When Tom showed by his actions his intention of being honest he soon got a job of work to do, and before long he was able to earn a living more easily, and a great deal more honestly, than when he stole the pig to get a dinner and suffered a severe beating as a punishment.

    Tom, Tom, the piper’s son
    Now with stealing pigs was done,
    He ’d work all day instead of play,
    And dined on tart and currant bun.

Humpty Dumpty

Humpty Dumpty

    Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
    Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. 
    All the King’s horses
    And all the King’s men
    Cannot put Humpty together again.

At the very top of the hay-mow in the barn, the Speckled Hen had made her nest, and each day for twelve days she had laid in it a pretty white egg.  The Speckled Hen had made her nest in this out-of-the-way place so that no one would come to disturb her, as it was her intention to sit upon the eggs until they were hatched into chickens.

Each day, as she laid her eggs, she would cackle to herself; saying, “This will in time be a beautiful chick, with soft, fluffy down all over its body and bright little eyes that will look at the world in amazement.  It will be one of my children, and I shall love it dearly.”

She named each egg, as she laid it, by the name she should call it when a chick, the first one being “Cluckety-Cluck,” and the next “Cadaw-Cut,” and so on; and when she came to the twelfth egg she called it “Humpty Dumpty.”

This twelfth egg was remarkably big and white and of a very pretty shape, and as the nest was now so full she laid it quite near the edge.  And then the Speckled Hen, after looking proudly at her work, went off to the barnyard, clucking joyfully, in search of something to eat.

When she had gone, Cluckety-Cluck, who was in the middle of the nest and the oldest egg of all, called out, angrily,

“It ’s getting crowded in this nest; move up there, some of you fellows!” And then he gave CadawCut, who was above him, a kick.

“I can’t move unless the others do; they ’re crowding me down!” said Cadaw-Cut; and he kicked the egg next above him.  And so they continued kicking one another and rolling around in the nest until one kicked Humpty Dumpty, and as he lay on the edge of the nest he was kicked out and rolled down the hay-mow until he came to a stop near the very bottom.

Humpty did not like this very well, but he was a bright egg for one so young, and after he had recovered from his shaking up he began to look about to see where he was.  The barn door was open, and he caught a glimpse of trees and hedges, and green grass with a silvery brook running through it.  And he saw the waving grain and the tasselled maize and the sunshine flooding it all.

The scene was very enticing to the young egg, and Humpty at once resolved to see something of this great world before going back to the nest.