A
Being Tales for Children at Christmastide.
LONDON:
W. SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & ALLEN,
PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
1881.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WOODFALL & KINDER,
MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C.
PRINTED BY WOODFALL & KINDER,
MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C.
CONTENTS.
The Man in the Moon.
THE MAN IN THE MOON.
ONCE upon a time, long before people were able tolearn what they wanted to know from printedbooks, long before children had pretty pictures to tellthem tales, there lived an old student with his pupil.Together they spent all the day in poring over mustyold books and papers, trying to find out why the sunwas hot; and in the night-time they might always beseen gazing at the sky, counting how many stars therewere there. They were very curious folk, and wanted toknow the reasons for all sorts of out-of-the-way thingsthat everybody else was content to know the mere factsof, such as why birds have two wings and not three,why crocodiles have no fins, seeing that they can swimin the water, and many other matters that would notinterest sensible beings. They always had at their side a[4]young owl, and a serpent, toothless and blind with age;for they thought that youthful observation and agedcraftiness were most suitable companions for them in theirlabours. If at any time old Fusticus, for so the oldstudent was named, got dispirited i
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