LITTLE JACK ROLLAROUND

: Stories To Tell Children

Once upon a time there was a wee little boy who slept in a tiny

trundle-bed near his mother's great bed. The trundle-bed had castors on

it so that it could be rolled about, and there was nothing in the world

the little boy liked so much as to have it rolled. When his mother came

to bed he would cry, "Roll me around! roll me around!" And his mother

would put out her hand from the big bed and push the little bed back and

forth till she was tired. The little boy could never get enough; so for

this he was called "Little Jack Rollaround."



One night he had made his mother roll him about, till she fell asleep,

and even then he kept crying, "Roll me around! roll me around!" His

mother pushed him about in her sleep, until her slumber became too

sound; then she stopped. But Little Jack Rollaround kept on crying,

"Roll around! roll around!"



By and by the Moon peeped in at the window. He saw a funny sight: Little

Jack Rollaround was lying in his trundle-bed, and he had put up one

little fat leg for a mast, and fastened the corner of his wee shirt to

it for a sail; and he was blowing at it with all his might, and saying,

"Roll around! roll around!" Slowly, slowly, the little trundle-bed boat

began to move; it sailed along the floor and up the wall and across the

ceiling and down again!



"More! more!" cried Little Jack Rollaround; and the little boat sailed

faster up the wall, across the ceiling, down the wall, and over the

floor. The Moon laughed at the sight; but when Little Jack Rollaround

saw the Moon, he called out, "Open the door, old Moon! I want to roll

through the town, so that the people can see me!"



The Moon could not open the door, but he shone in through the keyhole,

in a broad band. And Little Jack Rollaround sailed his trundle-bed boat

up the beam, through the keyhole, and into the street.



"Make a light, old Moon," he said; "I want the people to see me!"



So the good Moon made a light and went along with him, and the little

trundle-bed boat went sailing down the streets into the main street of

the village. They rolled past the town hall and the schoolhouse and the

church; but nobody saw little Jack Rollaround, because everybody was in

bed, asleep.



"Why don't the people come to see me?" he shouted.



High up on the church steeple, the Weather-vane answered, "It is no time

for people to be in the streets; decent folk are in their beds."



"Then I'll go to the woods, so that the animals may see me," said Little

Jack. "Come along, old Moon, and make a light!"



The good Moon went along and made a light, and they came to the forest.

"Roll! roll!" cried the little boy; and the trundle-bed went trundling

among the trees in the great wood, scaring up the squirrels and

startling the little leaves on the trees. The poor old Moon began to

have a bad time of it, for the tree-trunks got in his way so that he

could not go so fast as the bed, and every time he got behind, the

little boy called, "Hurry up, old Moon, I want the beasts to see me!"



But all the animals were asleep, and nobody at all looked at Little Jack

Rollaround except an old White Owl; and all she said was, "Who are

you?"



The little boy did not like her, so he blew harder, and the trundle-bed

boat went sailing through the forest till it came to the end of the

world.



"I must go home now; it is late," said the Moon.



"I will go with you; make a path!" said Little Jack Rollaround.



The kind Moon made a path up to the sky, and up sailed the little bed

into the midst of the sky. All the little bright Stars were there with

their nice little lamps. And when he saw them, that naughty Little Jack

Rollaround began to tease. "Out of the way, there! I am coming!" he

shouted, and sailed the trundle-bed boat straight at them. He bumped the

little Stars right and left, all over the sky, until every one of them

put his little lamp out and left it dark.



"Do not treat the little Stars so," said the good Moon.



But Jack Rollaround only behaved the worse: "Get out of the way, old

Moon!" he shouted, "I am coming!"



And he steered the little trundle-bed boat straight into the old Moon's

face, and bumped his nose!



This was too much for the good Moon; he put out his big light, all at

once, and left the sky pitch-black.



"Make a light, old Moon! Make a light!" shouted the little boy. But the

Moon answered never a word, and Jack Rollaround could not see where to

steer. He went rolling criss-cross, up and down, all over the sky,

knocking into the planets and stumbling into the clouds, till he did not

know where he was.



Suddenly he saw a big yellow light at the very edge of the sky. He

thought it was the Moon. "Look out, I am coming!" he cried, and steered

for the light.



But it was not the kind old Moon at all; it was the great mother Sun,

just coming up out of her home in the sea, to begin her day's work.



"Aha, youngster, what are you doing in my sky?" she said. And she picked

Little Jack Rollaround up and threw him, trundle-bed boat and all, into

the middle of the sea!



And I suppose he is there yet, unless somebody picked him out again.