A beautifully illustrated book with incredible coloured plates. It belonged to my mother as a child, so unfortunately there is some added "art work" in it. "The Six Who Were Left in a Shoe" tells the story of the pets of the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, namely Wuff the dog, Malkin the cat, Speckie the hen, Coo-ey the pigeon, a goose named Old Mother Gabble, an old Cricket on the hearth and a nameless goat. Droileen was a little wren who had built her nest in the thatch of the house. The fairies had taken the Old Woman off to brush the cobwebs off of the sky, leaving the animals alone in the house. The tale is the story of the animals' coming to grips with being alone in the house and then setting out to find their fortune and finding another home in the process. The really marvellous thing about this book is its illustrations by Dugald Stewart Walker. They were faintly terrifying when I was wee but as an adult, I look at them with delight.