Hop-o'-My-Thumb

Hop-o’-my-Thumb’s parents

Left him and his seventeen brothers

In the woods one day

When they could no longer afford

To take care of them

This is something parents

In fairy tales do sometimes

But never ever in real life

So do not fret

For Hop-o’-my-Thumb is a fairy tale character

And this is a made up story

About a little boy

With a lot of smarts

Hop-o’-my-Thumbs--

Who we will call Hop

So that this story is not too long

--Finds himself lost in the woods with his brothers

He climbs up a tree

And sees a house

In the distance

With its light on

He and his brothers

Make their way

To the house

And when they get there

They find an ogre

Living in it

Not all ogres are mean
But this one seemed

If not mean, hungry

Which is sometimes worse than mean

But Hop and his brothers

Did not want to take their chances

In the woods overnight

So they agreed to stay

In the ogre’s house

When the boys go to sleep

The ogre makes his move

He goes to gobble them up

But Hop thought this might happen

So he instructed his brothers

To sleep under the beds

Provided by the ogre

And not under the blankets

Hop replaced his brothers

With some of the many lifelike dolls

The ogre had in his house

And the monster was taught a lesson

About eating your guests

When he swallowed

His entire vintage doll collection

Believing them to be Hop

And his seventeen brothers

The ogre went back to bed

And Hop woke his brothers

And led them out of the house

And into the early morning light

As it made its way

Through the forest’s canopy

When the ogre wakes up

And realizes that his dolls are gone

And suffering from terrible indigestion

He saw that he had been fooled

And he stormed out of his house

Racing after his escaped meal

Hop knew the ogre

Would be coming after them

So he told his brothers to hide

In a nearby cave

The ogre stopped

On the hill

Above the cave

And suddenly he felt

Very sleepy

For ogres do not get enough exercise

And he had tried running very fast

With a stomach full of dolls

When the ogre was fast asleep

Hop called for his brothers

To roll the ogre

Down the hill

And into the thorniest briar patch

In the kingdom

Where the ogre would be trapped

For all the rest of his days

By thorns and bramble

Then Hop led his brothers

Back to the ogres house

Where they gave it a good clean
And turned the place

Into a lovely home

For all the fairy tale children

Who had been abandoned

By their parents in the woods

It was a happy home

With lots of singing

And dancing

And absolutely no dolls

Late at night

They could hear the ogre

Calling out to them

From the briar patch

Asking them to come get him

Because the thorns were very sharp

And he promised

He would not eat them

Or even nibble at their toes

But since they did not believe him

They simply closed the windows

And went to bed

Since even abandoned forest children

Must pay strict attention

To their bedtime