THE

NATIONAL NURSERY BOOK.

THE NATIONAL

NURSERY BOOK.

COMPRISING

WITH

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY ILLUSTRATIONS.

London:
FREDERICK WARNE AND CO.,

Bedford Street, Covent Garden.
New York: Scribner, Welford, and Armstrong.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE.

The Publishers offer in this little volume well known and long loved stories to their young readers. The tales which have delighted the children of many generations will, they feel assured, be equally welcome in the nurseries of the present day, which, with the popularity and antiquity of the contents of the volume, justify them in styling it The National Nursery Book.

RED RIDING-HOOD.

Once upon a time there lived on the borders of a great forest a woodman and his wife who had one little daughter, a sweet, kind child, whom every one loved. She was the joy of her mother's heart, and to please her, the good woman made her a little scarlet cloak and hood, and the child looked so pretty in it that everybody called her Little Red Riding-Hood.

RED RIDING HOOD PREPARING FOR HER JOURNEY.

One day her mother told her she meant to send her to her grandmother—a very old woman who lived in the heart of the wood—to take her some fresh butter and new-laid eggs and a nice cake. Little Red Riding-Hood was very pleased to be sent on this errand, for she liked to do kind things, and it was so very long since she had seen her grandmother that she had almost forgotten what the dame looked like.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD GATHERING FLOWERS.

THE WOLF.

The sun was shining brightly, but it was not too warm under the shade of the old trees, and Red Riding-Hood sang with glee as she gathered a great bunch of wild flowers to give to her grandmother. She sang so sweetly that a cushat dove flew down from a tree and followed her. Now, it happened that a wolf, a very cruel, greedy creature, heard her song also, and longed to eat her for his breakfast, but he knew Hugh, the woodman, was at work very near, with his great dog, and he feared they might hear Red Riding-Hood cry out, if he frightened her, and then they would kill him. So he came up to her very gently and said, "Good day, Little Red Riding-Hood; where are you going?"

“To see my grandmother,” said the child, "and take her a present from mother of eggs and butter and cake."

“Where does your grandmamma live?” asked the wolf.

“Quite in the middle of the wood,” she replied.

“Oh! I think I know the