All the birds of the air came to the magpie and asked her to teach them how to build nests.

Once upon a time, there was a mighty baron in the North Countrie who was a great magician and knew everything that would come to pass.

In Bamborough Castle once lived a king who had a fair wife and two children, a son named Childe Wynd and a daughter named Margaret. Childe Wynd went forth to seek his fortune, and soon after he had gone the queen his mother died.

Tommy Grimes was sometimes a good boy, and sometimes a bad boy; when he was a bad boy, he was a very bad boy.

Once upon a time there was a boy whose name was Jack, and he lived with his mother on a common.

In the days of the great Prince Arthur there lived a mighty magician, called Merlin, the most learned and skillful enchanter the world has ever seen.

Once upon a time there was a man and a wife who had too many children and they could not get meat for them, so they took the three youngest and left them in a wood.

Childe Rowland and his brother twain

Were playing at the ball,

And there was their sister Burd Ellen

In the midst, among them all.

Childe Rowland kicked it with his foot

And caught it with his knee;

At last as he plunged among them all

O'er the church he made it flee.

One day Henny Penny was picking up corn in the corn yard when -- whack; something hit her upon the head.  "Goodness Gracious me!" said Henny Penny; "the sky's a-going to fall; I must go and tell the king."

When Good King Arthur reigned, there lived near the Land's End of England, in the county of Cornwall, a farmer who had one only son called Jack.