ed to come into the park. She ran as hard as she could, and the
wolf came after her with huge leaps and bounds. She managed to reach a
shrubbery of myrtle bushes and she hid herself in one of the thickest of
the bushes. The wolf came sniffing among the branches, its black tongue
lolling out of its mouth and its pale grey eyes glaring with rage. Bertha
was terribly frightened, and thought to herself: 'If I had not been so
extraordinarily good I should have been safe in the town at this moment.'
However, the scent of the myrtle was so strong that the wolf could not
sniff out where Bertha was hiding, and the bushes were so thick that he
might have hunted about in them for a long time without catching sight of
her, so he thought he might as well go off and catch a little pig
instead. Bertha was trembling very much at having the wolf prowling and
sniffing so near her, and as she trembled the medal for obedience clinked
against the medals for good conduct and punctuality. The wolf was just
moving away when he heard the sound of the medals clinking and stopped to
listen; they clinked again in a bush quite near him. He dashed into the
bush, his pale grey eyes gleaming with ferocity and triumph, and dragged
Bertha out and devoured her to the last morsel. All that was left of her
were her shoes, bits of clothing, and the three medals for goodness."

"Were any of the little pigs killed?"

"No, they all escaped."

"The story began badly," said the smaller of the small girls, "but it had
a beautiful ending."

"It is the most beautiful story that I ever heard," said the bigger of
the small girls, with immense decision.

"It is the _only_ beautiful story I have ever heard," said Cyril.

A dissentient opinion came from the aunt.

"A most improper story to tell to young children! You have undermined
the effect of years of careful teaching."

"At any rate," said the bachelor, collecting his belongings preparatory
to leaving the carriage, "I kept them quiet for ten minutes, which was
more than you were able to do."

"Unhappy woman!" he observed to himself as he walked down the platform of
Templecombe station; "for the next six months or so those children will
assail her in public with demands for an improper story!"

A DEFENSIVE DIAMOND

Treddleford sat in an easeful arm-chair in front of a slumberous fire,
with a volume of verse in his hand and the comfortable consciousness that
outside the club windows the r