down at the table. And do you know, I believe they are still sitting
there behind the curtain. But they have finished the goose and the
apple sauce and all the good things that went with them, and now they
are just going to begin on the pudding. They don't know a thing about
the magic nuts, because the brownies and the fairies stuck them in so
neatly, that not one of them shows. Mother is just starting to put the
pudding on the saucers. I wonder if she will remember about giving it
to the youngest first. That's Gertrude, you know. Do you want to see
for yourselves whether she remembers? Well, be very quiet then, for
now it is going to begin.




The Third Scene


When the Curtain opens, you again see the kitchen, but it looks a
good deal different, because the chairs that Grandmother and
Grandfather used to sit in have been moved out; so has the small table
on which Mother washed the dishes in the First Scene; and now in front
of the fire-place is the great big table that Mother Goose told you
about. The table cloth on it is so big that it hangs all the way down
to the floor. At one end of the table sits Father; then next to him,
back of the table facing you, is Grandfather, then Gertrude, then
Walter, then Grandmother and at the other end of the table, next to
Grandmother, Mother is seated. The children have on those
bright-colored paper caps that the house-fairies made. MOTHER, who
is helping the pudding, is the first to speak and this is what she
says: