Higgledy-Piggledy - Paperback

Originally published in 1875. Six stories that can only be described as "Higgledy-Piggledy" THE CRONE OF CHARING, THE SQUIRREL AND THE HEDGEHOG, THE PIG OF CHERITON, THE MERMAID'S BOY, PRINCE MERIMEL, BILLYS STORY.Includes 8 original illustrations. From the preface: "It is a great thing to choose for a new book a title which all the world understands at once. Every reader, learned, or unlearned, will know the meaning of Higgledy-Piggledy.It means Higgledy-Piggledy. There is no other word in the English language which signifies exactly the same thing, and therefore there can be no difficulty about the matter. However, in case there should be anyone who requires further explana- tion, I am informed by a committee of under-house- maids who have lately been considering the subject, that the words Higgledy-Piggledy convey the idea of 'things jumbled up together anyhow'-things, in short, in a state of confusion. What, then, can be a more appropriate title for a book such as that which I now send forth to the world? In the six stories which it contains there are jumbled up together witches, jackdaws, fairies, pigs, mermaids, magistrates, dwarfs, cock-pheasants, and a great variety of other creatures who do not usually consort together, and could only have been brought into the same book by those wondrous powers of magic which confuse and confound the common order of nature. I have neither the time nor the power to sort them out properly and put each in his own place; and so, having learned what I knew about them from the Fairies who kindly supply me with information upon such subjects, I have written it down as well as I could, and send out the six stories which contain it, under the fitting title and designation of- "Higgledy-Piggledy." "