Miss Muffet went to her pantry shelves at once and took down jars and cans of good things and filled a basket for Mother Goose to take to Old Mother Hubbard; then Miss Muffet went back to her cookie-making, singing:
“Ha, ha, for the bowl and kitchen spoon,
I will stir up picnic cookies soon.”
“Tap, tap, tap” was heard on the window, and there stood Betty Blue, crying because she had lost her holiday shoe.
Little Miss Muffet went out and helped her look for the lost shoe, of course, and it was eleven o’clock when she got home.
She said merrily, as she began to stir the cookies again:
“We will be happy, all together,
A picnic’s fun in pleasant weather.”
“Ting-a-ling” rang the telephone, and Simple Simon said:
“Can I come over today or tomorrow,
A penny to earn, or a penny to borrow?”
Little Miss Muffet knew how fond Simple Simon was of pie, and she could not refuse him a penny for the Pieman.
The invitations had gone out. The picnic hour was set for four o’clock. Every hour it grew nearer and nearer four o’clock. The cookies were not ready, and five and twenty new picnic dinner pails stood empty in a row.
Miss Muffet began to roll the cookies out at last when she saw Jack and Jill tumbling downhill.
She ran to them, of course, to wrap Jack’s head up in vinegar and brown paper and to help Jill up.
She had no sooner gotten home when she heard Tom, the Piper’s Son, piping:
“Humpty Dumpty, now is calling,
He is much afraid of falling.”
So, Miss Muffet went to rescue Humpty Dumpty from the wall. It grew nearer and nearer four o’clock, and I am afraid there would have been no picnic lunch ready at all if the spider had not spun a long, long web, reaching to the home of
The Old Woman of Leeds,
Who was known for kind deeds.
She came in a hurry to Miss Muffet’s house, you may be sure, and cut out the cookies and put red and blue sugar upon them, and slipped them in the oven to bake, and
The kind-hearted spider,
Sat right there beside her.
He said fairy verses, and the most surprising things began to happen as it grew nearer and nearer four o’clock.
He shouted:
“Don’t forget each sandwich plate,
Or the picnic will be late.”
Down sailed five and twenty paper plates into five and twenty empty picnic pails.
Then he cried:
“Ho, for the knife and fork and spoon,
The picnic party will come off soon.”
Down sailed five and twenty little knives and forks and spoons into the shining dinner pails.
Tom, the Piper’s Son, brought a peck of pickled peppers, and Tommy Tucker brought jelly he had earned when singing for his supper, and Simple Simon brought a ripe, red raspberry pie.
The Queen of Hearts brought tarts, and Little Jack Horner brought a wonderful green apple pie, and Polly put the kettle on to make tea, so all the children helped get ready for the picnic party.
The Spider called:
“Paper napkins sail down in a row,
The picnic hour approaches, you know.”
Down sailed five and twenty paper napkins with blue birds upon them.
The clock struck three-thirty—would Little Miss Muffet never return?
The Old Woman of Leeds took the last cookies out of the oven, and Mother Goose helped pack the five and twenty dinner pails.
Exactly on the stroke of four, Miss Muffet ran home with Lucy Locket and her lost pocket. She said:
“I’ve been so busy, I’m sorry to say,
We’ll have the picnic another day.”
The Spider answered:
“You’ve plenty of friends in Mother Goose Town,
The cookies are baked, sugared, and brown.”
Simple Simon shouted:
“Listen now, to Simple Simon,
Lucky ’twas I met the Pieman.”
He held up his ripe, red, raspberry pie, and Jack Horner held up his wonderful green apple pie, and the Queen of Hearts showed her tarts, and taking up the five and twenty dinner pails, the Mother Goose children went with Little Miss Muffet to the woods.
I’m really quite sorry to relate,
The Ten O’Clock Scholar was very late.
And Miss Muffet said:
“I’m glad I have a friendly spider,”
As she smiled on all who sat beside her.
Jack and Jill came safely along with a pail of water, while
Tom, the Piper’s Son, played all the way,
And the picnic party was merry and gay.
