OLD NURSERY RHYMES.

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 81, 9 May 1918, Page 3

OLD NURSERY RHYMES.

The children who lived hundreds of years ago used to sing the very same nursery rhymes as we do now. The “Humpty Dumpty” riddle is about a cruel baron who lived in the days of King John. He tumbled from power in the end, and some one made up the riddle which we all know so well. " , . For a long time people thought that “The Babes in the Wood” referred to the murder of two little princes in the Tower; but it was really founded upon an actual crime, which was committed in Norfolkshire in the fifteenth century. “Bluebeard” was written by a Frenchman, who lived over three hundred years ago. He also wrote “Cinderella,” “Tom Thumb,” and “Jack the Giant Killer.” “Bluebeard” himself was a nobleman of Brittany, who was executed for murder in 1444 I wonder if any of you know what the “Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” really stand for? They are the twenty-four hours of the day. “When the pie was opened”—that is when the day began—the birds began to sing, just as they do nowadays, and as they did when the little boys and girls first sang the rhyme over three hundred years ago. A WONDERFUL RING. > ' There is a story of a certain prince, who had a- wonderful ring which pricked his finger whenever he was doing anything wrong. It was giver him to help him always to keep upright and good; and he was told that so long as he wore it he would prosper. At first he set great store by this ring; but in time ho began to be vexed at being so often checked by its pricking, and so often stopped from doing what he wished. One day he had set his heart upon something that die was well aware was wrong, and he was about to do in spite of the warning of the ring; but it pricked him so sharply that he drew it off his finger in a passion and threw it away, and from that moment he fell into lyad ways and misfortunes, and came at last to a very sad end. Now this is only a pleasant story, but it is meant to help us to understand a great truth. We have all of us something like the prince’s wonderful ring, which checks us when we do wrong, and makes us uneasy. Any one of us knows quite well that if we say a thing that is not true, or do a thing we know we ought not to do, and that we are found out to have done, wfeTeel something within us that makes us uneasy, and seems to whisper to us that we are guilty. . This is conscience. Conscience is like tb? wonderful ring.

A lady who travelled to Australia upon the ship bringing out two hundred and forty wives to our returned soldiers, tells this dramatic incident, says the “ Western Mail.*’ There w T ero two women on board who, at first, were not at all sympathetic. But as they began to know each other they realised that each had the qualities which made for admiration, and became friends. One day, chatting intimately upon the deck, each showed the other the photograph of her husband. It was the same man ! Remember what has served you well, Remember all your friends to tell; Remember what to every test Has proved to be the very best. Remember, winter’s months are here, There's sore throats, cough and cold to fear; Remember treatment ever sure— Remember Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. 15 For Influenza take Woods’ Great Peppermint Cure. Never fails. 1/6, 2/6,