Part 3 (1/2)
”Did you toss _him_?” inquired Davy.
”Certainly not,” said the Cow, indignantly. ”Who ever heard of a cow tossing a cat? The fact is, I've never had a fair chance to toss _anything_. As for the dog, Mother Hubbard never permitted any liberties to be taken with _him_.”
”I'd dearly love to see Mother Hubbard,” said Davy, eagerly.
”Well, you can,” said the Cow, indifferently. ”She isn't much to see. If you'll look in at the kitchen window you'll probably find her performing on the piano and singing a song. She's always at it.”
Davy stole softly to the kitchen window and peeped in, and, as the Cow had said, Mother Hubbard was there, sitting at the piano, and evidently just preparing to sing. The piano was very remarkable, and Davy could not remember ever having seen one like it before. The top of it was arranged with shelves, on which stood all the kitchen crockery, and in the under part of it, at one end, was an oven with gla.s.s doors, through which he could see several pies baking.
Mother Hubbard was dressed, just as he expected, in a very ornamental flowered gown, with high-heeled shoes and buckles, and wore a tall pointed hat over her nightcap. She was so like the pictures Davy had seen of her that he thought he would have recognized her anywhere.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MOTHER HUBBARD SINGS A SONG.]
She sang in a high key with a very quavering voice, and this was the song:--
_I had an educated pug, His name was Tommy Jones; He lived upon the parlor rug Exclusively on bones._
_And if, in a secluded room, I hid one on a shelf, It disappeared; so I presume He used to help himself._
[Ill.u.s.tration]
_He had an entertaining trick Of feigning he was dead; Then, with a rea.s.suring kick, Would stand upon his head._
_I could not take the proper change, And go to buy him shoes, But what he'd sit upon the range And read the latest news._
_And when I ventured out, one day To order him a coat, I found him, in his artless way, Careering on a goat._
[Ill.u.s.tration]
_I could not go to look at hats But that, with childish glee, He'd ask in all the neighbors' cats To join him at his tea._
_And when I went to pay a bill (I think it was for tripe), He made himself extremely ill By smoking with a pipe._
There was something about the prim language of this song that sounded very familiar to Davy, and when Mother Hubbard chanced to turn her face towards him he was surprised to see that she looked very like old Miss Peggs, his school-teacher. While she was singing the song little handfuls of gravel were constantly thrown at her through one of the kitchen windows, and by the time the song was finished her lap was quite full of it.
”I'd just like to know who is throwing that gravel,” said Davy, indignantly.
”It's Gobobbles,” said the Cow, calmly. ”You'll find him around at the front of the house. By the way, have you any chewing-gum about you?”
”No,” said Davy, greatly surprised at the question.
”So I supposed,” said the Cow. ”It's precisely what I should expect of a person who would fall out of a window.”
”But I couldn't help _that_,” said Davy.
”Of course you couldn't,” said the Cow, yawning indolently. ”It's precisely what I should expect of a person who hadn't any chewing-gum.”
And with this the Cow walked gravely away, just as Mother Hubbard made her appearance at the window.