"This pays me for all my trouble," said the Black Sheep, and the
little boy reached his hand through the bars and patted her gently
upon the head.




Old King Cole

Old King Cole

Old King Cole was a merry old soul,
And a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe and he called for his bowl
And he called for his fiddlers three.

Old King Cole was not always a king, nor was he born a member of any
royal family. It was only chance--"hard luck" he used to call it--that
made him a king at all.

He had always been a poor man, being the son of an apple peddler, who
died and left him nothing but a donkey and a fiddle. But that was
enough for Cole, who never bothered his head about the world's goods,
but took things as they came and refused to worry about anything.

So, when the house he lived in, and the furniture, and even the
applecart were sold to pay his father's debts, and he found himself
left with the old fiddle that nobody wanted and the old donkey that no
one would have--it being both vicious and unruly--he uttered no word