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Bobby and Betty with the workers cover

Bobby and Betty with the workers

Chapter 59: Riddles:
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About This Book

Two young children accompany and observe neighborhood workers—milkman and his horse, iceman, baker, grocer, shoemaker, tailor, postman, newsboy, and others—discovering how everyday foods, clothing, and services are produced and delivered. Short, episodic scenes mix simple narration, playful rhymes, and hands-on activities as the children buy pies, help bake, visit shops, and earn and spend money. Each vignette pairs concrete descriptions of tasks with study prompts and play suggestions for teachers, offering practical lessons about community roles, the origins of household goods, and the connection between work and daily life.

BOBBY GOES WITH FATHER TO THE TAILOR’S SHOP

When Father came in sight, Bobby ran to meet him.

“When are you going to the tailor’s, Daddy?” asked Bobby.

“Tomorrow morning,” answered Father.

“May I go with you?” asked Bobby. “Please, Daddy.”

“No, Bobby, there is nothing at the tailor’s you want to see.”

“Oh, yes, there is, Daddy.”

“What do you want to see, Bobby?”

“I want to see the tailor. I want to see a man sew.”

“Very well, Bobby, you may go with me.”

Bobby was up early next morning.

When breakfast was over, he went with Father to the tailor’s shop.

The tailor brought out Father’s new suit.

Father tried it on.

Bobby thought Father stood very still.

The tailor clipped the coat with his sharp shears.

At first, Bobby thought he would spoil it.

Bobby saw the tailor’s thimble.

He saw the tailor’s needle.

He saw his thread and beeswax.

He saw the tailor’s sewing machine, and suits hanging on the wall.

At last the tailor said, “That’s all.”

“When will the suit be done?” asked Father.

“I will send it Saturday,” said the tailor.

“Send the bill with it, please,” said Father.

Father then said “Good day” to the tailor, and he and Bobby went out of the shop.

“Run home, now,” said Father to Bobby. “I must be off to my work.”

The tailor kept his word.

He sent Father’s suit and the bill early Saturday morning.

An hour later Mother’s dress came with the dressmaker’s bill.

Father liked his new suit.

Mother liked her new dress.

They paid the bills that very day.

So the tailor and dressmaker had pay for their work.

And Father and Mother had their new clothes to wear to church on Sunday morning.

For study and play:

Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
They made him a coat,
Of an old nanny goat,
I wonder how they could do so!
With a ring-a-ting-tang,
And a ring-a-ting-tang,
Poor old Robinson Crusoe.
I went around to the tailor’s shop
To buy a tailor’s needle.
That’s the way the money goes,
And pop goes the weasel!

Riddles:

When may a man’s pocket be empty, and yet have something in it?
When it has a hole in it
Inside hole,
Outside full of many holes.
A thimble