to her husband.

And how pleased he was! It did him no end of good. But while he was

counting the coins, Diamond turned to baby, who was lying awake in his

cradle, sucking his precious thumb, and took him up, saying:

“Baby, baby! I haven't seen you for a whole year.”

And then he began to sing to him as usual. And what he sang was this,

for he was too happy either to make a song of his own or to sing sense.

It was one out of Mr. Raymond's book.

THE TRUE STORY OF THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE

               Hey, diddle, diddle!

               The cat and the fiddle!

            He played such a merry tune,

               That the cow went mad

               With the pleasure she had,

            And jumped right over the moon.

               But then, don't you see?

               Before that could be,

            The moon had come down and listened.

               The little dog hearkened,

               So loud that he barkened,

            “There's nothing like it, there isn't.”

               Hey, diddle, diddle!

               Went the cat and the fiddle,

            Hey diddle, diddle, dee, dee!

               The dog laughed at the sport

               Till his cough cut him short,

            It was hey diddle, diddle, oh me!

               And back came the cow

               With a merry, merry low,

            For she'd humbled the man in the moon.

               The dish got excited,

               The spoon was delighted,

            And the dish waltzed away with the spoon.

               But the man in the moon,

               Coming back too soon

            From the famous town of Norwich,

               Caught up the dish,

               Said, “It's just what I wish

            To hold my cold plum-porridge!”

                Gave the cow a rat-tat,

               Flung water on the cat,

            And sent him away like a rocket.

               Said, “O Moon there you are!”

                Got into her car,

            And went off with the spoon in his pocket

               Hey ho!  diddle, diddle!

               The wet cat and wet fiddle,

            They made such a caterwauling,

               That the cow in a fright

               Stood bolt upright

            Bellowing now, and bawling;

               And the dog on his tail,

               Stretched his neck with a wail.

            But “Ho! ho!” said the man in the moon--

               “No more in the South

               Shall I burn my mouth,

            For I've found a dish and a spoon.”

“THERE, baby!” said Diamond; “I'm so happy that I can only sing

nonsense. Oh, father, think if you had been a poor man, and hadn't had a

cab and old Diamond! What should I have done?”

“I don't know indeed what you could have done,” said his father from the

bed.

“We should have all starved, my precious Diamond,” said his mother,

whose pride in her boy was even greater than her joy in the shillings.

Both of them together made her heart ache, for pleasure can do that as

well as pain.

“Oh no! we shouldn't,” said Diamond. “I could have taken Nanny's

crossing till she came back; and then the money, instead of going for

Old Sal's gin, would have gone for father's beef-tea. I wonder what

Nanny will do when she gets well again. Somebody else will be sure to

have taken the crossing by that time. I wonder if she will fight for it,

and whether I shall have to help her. I won't bother my head about that.

Time enough yet! Hey diddle! hey diddle! hey diddle diddle! I wonder

whether Mr. Raymond would take me to see Nanny. Hey diddle! hey diddle!

hey diddle diddle! The baby and fiddle! O, mother, I'm such a silly!

But I can't help it. I wish I could think of something else, but there's

nothing will come into my head but hey diddle diddle! the cat and the

fiddle! I wonder what the angels do--when they're extra happy, you

know--when they've been driving cabs all day and taking home the money

to their mothers. Do you think they ever sing nonsense, mother?”

“I daresay they've got their own sort of it,” answered his mother,

“else they wouldn't be like other people.” She was thinking more of her

twenty-one shillings and sixpence, and of the nice dinner she would get

for her sick husband next day, than of the angels and their nonsense,

when she said it. But Diamond found her answer all right.

“Yes, to be sure,” he replied. “They wouldn't be like other people

if they hadn't their nonsense sometimes. But it must be very pretty

nonsense, and not like that silly hey diddle diddle! the cat and the

fiddle! I wish I could get it out of my head. I wonder what the angels'

nonsense is like. Nonsense is a very good thing, ain't it, mother?--a

little of it now and then; more of it for baby, and not so much for

grown people like cabmen and their mothers? It's like the pepper and

salt that goes in the soup--that's it--isn't it, mother? There's baby

fast asleep! Oh, what a nonsense baby it is--to sleep so much! Shall I

put him down, mother?”

Diamond chattered away. What rose in his happy little heart ran out

of his mouth, and did his father and mother good. When he went to bed,

which he did early, being more tired, as you may suppose, than usual, he

was still thinking what the nonsense could be like which the angels

sang when they were too happy to sing sense. But before coming to

any conclusion he fell fast asleep. And no wonder, for it must be

acknowledged a difficult question.

That night he had a very curious dream which I think my readers would

like to have told them. They would, at least, if they are as fond of

nice dreams as I am, and don't have enough of them of their own.

He dreamed that he was running about in the twilight in the old garden.

He thought he was waiting for North Wind, but she did not come. So he

would run down to the back gate, and see if she were there. He ran and

ran. It was a good long garden out of his dream, but in his dream it

had grown so long and spread out so wide that the gate he wanted was

nowhere. He ran and ran, but instead of coming to the gate found himself

in a beautiful country, not like any country he had ever been in before.

There were no trees of any size; nothing bigger in fact than hawthorns,

which were full of may-blossom. The place in which they grew was wild

and dry, mostly covered with grass, but having patches of heath. It

extended on every side as far as he could see. But although it was so

wild, yet wherever in an ordinary heath you might have expected furze

bushes, or holly, or broom, there grew roses--wild and rare--all kinds.

On every side, far and near, roses were glowing. There too was the

gum-cistus, whose flowers fall every night and come again the next

morning, lilacs and syringas and laburnums, and many shrubs besides,

of which he did not know the names; but the roses were everywhere. He

wandered on and on, wondering when it would come to an end. It was of no

use going back, for there was no house to be seen anywhere. But he was

not frightened, for you know Diamond was used to things that were

rather out of the way. He threw himself down under a rose-bush, and fell