Page:The Story of Opal.djvu/158

 Then I did sing a lullaby song to all the wood-mice in the nursery. And they are a goodly number. I did sing to them the song La Nonette sings as it goes on its way to Oise.

Then I did go through the near woods to the mill by the far woods. I so did go to see the man that wears gray neckties and is kind to mice. When he had seeing that I was come by the big tree, he did say in his gentle way, "What is it, little one? Is Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus not well?" "Oh, yes," I said, "he is most well and he did have likes for that piece of cheese you did give to him on yesterday. He is a most lovely wood-rat, and what I have come to tell you about is, we got company. She has a fondness for pinkness. Her name is Jenny Strong. And she has a pink rosebud on her black bonnet and ties her blue stockings up with pink ribbons."

And then I did ask him if he did not have thinks a pink ribbon would be nice for Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus to wear on some days—on days when he goes to cathedral service with me. And, too, I did tell him how I did have thinks a pink ribbon would be nice for William Shakespeare and Felix Mendelssohn and Lars Porsena of Clusium and Brave Horatius.

The man that wears gray neckties and is kind to mice did have thinks like my thinks. He did say for me to go write the fairies about it. And I did. I did write it on a gray leaf. I put the gray leaf in