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Show JACK HORNER. Everybody who has once been a child knows that rhyme about "Little Jack Horner," who "sat in a corner." That there was ever a real Jack Horner and that the plum he extracted from the pie was a very valuable plum indeed, in-deed, few of the little folks who enjoy his exploits know, or would care to learn. For the benefit of those who are not quite little folks, Agnes Carr Sage, in L-ippincott's Magazine, tells the origin and history of some famous nursery stories and rhymes, among them "The Pleasant History of Jack Horner," containing con-taining "His Witty Tricks and Pleasant Pleas-ant Pranks," for so it is set forth in a very old chap-book, carefully preserved pre-served in the Bodleian library. It appears that this worthy was steward stew-ard to an abbot of Glastonbury. The good abbot learned that his majesty Henry VIII. had seen fit to J)e indignant indig-nant because the monks had built a kitchen which he could not burn down. Now a king's indignation was dangerous, danger-ous, and must be appeased. Therefore There-fore the abbot sent his steward Jack Horner, to present the sovereign with a suitable peace-offering. it took the form of a big and tempi ing-iookjng piej beneath me crust of which the transfer trans-fer deeds of twelve manors were hidden. hid-den. But Master Jack had an eye for the profit of num"' r one, and on the road he slyly lifted the crust and abstracted the deeds of the Manor of Wells. On his return, bringing the deeds, he plausibly explained that they had been given to him by the king. Honce the rhyme: Little Jack Horner Sat In a corner (of the wagon), Eyeing his Christmas pie; He put in his thumb And pulled out a plum (the title-deed), Saying, "What a brave boy am I!" |
