LITTLE JACK ROLLAROUND[1]

[1] Based on Theodor Storm's story of Der Kleine Hawelmanu
(George Westermann, Braunschweig). Very freely adapted from
the German story.


Once upon a time there was a wee little
boy who slept in a tiny trundle-bed near
his mother's great bed. The trundle-bed
had castors on it so that it could be rolled
about, and there was nothing in the world
the little boy liked so much as to have
it rolled. When his mother came to bed
he would cry, "Roll me around! roll me
around!" And his mother would put out
her hand from the big bed and push the
little bed back and forth till she was tired.
The little boy could never get enough; so
for this he was called "Little Jack Rollaround."

One night he had made his mother roll
him about, till she fell asleep, and even then
he kept crying, "Roll me around! roll me
around!" His mother pushed him about
in her sleep, until she fell too soundly
aslumbering; then she stopped. But Little
Jack Rollaround kept on crying, "Roll