The Trial of a Nursery Rhyme Character

The Trial of a Nursery Rhyme Character

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea

In a beautiful pea-green boat;

They took some honey, and plenty of money

Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The court was packed, the defendant a middle aged owl by the name of

Mr.T.Whoo was sitting nervously beside his defence, Mr.Smith. I was

sitting next to the Clerk of the Court, James and it was Mark who was

the Usher this morning. There was a low murmur of babble around the

courtroom; a little commotion was caused when Mr.Dumpty toppled of his

chair in the audience. Piggy-wig was sitting very smugly at the

prosecution box with Mr McTavish. Judge Joanna sat up from her daze

and picked up her mallet.

“Order! Order in the court! Will the prosecutor stand, please state

your prosecution.”

“On the seventeenth of July 1999, at eleven-thirty pm, Tom Whoo Owl

and Purnelope Pussycat went to sea in a pea-green boat. On the

eighteenth of July 2000 they arrived to the land where the bong-tree

grows where they met Mr Charles Piggy-wig. They had planned to get

married and needed a ring, it just so happened that Piggy-wig had a

sixteen carrot gold ring,” Mr McTavish said. “Piggy-wig has been in a

lot of debt to Mr Wolf Blew and needed to the money, so agreed to the

exchange for one-hundred and sixty-three dollars.

When Piggy-wig repaid his debt to Wolf, Wolf would not take the money

because the money was forged!”

Purnelope Pussycat had her head held low on the front row, her

aqua-marine eyes twinkled and as she closed the lids two tear-drops

trickled out. The poor cat was staring at Tom in complete disbelief.

James called for the first witness, Miss Muppet.

Mark placed Miss Muppet’s hand on the bible.

“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the

truth under the name of God?”

“I do.”

A short pretty girl of eighteen years walked in, golden locks fell