Tansy skips joyfully along the garden path as music notes float around her cottage’s open blue door, bell, and spoon drawer.

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Tansy and the Hiccuping House

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Tansy and the Hiccuping House

Tansy, a curly-haired child in a yellow hat, red pinafore, and teal boots, waves toward a cream cottage with a blue door in a sunny flower-filled garden.

Tansy lived in a little cream house with a blue door, three windows, and a chimney that leaned a little to the left. Every morning, she waved. “Good morning, House!”

Tansy claps and lifts one teal boot as she skips beside a large rosebush, with her cream cottage behind her.

One sunny morning, Tansy put on her yellow hat and boots and went into the garden. Soft grass tickled beneath her feet.

She began her favourite skipping rhyme. “Clap, clap, tap your toe. Skip, skip, round you go!” Tansy clapped twice, tapped one boot on the path, and skipped around the rosebush.

Tansy looks toward the open blue door of her cottage. A bell hangs beside the doorway, and a spoon drawer is open inside.

From behind her came a sudden sound. “HIC!”

The blue door popped open. Inside, the spoon drawer slid out. Clink, clink, clink!

Tansy turned around. “Were you trying my rhyme, House?”

“HIC!” said the house. The little bell beside the blue door rang. Ting! The door wiggled, and the spoons clinked again.

Tansy listened closely. Clap, clap. Tap. Right after her boot tapped the path—“HIC!”

Her eyes grew wide. “You’re missing the last part!” she said. “Your hiccups are trying to finish the beat.”

Tansy claps with one boot raised on the garden path. The blue cottage door stands open beside a ringing bell and an open drawer of spoons.

Tansy stood by the blue door. “Let’s do it slowly together,” she said.

She clapped. “One, two.” The spoon drawer answered, clink, clink. Tansy tapped her boot. “Three.” The little bell rang once. Ting!

“Now skip, skip, round you go!” sang Tansy. She took two small skips along the path. The blue door gave two gentle knocks. Tap, tap.

They tried again. Tansy clapped, the spoons clinked, her boot tapped, and the bell rang. This time, the house did not hiccup at all.

Soon they had a happy garden band. Clap, clap! Clink, clink! Tap! Ting! The blue door added two soft taps at just the right time.

Tansy sang the whole rhyme again, and the house joined every beat smoothly from beginning to end. No hiccups!

For one quiet moment, everything was still. Then the little bell gave one bright ring, as if it were taking a bow.

Inside the cottage, Tansy reaches up to hang her yellow hat near a golden bell. A closed blue door and a window looking out to the garden are behind her.

Tansy laughed and hung her yellow hat back on its hook. “You learned it, House. Thank you for playing with me.”

The blue door shut neatly. The spoons rested quietly in their drawer. Above them, the chimney leaned a little to the left, as if it were smiling.