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[Illustration: Cover]

[Illustration]




By Samuel M. Crothers

          MEDITATIONS ON VOTES FOR WOMEN.
          HUMANLY SPEAKING.
          AMONG FRIENDS.
          BY THE CHRISTMAS FIRE.
          THE PARDONER'S WALLET.
          THE ENDLESS LIFE.
          THE GENTLE READER.
          OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES: THE AUTOCRAT AND HIS FELLOW
              BOARDERS. With Portrait.
          MISS MUFFET'S CHRISTMAS PARTY. Illustrated.


          HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
          BOSTON AND NEW YORK




MISS MUFFET'S CHRISTMAS PARTY

[Illustration: _A visitor came_ (page 4)]




MISS MUFFET'S CHRISTMAS PARTY

BY

SAMUEL McCHORD CROTHERS

ILLUSTRATIONS BY OLIVE M. LONG

          BOSTON AND NEW YORK
          HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
          The Riverside Press Cambridge




          COPYRIGHT 1902 BY SAMUEL McCHORD CROTHERS
          ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

          _Published November, 1902_




          TO MARGERY
          BECAUSE, AMONG OTHER THINGS,
          WE LIKE THE SAME PEOPLE

[Illustration]




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                    PAGE

  _A visitor came_ (_page 4_)                               Frontispiece
  _Chapter Heading_                                                    1
  _Mrs. Muffet had read this in a book_                                2
  _To meditate on the passage of time_                                 3
  _The kind of thing that Miss Muffet sat on_                          4
  _Fairly jumped off her tuffet_                                       6
  _Chapter Heading_                                                    8
  _They sat down_                                                      9
  _Every town crier in England_                                       13
  _The blighted being_                                                15
  _Chapter Heading_                                                   18
  _Miss Muffet closed her eyes_                                       19
  _She could catch glimpses of travelers_                             20
  _Tom Sawyer trying to "hitch on" behind_                            21
  _Alice with all the strange friends she had found in Wonderland_    23
  "_This is the main caravan road to Bagdad_"                         25
  _Elves_                                                             28
  _The woods were full of merry little people_                        29
  _An old witch who was not nearly so bad as she looked_              31
  _Chapter Heading_                                                   32
  _Introduced the Orientals to the North Country people_              33
  _Aladdin explains the virtues of his lamp_                          37
  "_Listening... is hard on the eyes_"                             39
  _Chapter Heading_                                                   44
  _The shyest persons in the room_                                    45
  _Scampering off into the dark_                                      47
  _Chapter Heading_                                                   54
  "_I am sorry to be so late_"                                        55
  _Hal cut his string_                                                63
  "_I don't think I ever knew two persons more different_"            65
  "_You dear little Rosamond_"                                        67
  _Chapter Heading_                                                   69
  _One was beating the other_                                         71
  _A little talk about dervishry_                                     73
  _An expressive glance at the executioner_                           75
  _Aladdin's brother and the Dervish_                                 79
  _Chapter Heading_                                                   82
  "_I must have the full set_"                                        85
  _Telling anecdotes_                                                 87
  "_It all depends on grammar_"                                       89
  _Chapter Heading_                                                   92
  _Wynken, Blynken, and Nod_                                          93
  _He was a little prudent_                                           96
  _The Rockaby Lady saying good-night_                                97
  _Flew away... into the night_                                   100
  _Into his overcoat pocket_                                         101
  _Red Riding-Hood's Grandmother began to dance_                     103
  _A long time to get on their overshoes_                            105
  _Closed her eyes_                                                  106
  _Tail Piece_                                                       107




[Illustration: Chapter I]


'Twas the night before Christmas, and it was very quiet in Mrs. Muffet's
house,--altogether too quiet, thought little Miss Muffet, as she sat
trying to eat her curds and whey. For Mrs. Muffet was a very severe
mother and had her own ideas about bringing up children,--and so had Mr.
Muffet, or rather he had the same ideas, only warmed over. One of these