"IT'S TIME FOR TIME-OUTS!" (THE SHOE}

In the March 10, 2012 news: A mother of 10 children left one of them in a restaurant.  The Old Lady would understand how easy this was to do! 
            Did you ever wonder what happened to the old lady who lived in the Shoe, after her children grew up and moved away? This story will give you the answer.

          We all remember that the little old lady has so many children, she can’t keep possibly track.  She may have ten or she may have twenty, but one thing is sure, she has more than a-plenty.  First come the twins, Millie and Tillie; then arrive triplets, Marge, Wally, and Willy.  Next, six babies come all at once.  The family keeps growing so rapidly, a baby who comes all alone isn’t counted!

          The children love living in the Shoe.  Daffy and Taffy toboggan the tongue, while Millie and Tillie slide down the slippery slope of the heel, and the triplets swing from the laces.  But day after day, the children make such a racket, the little old lady can’t stand it and has to discipline them.

         “I HAVE HAD IT!  It’s time for time-outs!  Sit down and be quiet and don’t move a muscle!”

          She always forgives them, of course.  When they grow up and leave the Shoe to get married, she finds to her surprise that she misses them. 

                   With no one to cuddle and no one to kiss,

                    She couldn’t put up with a sorrow like this!

Weeping, she writes to her children, begging them all to come home right away.  “Bring the babies and stay!”

          The little old lady is faced with a new dilemma when the Shoe is nowhere big enough for all her children and grandchildren.  Where on earth will she find additional space?  Will she know just what to do?

        

In answer, they traveled for many a mile

To bask in the warmth of her welcoming smile.

The twins arrived first:  grown-up Milly and Tillie,

Then came the triplets:  Marge, Wally, and Willy . . .

Happily followed by Timmy and Johnny

And Daffy and Taffy and Bertie and Bonnie.

And lastly, the babies: Susanna and Jeannie. 
Then, dears, came a kite-tail of sticky-faced kiddies 
  In sashes and bonnets and sweaters and middies; 

    And Pinky and Winky and Tessie and Teeny—

And dozens of others, too many to tell,

Whose names there aren't letters suvfficient to spell—

Though I spell rather well!

 Never was ever such hubbubs and rackets!

Bawling, the babies were bursting their jackets!

The place was so crowded, the Shoe overflowed;

It bulged in the middle, prepared to explode!

                                 

The little old lady, that hostess of grace

Decided she needed additional space.

So what did she think of and what did she do?

She simply came up with the mate to the Shoe!

With a Guest-Shoe, she thought with a satisfied hum,

She'd have plenty of room for more babies to come.

Now this is the story, completed and true,

Of the little old lady who lived in a Shoe . . .

     So, dears, toddleoo!          
                                                    by Ernestine Cobern Beyer