Fishy-Winkle   By: Jean C. Archer

FISHY WINKLE

JEAN C. ARCHER

THE DUMPY BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

29. Fishy Winkle

The Dumpy Books for Children

CLOTH, ROYAL 32mo, 1/6 EACH

1. The Flamp. 2. Mrs. Turner's Cautionary Stories. 3. The Bad Family. 4. The Story of Little Black Sambo. 5. The Bountiful Lady. 6. A Cat Book. 7. A Flower Book. 8. The Pink Knight. 9. The Little Clown. 10. A Horse Book. 11. Little People: An Alphabet. 12. A Dog Book. 13. The Adventures of Samuel and Selina. 14. The Little Girl Lost. 15. Dollies. 16. The Bad Mrs. Ginger. 17. Peter Piper's Practical Principles. 18. Little White Barbara. 19. The Japanese Dumpy Book. 20. Towlocks and His Wooden Horse. 21. The Three Little Foxes. 22. The Old Man's Bag. 23. The Three Goblins. 24. Dumpy Proverbs. 25. More Dollies. 26. Little Yellow Wang lo. 27. Plain Jane. 28. The Sooty Man. 29. Fishy Winkle.

A Cloth Case to contain Twelve Volumes can be had, price 2s. net; or the First Twelve Volumes in Case, price £1 net.

LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS, 48, Leicester Square.

[Illustration (Publisher's Device) SIR JOSEPH CAUSTON & SONS LTD. / LONDON]

[Illustration]

Fishy Winkle

by

Jean C. Archer Author of "Samuel and Selina"

ILLUSTRATED IN COLOURS

LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS 1903

CHAPTER I.

Mistress O'Hara lives down by the sea, A skittish and beautiful widow is she; She has black shiny tresses, and curly buff toes, And a heavenly tilt to the tip of her nose!

She has three little children, the eldest is four (Nurse says he is naughty enough to be more); The Twins are dear dumplings, and they and their brother Are always in scrapes Of one kind, or another.

[Illustration]

This morning poor Mistress O'Hara looks blue, As indeed she has every reason to do; For the third time this week Nurse has come in to say, "If you please 'm, the children have all run away!"

"Oh! bother those children well, first let us look In the larder, to see what provisions they took; If the pumpkin pie's gone, they are off for the day, If they only took raisins, they're not far away."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

They look in the larder, and what do you think? Find nothing whatever to eat or to drink. "Alack!" says the Cook; "it is just as I feared: The whole of my dinner has clean disappeared."

"This is really too bad," says Mama, in a rage, As she slips on her pattens and turns down the page Of the book she is reading, and starts out to find The darlings, to give them a piece of her mind!

She takes a big stick and makes tracks for the sea, Where she's pretty well sure all the truants will be; Yama Guchi, she knows, leads the Twins by the nose, And they patiently follow wherever he goes.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Sure enough, the first things that she sees on the shore Are footprints, and further on several more And still further on there are two little rows Of shoes, and some other superfluous clo'es.

But where are the children? The children are gone !! Oh! doesn't poor Mistress O'Hara take on! She weeps and she wails and she tears out her hair, And rolls on the sands in the depths of despair.

The sand it is gritty, the sand it is dry, It scratches her nose and gets into her eye; Her throat feels as if she had swallowed a peck, And the rolling soon gives her a crick in her neck.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

So she picks up her pattens, her stick and her fan, And bundles her hair up as well as she can. Next minute it all stands on end with surprise: She stares and she stares, disbelieving her eyes