One, Two, Buckle My Shoe. Agatha Christie

      

       One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

       Copyright

      Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by Collins 1940

      Agatha Christie® Poirot® One, Two, Buckle My Shoe™

      Copyright © 1940 Agatha Christie Limited. All rights reserved.

       www.agathachristie.com

      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

       Dedication

       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

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Epigraph

       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

      

       Also by Agatha Christie

      

       About the Publisher

       One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

      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