One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by Collins 1940
Agatha Christie® Poirot® One, Two, Buckle My Shoe™
Copyright © 1940 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2016
Title lettering by Ghost Design
Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com
Agatha Christie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008164966
Ebook Edition © September 2016 ISBN: 9780007422630
Version: 2017-04-12
To Dorothy North
who likes detective stories and cream,
in the hope it may make up to her
for the absence of the latter!
One, two, buckle my shoe,
Three, four, shut the door,
Five, six, picking up sticks,
Seven, eight, lay them straight,
Nine, ten, a good fat hen,
Eleven, twelve, men must delve,
Thirteen, fourteen, maids are courting,
Fifteen, sixteen, maids in the kitchen,
Seventeen, eighteen, maids in waiting,
Nineteen, twenty, my plate’s empty …
Table of Contents
Seven, Eight, Lay Them Straight
Eleven, Twelve, Men Must Delve
Thirteen, Fourteen, Maids Are Courting
Fifteen, Sixteen, Maids in the Kitchen
Seventeen, Eighteen, Maids in Waiting
Nineteen, Twenty, My Plate’s Empty
Mr Morley was not in the best of tempers at breakfast. He complained of the bacon, wondered why the coffee had to have the appearance of liquid mud, and remarked that breakfast cereals were each one worse than the last.
Mr Morley was a small man with a decided jaw and a pugnacious chin. His sister, who kept house for him, was a large woman rather like a female grenadier. She eyed her brother thoughtfully and asked whether the bath water had been cold again.
Rather grudgingly, Mr Morley said it had not.
He glanced at the paper and remarked that the Government seemed to be passing from a state of incompetence to one of positive imbecility!
Miss Morley said in a deep bass voice that it was Disgraceful!
As a mere woman she had always found whatever Government happened to be in power distinctly useful. She urged her brother on to explain exactly why the Government’s present policy was inconclusive, idiotic, imbecile