Well, it was one summer evening, just when the milking was done, and before the children were put to bed, and everyone was sitting on their doorsteps, talking to their neighbors, and the children were laughing and playing in the front yards.

All at once they heard a queer humming noise. It seemed to come from the riverside, far away.

The sound came nearer and nearer. The talking and the laughing stopped, and everyone looked toward the river.

Andi it was no wonder that they stared, for coming up the road was the strangest little creature that anyone had ever seen.

He looked like a tiny little man; and a strange man at that. Fir his bright red hair was long, and he had a long red beard. His knees knocked together when he walked, and his arms were so long that his hands almost touched the ground. A strange sight it was!

He was singing something over and over. And as he came nearer they could make out the words:

“Oh, my name is Aiken-Drum, And to do your work I’ve come. A bite to eat, a bed on hay, you may give; but nothing pay.”

Monday: “Brownie Shock”