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A WINTER NOSEGAY.

Being Tales for Children at Christmastide.

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    LONDON:
    W. SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & ALLEN,
    PATERNOSTER SQUARE.
    1881.




    LONDON:
    PRINTED BY WOODFALL & KINDER,
    MILFORD LANE, STRAND, W.C.




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CONTENTS.


    THE MAN IN THE MOON, AND HOW HE GOT THERE          1

    CAT AND DOG STORIES                               13

    A FORTUNE IN AN EMPTY WALLET                      45




The Man in the Moon.

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THE MAN IN THE MOON.


ONCE upon a time, long before people were able to learn what they wanted
to know from printed books, long before children had pretty pictures to
tell them tales, there lived an old student with his pupil. Together
they spent all the day in poring over musty old books and papers, trying
to find out why the sun was hot; and in the night-time they might always
be seen gazing at the sky, counting how many stars there were there.
They were very curious folk, and wanted to know the reasons for all
sorts of out-of-the-way things that everybody else was content to know
the mere facts of, such as why birds have two wings and not three, why
crocodiles have no fins, seeing that they can swim in the water, and
many other matters that would not interest sensible beings. They always
had at their side a young owl, and a serpent, tooth