A True Story

MAGPIE TALES
http://magpietales.blogspot.com/2010/09/mag-34.html
supplied the picture of the oil lamp.

A TRUE STORY

Olive was my father's sister; she lived in the West Country,

And my father often told this quite macabre tale to me.

It happened in the eighteen-nineties, when Olive was at school,

And when doing chores was a common part of childhood, as a rule.

Her parents had a little shop, selling oil, a useful thing,

And Olive used to tour the town knocking doors and delivering.

All lighting was done by oil lamps, and so the trade was brisk,

And Babbacombe was a peaceful place so there was little risk.

Miss Emma Keyse lived all alone in a cottage by the sea;

Her house was down a steep cliff path, which was often slippery.

Olive knew Miss Keyes quite well in a mistress/servant way,

For the girl was often delivering oil and passing the time of day.

Imagine the horror that she felt when she heard Miss Keyes was dead!

Her throat had been cut and she had died from a terrible blow to the head.

John Lee, one of her servants, was soon accused of the crime,

And it caused great consternation in Babbacombe, at the time.

But this isn't the end of this sorry tale, for justice had to be done

And events surrounding the hanging, mystified everyone!

Three times they tried to hang John Lee, but the trap-door failed each time,

While, all the while, he vowed that he was innocent of the crime.

After three attempts the authorities said that a pardon was a must;

God clearly thought Lee was innocent so the law, too, must be just.

So Lee walked free, to write a book and make money from his story!

The criminal was never found. Lee covered himself in glory.

He became a minor celebrity,in his praise the people sang.

'The great John Lee of Babbacombe! The man they couldn't hang.'

And what of my Aunt Olive, well, no-one recalls her name,

But, just for an instant, in a way, Aunt Olive was touched by fame!

*

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WICKED WASP!

(For teaching the 'w' sound.)

A wasp flew in my window and wandered down my wall.

It waved a wing

And wagged a sting

And I didn't like that wasp at all!

I wished I were a witch so I could make it disappear,

But it came zoom

Across the room

And stung me on my ear!

With weeping and with wailing

I watched that wasp go by.

It winked at me

Quite wickedly

And I never even wondered why!

My ear was red and burning where the wasp had had his fun,

But it swooped back

With a new attack

And bit the other one!

*