“Why, that was the witch.”

The mother pretends to beat the eldest daughter, tells her to be more careful another time, and goes back to the washtub.  The game then goes on as before, and each time the witch comes she takes away a child, until at last even the eldest daughter is taken.  The pot boils over for the last time and then the mother, finding all her children gone, goes to the witch’s house to find them, when this conversation ensues: 

“Is this the way to the witch’s house?”

“There’s a red bull that way.”

“Then I’ll go this way.”

“There’s a mad cow that way.”

But the mother insists upon going into the witch’s house to look for her children.  The witch generally hides the children behind chairs.  The mother stoops over one child:  “This tastes like Monday,” she says, but the witch replies:  “That! it is a barrel of pork.”

“No, no,” says the mother, “it is my Monday, and there are the rest of the children.”  The children now jump out and they and their mother begin to run home; the witch runs after them, and whoever she catches becomes witch, while the witch becomes the eldest daughter.

* * * * *

THE ANTS AND THE GRASSHOPPER

Lots are drawn in order to decide who shall be the grasshopper; the ants then seat themselves in a circle, while the grasshopper writes on a piece of paper the name of a grain or food which a grasshopper might be supposed to like.  He puts this in his pocket and then addresses the ants: 

“Dear friends, I am very hungry; would any of you kindly give me some food?”

“I have nothing but a grain of barley,” says the ant spoken to.

“Thank you; that is of no use to me,” replies the grasshopper, and goes on to the next player.  As soon as any one offers the grain of food which the grasshopper has written down the paper must be produced, and the one who guessed the word pays a forfeit and becomes grasshopper.  If no one guesses the word, the grasshopper pays a forfeit.

The game then goes on in the same way, except that a different question is asked on the second round.

“Neighbors,” says the grasshopper, “I have eaten abundantly and would have a dance.  Which would you recommend?”

A waltz, a polka, a quadrille, etc., are suggested, and when this question has gone the round, the grasshopper asks what music he can dance to, and the ants suggest the music of the violin, the piano, cornet, etc.  Then the grasshopper says he is tired of dancing and wishes for a bed, and the ants offer him moss, straw, grass, and so on, to lie upon.

“I should sleep very comfortably,” the grasshopper says, “but I am in fear of being pounced upon by a hungry bird.  What bird have I most reason to fear?” The ants answer:  The rook, the lark, the cuckoo, etc.