OW, as Johnny strutted along, he heard jolly music and wedding bells, and saw a multitude of people.

Original

It was a wedding party, outside a tavern; and the fiddlers were fiddling, and everybody dancing.

Johnny Nut went through the middle of them all, shouting:—

‘There’s another caught and done for!’

‘Caught and done for! Meaning me!’ says the gay bridegroom; and he tucked up his shirtsleeves to give Johnny one in the eye. But the bridesmaid, who did not want a quarrel, gave Johnny a push, and said to him—

‘Idiot, say rather, “Let everybody follow a good example.”’

It was all one to Johnny, and off he went, shouting—

‘Let every one follow this good example!’

So he left the village, and he went, and went and better went, till he came to a house on fire.

The policeman had caught a poor tramp, whom he charged with burning the house.

‘Let everyone follow this good example!’ shouted Johnny, never thinking of anything but roast goose.

‘What’s that you say, you vagabond! You incite the populace to arson and fire-raising!’ cries the policeman, who was by way of being À great lawyer.

Original

Johnny trembled like an aspen-leaf.

‘Say, “Heaven help you to put the fire out,”’ whispered one of the firemen; and Johnny said so, and off he went, the old way, crying—

‘Heaven help you to put the fire out!’

Now he passed a blacksmith’s forge, and that blacksmith was as cross as two sticks, for he had been blowing the bellows for three hours, and could not make the fire burn.

Well, just when a little tiny blue flame burst forth, as little as a pussycat’s tongue, what did the blacksmith hear but—

‘Heaven put the fire out!’

Original

Round he turned, pitched his hammer at Johnny, and knocked him down flat on the king’s high way.

---