AustLit

Robin and Barbara watch all the King's horses and all the King's men fail to stick Humpty Dumpty together again. They get some 'sticky stuff' from Daddy's workshop and put him back together. The children explain that while the King can buy new things, their family mends broken toys.

Mr. Elf tells Jack that he is not a good boy at all. Greedy Mr. Elf eats the pie, scoops up Jack's marbles, and breaks the lamp shade. Jack is disciplined, but then given the opportunity to explain. His mother reminds him to 'just be good the way Mummy and Daddy tell you'.

When Jack jumped over the candle stick, he didn't land on the other side. He floated up out of the nursery and through the sky to Slumberland. He journeys with the Sandman and meets the Dream Fairy. He learns that children have a lovely time when they sleep.

The young narrator travels through the Milky Way with the Old Woman and discovers that the clouds growl like dogs and each star is a tiny house. She helps the Old Woman brush the cobwebs off the Star-people's houses because untidiness makes them unhappy.

The Queen is pleased with Pussy Cat because she is afraid of mice. She invites the cat to stay in the palace as Chief Mousecatcher because the King leaves crumbs all over the place. Pussy Cat tires of eating mice and icecream and finds a way to return home.

Mary Jane, the maid whose nose was plucked by the blackbird, seeks the help of the King and Queen. Queen Marilyn is greedy and unkind. King Geoffrey is jolly and unhelpful. On her way to the rye paddock in search of her nose, Mary Jane stops to help an injured blackbird who offers the assistance of his friend, Maurice Magpie. Everyone is rewarded for their good deeds. The nose is found, Mary Jane pops it back on her face, and Maurice flies to the top branch of a high tree and carolls a happy song.

Miss Molly Muffet is frightened by the spider while eating junket. Daddy takes her off to see that spiders don't hurt little girls. They find a pretty spiderweb that shines like silver lace. Molly admires it while eating a new bowl of junket.

The Queen gives Edna a great big diamond. Edna is made offers of exchange (a piece of the moon, an elephant, a steam engine) by people she passes on the road, but she turns them down. When she meets the Fairy of Happiness who would like to use the diamond as a stool for the Fairy Queen, Edna swaps it for a song that lasts forever in her heart.

Lucy Locket loses her little bag and Kitty Fisher finds it. They become friends and play every day in the park together.

Spoon and Dish run off so they can always be dirty and never do any washing up. They run to Dirty Land and get very dirty. The meet a little boy who is very sad about being dirty all of the time. His tears fall on Spoon and Dish, who learn that being clean feels fantastic.

Having sold his straw bed to buy a looking glass for his vain wife, Bessie, Tommy has no money left at all. When he is hungry, Bessie wishes that he'd bought a pound of sausages instead. Her wish breaks the looking glass spell and releases a fairy who rewards the couple with sausages and mash, a new bed and two shillings and threepence.

The clock helps Marmaduke the mouse to overcome his fear of noise and elude the cat to return safely home.

When there is a fire, Lazy Ann hides under the pudding pan and is saved. She decides to not fall asleep during the day but to go out and play with her siblings instead.

When Georgie Porgie ran away from the crying girls, he was crying too. The girls were afraid of him because he was as fat as a plum pudding. The not so Wise Old Owl tells him that to lose weight he must stop eating altogether. Georgie saves a mouse from the greedy owl who shares a secret: that if you are kind and nice to girls, they won't cry when you kiss them. Georgie meets his cousin Gwenyth on the way home, helps her to mend her doll's pram, and is rewarded with a hug and a kiss.

Marjorie was tiring of being either good or horrid. She would like to be 'just fairly good or fairly bad, like most ordinary little girls'. When she finds a robin who needs hair for his nest, she cuts off her curl. Her mother agrees that this was both a bad and good thing to do. Marjorie is changed. She has a new fringe and a new attitude.

When the little Chinese boy, Tee Wee, is dumped from his boat, he lands on the sea bed. A most beautiful mermaid admits that she made his 'little boat bend' so that the mermaids would have a nice little boy to play with. Tee Wee plays with the mermaids and is offered seaweed cakes and moss salad. While he is very hungry, he'd rather rice and tea, or bread and cheese. The mermaid take him to the surface when he agrees to return another day. His mother is disbelieving of his adventure story until he shows her that he has learned to swim.