Little Miss Muffet
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet,
Eating her curds and whey;
Along came a spider,
Who sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.
 |
| Little Miss Muffet, Source: Simply Daycare |
There was a little girl named Miss Muffet. Everyday at half past three, she would go up to the hill behind her house to meet her mother. They had this cozy little spot under a huge oak tree where they would sit around and waste time away, day dreaming or telling each other silly stories. Today, her mother had lay down a blanket and set out some pillows for them to lean on and had a big bowl of curds and whey for them to share. In the middle of her mother's story, Miss Muffet felt something tickling her arm. She looked down and saw a spider crawling on her arm towards the bowl of food. Miss Muffet screamed, threw the bowl, and went running back to her house. Her mother hadn't seen the spider so she was upset because she thought that Miss Muffet had disliked her bowl of curds and whey. Her mother started to clean up the spilt curds and whey and gathered the pillows and blanket in her arms. She was carrying them back to the house when she had an odd feeling. She looked down and saw a big spider on top of her pile. She dropped the pillows and blankets and went screaming after her daughter.
Author's Note: I chose this nursery rhyme from The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang (1987). I rewrote this story because I thought it was a little odd that Miss Muffet was eating curds and whey all by herself, so I added in a mother to tie in the story a little bit.
What a fun version of the story, Heather! When people choose the rhyme option, it is always really cool: since you have to get most of the story from your imagination, every person comes up with something new and different, like the way you had Little Miss Muffet's mother in your story here. Wonderful! And the spider gives both of them a fright: perfect! That's a great way to take the tiny rhyme and multiply it so that you have the plot of an actual story. Not just one "frightening away" moment, but two of them! It reminds me of that great old proverb, "Like mother, like daughter." Or, in this case, "Like daughter, like mother" ... since it was Little Miss Muffet who met the spider first! Super! :-)
ReplyDeleteThat was a cool spin you put on the original nursery rhyme. I like how you added Mrs. Muffet to the fold. Now if we could only get Mr. Muffet some notoriety then justice would be served. I thought it was funny that Mrs. Muffet got upset because she thought Miss Muffet didn't like her curds and whey. All I could think was there's no way I'd ever be happy to eat gross curds and whey.
ReplyDeleteI do think that your take on the story was original. But why do you think it was odd that Miss Muffet was alone? Back when the story was written, it was actually not a big deal for children to just run up and about as they pleased. I think that has something to say about the activity level and sense of freedom/safety that era embraced when it came to children at play. But I guess you do have a point: when Alice wondered down the rabbit hole for the first time, she was initially with her older sister. So I guess you could have gotten influence from that as well.
ReplyDelete