THE
FOX AND THE GEESE;
AND THE
WONDERFUL HISTORY
OF
HENNY-PENNY.

There was once a Goose at the point of death,

So she called her three daughters near,

And desired them all, with her latest breath,

Her last dying words to hear.

“There’s a Mr. Fox,” said she, “that I know,

Who lives in a covert hard by;

To our race he has proved a deadly foe,

So beware of his treachery.

“Build houses, ere long, of stone or of bricks,

And get tiles for your roofs, I pray;

For I know, of old, Mr. Reynard’s tricks,

And I fear he may come any day.”

Thus saying, she died, and her daughters fair,—

Gobble, Goosey, and Ganderee,—

Agreed together, that they would beware

Of Mr. Fox, their enemy.

But Gobble, the youngest, I grieve to say,

Soon came to a very bad end,

Because she preferred her own silly way,

And would not to her mother attend.

For she made, with some boards, an open nest,

For a roof took the lid of a box;

Then quietly laid herself down to rest,

And thought she was safe from the Fox.

But Reynard, in taking an evening run,

Soon scented the goose near the pond;

Thought he, “Now I’ll have some supper and fun,

For of both I am really fond.”