id the president need
not have any fears as to its truth, for it had happened in his boarding
house in the village, and he had seen it himself. Monday, the day
before, being wash-day, his landlady lady had put out a large washing.
Among the clothes on the line was a gray flannel shirt belonging to her
husband. The young dog belonging to the house had pulled the shirt from
the line and torn it to pieces. The woman put it aside and told him
master would beat him. When the man came home to his dinner, he showed
the dog the pieces of the shirt, and gave him a severe whipping. The dog
ran away, visited all the clothes lines in the village, till he found a
gray shirt very like his master's. He seized it and ran home, laying it
at his master's; feet, joyfully wagging his tail meanwhile.

Mr. Maxwell's story done, a bright-faced boy, called Simon Grey, got up
and said, "You all know our old gray horse Ned. Last week father
sold him to a man in Hoytville, and I went to the station when he was
shipped. He was put in a box car. The doors were left a little open to
give him air, and were locked in that way. There was a narrow, sliding
door, four feet from the floor of the car, and, in some way or other,
old Ned pushed this door open, crawled through it, and tumbled out on
the ground. When I was coming from school, I saw him walking along the
track. He hadn't hurt himself, except for a few cuts. He was glad to see
me, and followed me home. He must have gotten off the train when it was
going full speed, for he hadn't been seen at any of the stations, and
the trainmen were astonished to find the doors locked and the car empty,
when they got to Hoytville. Father got the man who bought him to release
him from his bargain, for he says if Ned is so fond of Riverdale, he
shall stay here."

The president asked the boys and girls to give three cheers for old Ned,
and then they had some more singing. After all had taken their seats, he
said he would like to know what the members had been doing for animals
during the past fortnight.

One girl had kept her brother from shooting two owls that came about
their barnyard. She told him that the owls would destroy the rats and
mice that bothered him in the barn, but if he hunted them, they would go
to the woods.

A boy said that he had persuaded some of his friends who were going
fishing, to put their bait worms into a dish of boiling water to kill
them before they started, and also to promise hi