Though sometimes Tattie, or her young man, or the cat or the dog, or the baby would gaze down at the river and wonder if those waters would ever rise again—ever fill the world again—so they could have another ride.
The cow and the chickens never wondered. They were content to peck and graze.
The baby grew up as handsome as Tattie and as kind as her young man. And wherever he traveled, the wide world over, he always loved rivers, was always happy near rivers, as he had been in Tattie’s house on the bridge.
First published in Great Britain 1983
by Methuen Children's Books Ltd
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Published by arrangement with
Dial Books for Young Readers
A Division of E.P. Dutton, Inc., New York
Text copyright©1983 by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Pictures copyright©1983 by Tomie de Paola
All rights reserved. Manufactured in the U.S.A.
Design by Atha Tehon
First printing
ISBN 0-416-45460-7
The original full-color artwork was prepared using brown-black ink over a detailed pencil drawing. The image was underpainted with waterproof colored inks. Opaque tempera was then applied, leaving small areas of color from the underpainting to show through. The artwork was camera-separated and reproduced as black, red, blue, and yellow halftone.