happened to be the old Nurse who had taken care of Peterkin and Gretchen. She loved the children and she soon saw what the wicked Queen had done. She told the Cook what the Lamb and Fish must do to regain their natural forms.
As soon as it was dark the little Lamb came to the edge of the wood and the Cook said, "Little Lamb, I will tell you what you must do to be a maid again!" So the Cook whispered what the wise Woman had said. The little Lamb thanked the Cook and promised to do as he said.
Next morning very early before the break of day, the little Lamb hurried from the wood across the meadow. Not taking time to go near the pond she hastily pushed against the castle gate which the kind Cook had left unfastened for her. She ran up the path, and there under the Queen's window stood the beautiful rose-tree with only two red roses on it—just as the Cook had said. Not even glancing at the Queen's window, the little Lamb began nibbling the lowest one. And behold, there in the path stood Gretchen again! Then hastening to seize the other rose before the sun's first ray might touch it, she ran lightly down the path, away from castle ground, across the meadow to the pond. Calling little Fish to the water's edge—for he had lingered in the pond—she sprinkled over him the drops of dew in the heart of the rose. And there stood little Peterkin beside Gretchen!
Then hand in hand, Gretchen and Peterkin hurried from the pond and fled into the wood just as the sun began to show beyond the trees. There they built themselves a cottage and lived in it happily ever afterwards. The kind Cook and the wise Nurse found them and visited them. But Gretchen and Peterkin never went near castle ground until the Cook told them the Queen was no more.—Laura F. Kready.
How the Birds came to Have Different Nests
Time. . . .
Once upon a time when pigs spoke rhyme,
And monkeys chewed tobacco,
And hens took snuff to make them tough,
And ducks went quack, quack, quack, O!
