WELL, I must buckle to, and put a good face (pre-face) on the matter as I have to introduce the latest addition to the already considerable family of Crane-reprints.

Here we have those delightful rigmaroles “ONE, TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE” and “A GAPING-WIDE-Mouth-WADDLING-FROG”: but what, it may be asked is “MY MOTHER” doing in such company? I shrewdly suspect, if we knew the truth, that she is really the author of both. It is probable, however, that both legends have been transmitted through a long line of mothers, assisted perhaps, by nurses, but I had them direct from my Mother.

A pleasing romance of domestic incident runs through “One, Two, Buckle my shoe”, while the “Waddling Frog” shows a rich and sumptuous imagination, if a little inconsequent, except numerically; but if he sets us agape with astonishment, his own “Wide-Mouth” seems capacious enough to swallow all the marvels by land or sea which he enumerates.

These two are quite early Cranes—almost pre-historic (please notice, however, the up-to-date additions): “My Mother” is mid-Victorian—just after crinolines had gone out—but mothers are always in fashion, bless them,—and you also, dear children, whether of the old or the new world, who, having chosen your parents wisely, have become possessors of this book, may your shoes never want buckling, and if by any mischance you should lose one, may Good Luck always find a spare one for you, and so set you on your feet again.

Kensington, June 1910.

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