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Updated: May 24, 2025
But when Wee-Wun the gnome came in the Hop-about Man flew out of his chair, and he flew all around the room, singing this song: "Ring-a-ding-dill, ring-a-ding-dill, Let all careless things hop about if they will."
So Wee-Wun had to make another platterful, and alack, he was careless, and let that porridge burn, and he could not eat it, though he tried hard. Afterwards he went out to fetch wood for his fire, and when he had fetched it, he threw it into a corner, and he left the door wide open, so that a draught fell upon the Hop-about Man. But the Hop-about Man said nothing.
And the Hop-about Man replied: "Certainly I am very comfortable here, with half of this fine house for my own, and I can only walk away if I have a pair of little blue shoes to walk in, and I can only go when you have set all careless things straight." Poor Wee-Wun! He took the little blue shoes in a hurry, and his tears were dropping all the time.
Then Wee-Wun went out to dig in his garden, and he dug there the whole day long, and when he came in in the evening, there was the Hop-about Man sitting in his chair. When Wee-Wun looked at his blue smock and his feather cap he saw that the Hop-about Man looked just like a blue blow-away growing in the chair at Wee-Wun's fireside.
And there all night he weeded, pulling up blue blow-aways by the score. But when in the morning he went back to his fine house, the Hop-about Man was gone. The Street Musicians A donkey who had carried sacks to the mill for his master a great many years became so weak that he could not work for a living any longer.
But at last Wee-Wun set the door on its hinges, and put the wood in the wood cellar, and washed the Hop-about Man's platter and spoon, and set straight all the chairs and tables, and put the spade in the place where it ought to be, and he was so tired that he could hardly move another step.
As for me, here I am, and here I mean to stay." And not another word would he say. At this Wee-Wun was in a terrible way, as you may think. But there was the Hop-about Man, and he did not seem to care, not one bit. So Wee-Wun went on his way, and when he had made a platter of porridge for his breakfast, the Hop-about Man said: "Ah, that is my breakfast, I see," and he ate it up in a twink.
Then he heard upon the floor a clatter and a rustle, and then a stepping noise one, two; one, two and that was the little blue shoes that were marching round and round over the floor very steadily. And as they marched they sang this song: "Ring-a-ding-dill, ring-a-ding-dill, The Hop-about Man comes over the hill. Why is he coming, and what will he see? Rickety, rackety one, two, three."
The Hop-about Man's platter, which Wee-Wun had forgotten to wash, flew up to the ceiling, and the wooden spoon spun round like a top on the floor, and all the chairs and tables Wee-Wun had left awry began to dance. "Certainly my fine house will come down about my ears," cried poor Wee-Wun.
"Good-bye, little blue shoes," he said, but the Hop-about Man did not seem to notice. And when Wee-Wun gave them to him he put them upon his feet, but he did not stir, not an inch. Then Wee-Wun sighed a long sigh, and he flew over the Bye-bye Meadow till he reached the garden of the Stir-about Wife, which is bound about by a wall.
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