animal, not I! It wouldn't matter to me
if there were no animals in the world. They needn't give me anything! I
wish they wouldn't!"

The man looked at him greatly amazed. "Silly little boy!" he said. "I
hope your silly wish will come true. How little you understand! I just
wish tonight all the animal kingdom would leave you and then perhaps you
would understand a little!" But Silly Will walked home feeling very
smart, for he _didn't_ understand. Silly people never _do_ understand!

Now that night a strange thing happened to Silly Will. I can't explain
how or why it happened. But in the middle of the night, all the animals
_did_ leave Silly Will. Not only the cow and the sheep and the horse but
all the animal kingdom! He was sound asleep in his flannel nightgown
snuggled under warm wool blankets. Suddenly he felt a jerk. What was
happening? He sat up in bed just in time to see his blankets whisk off
him and disappear. He looked down. His night shirt was gone! He heard a
faint sound almost like the bleating of the old woman's sheep.
"Ba-ba-a-a I take back my wool!"

Then he was aware that something queer had happened to his mattress. It
was just an empty bag of ticking. He heard a faint sound almost like the
neighing of the man's horse who had died. "Whey-ey-ey, I take back my
hair!"

He reached for his pillow. It too was an empty sack.

"Hh-ss-s-hh" hissed a faint sound almost like a goose. "I take back my
feathers!"

"Whatever is happening?" screamed Silly Will. "Let me get a light." He
found a match and struck it, but his candlestick was empty.
"Ba-a-moo-oo" said some faint voices. "I take back my fat!"

By this time Silly Will was thoroughly frightened and shivering with
cold besides.

"I'd better get dressed," he thought, and groped his way to the chair
where he had left his clothes. He could find only his cotton underwaist
and his cotton shirt. His wool undershirt and drawers, his trousers and
stockings, and his silk necktie were gone. And so were his leather
shoes. Just the lacings lay on the floor. "Mooooo" he seemed to hear a
faint sound almost like the little girl's cow he had made fun of in the
afternoon. "I take back my hide."

He put on the few cotton clothes that were left, but there were no
buttons to hold them together. "Moooooo," he heard a faint voice say. "I
take back my bones."

Terrified he ran to the closet to see what more he could find. "I'll
surely freeze," he thought as he lighted a