Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-02-24

Now. no cow could really Jump over
the moon. A dog cannot laugh, and
neither dish nor spoon could run OF
themselves. A spoon has no legs to
run with. A dish sometimes has legs,
especially If it be metal and not crock
cry. but those legs are made for it to
stand on, not to run with. Sometimes
when a person strikes the table very
hard the dishes bound up in the air,
and they are then said to dance Little
children should never strike the table
SO as to make the dishes dance. But,
though dishes sometimee dance, they
never run. s. ..-aa-.I
The true story, as I have heard it from
the lips of the old lady herself, is this:
Hey Diddle Diddle was the aame of
little boy who was very pretty and
frolicsome, but who never laughed.
His mother loved him very much, and
always kept him by her side, and though
he was healthy, in all other respects
she was very much distressed because
he did not laugh.
Hey Diddle Diddle had cat which
was q great favorite of his, but one day
it died, and his father sold the dead
body to q, fiddle manufacturer. Now
the strings of fiddles are always made
of the inside skins of cats stomachs,
and for that reason the material of which
they are made is called cat-gut. So the
fiddle maker made a fiddle, and took out
the stomach of Hey Diddle's cat 70
make the strings, AMI Hey Dlddle's
father bought the fiddle and carried it
4o l. to HI
for the loss of his cat, and when he gave
it to the little boy he said Hey Diddle
Diddle, the cats in the fiddle. Hey
Diddle Diddle priced the fiddle very
much, but it did not make him laugh.
After while the little boys nurse
fell sick, and his mother was obliged to
get new nurse, who was a much wiser
woman than the other, and was even
wiser than Hey Diddle's mother herself.
She noticed that Hey Diddle was always
kept in the house; and when his mother
told her, which she did with tears in
her eyes. that the little boy never
laughed, she said, Madame, let me
take him out every day in the air and
sunshine, and [ warrant the little dog
will! laugh very soon." She called him
little dog because he was young and
pretty and frolicsome, just like young
puppy, and she acquired the habit OF
always calling him SO.
So she took him to walk every day;
and one day they took longer walk
than usual, and the sun went down
before they got home, and the moon
shone out bright and clear. And they
passed by a COW that came to a little
ILL -, H. ~.rorp1 n, which Woo como
mud and water; the hole was not deep
and the water was not more than half
an inch deep and the COW could have
easily slept over it; but the moon was
reflected in the water as brightly as If
it was much larger and deeper, and the
COW when she saw it evidently thought
it was some real and strange thing, for
she maue a great leap, and jumped over
it; not knowing that if she quietly
step'd across it the shadow,ofher great,
big body would quite put out the little
bright image in the water. This
amused Hey Diddle very much, but he
did not laugh.
The next walk Hey Diddle took with
the nurse, they did not go out of the
garden. And while they were walking
there, the housemaid came out of the
house running with spoon in her
hand and the cook chasing her with a
dish in her hand-and this is the way
the dish ran after the spoon; and when
little Hey Diddle saw this he laughed
right out. Then the nurse took him by
the hand and led him to his mother,
and said, ''the little dog laughed"
This the true story of Hey Diddle
Diddle.
A FRIEND OF MOTHER GOOSE.