“Somebodyhas been sitting in my chair!”

said the Middle-sized Bear in his middle-sized voice.

      “Somebodyhas been sitting in my chair, and has sate the bottom
       through!”

said the Little Wee Bear in his little wee voice.

Then the Three Bears thought they had better make further search in case it was a burglar, so they went upstairs into their bedchamber.  Now Goldilocks had pulled the pillow of the Great Big Bear out of its place.

“Somebodyhas been lying in my bed!”

said the Great Big Bear in his great, rough, gruff voice.

And Goldilocks had pulled the bolster of the Middle-sized Bear out of its place.

“Somebodyhas been lying in my bed!”

said the Middle-sized Bear in his middle-sized voice.

But when the Little Wee Bear came to look at his bed, there was the bolster in its place!

And the pillow was in its place upon the bolster!

And upon the pillow——?

There was Goldilocks’s yellow head—­which was not in its place, for she had no business there.

      “Somebodyhas been lying in my bed,—­and here she is still!”

said the Little Wee Bear in his little wee voice.

[Illustration:  “Somebody has been lying in my bed,—­and here she is!”]

Now Goldilocks had heard in her sleep the great, rough, gruff voice of the Great Big Bear; but she was so fast asleep that it was no more to her than the roaring of wind, or the rumbling of thunder.  And she had heard the middle-sized voice of the Middle-sized Bear, but it was only as if she had heard some one speaking in a dream.  But when she heard the little wee voice of the Little Wee Bear, it was so sharp, and so shrill, that it awakened her at once.  Up she started, and when she saw the Three Bears on one side of the bed, she tumbled herself out at the other, and ran to the window.  Now the window was open, because the Bears, like good, tidy Bears, as they were, always opened their bedchamber window when they got up in the morning.  So naughty, frightened little Goldilocks jumped; and whether she broke her neck in the fall, or ran into the wood and was lost there, or found her way out of the wood and got whipped for being a bad girl and playing truant, no one can say.  But the Three Bears never saw anything more of her.

[Illustration:  “Somebody has been at my porridge, and has eaten it all up!”]

TOM-TIT-TOT

Once upon a time there was a woman and she baked five pies.  But when they came out of the oven they were over-baked, and the crust was far too hard to eat.  So she said to her daughter: