Met together in a shower of rain;
Put in a bag tied round with a string,
If you'll tell me this riddle,
I'll give you a ring!"


Which was ridiculous of Nutkin,
because he had not got any ring to
give to Old Brown.

The other squirrels hunted up and
down the nut bushes; but Nutkin
gathered robin's pin-cushions off a
briar bush, and stuck them full of
pine-needle-pins.


On the fifth day the squirrels
brought a present of wild honey; it
was so sweet and sticky that they
licked their fingers as they put it down
upon the stone. They had stolen it out
of a bumble BEES' nest on the tippity
top of the hill.

But Nutkin skipped up and down,
singing--

"Hum-a-bum! buzz! buzz! Hum-a-bum buzz!
As I went over Tipple-tine