Dog.

"'Then I'll have to bid you good-by,' replied Mr. Billy-Goat, 'for I
can't swim a stroke.'

"By this time they had arrived at the bank of the creek, and they
could hear Mr. Wolf coming through the woods. They had no time to
lose. Mr. Dog looked around on the ground, gathered some jan-weed,
yan-weed, and tan-weed, rubbed them together, and squeezed a drop of
the juice on Mr. Billy-Goat's horns. He had no sooner done this than
Mr. Billy-Goat was changed into a white rock.

"Then Mr. Dog leaped into the creek and swam across. Mr. Wolf ran to
the bank, but there he stopped. The water was so wide it made tears
come in his eyes; so deep that it made his legs ache; and so cold that
it made his body shiver.

"When Mr. Dog arrived safely on the other side he cried out, 'Aha!
you are afraid! You've drowned poor Mr. Billy-Goat, but you are afraid
of me. I dare you to fling a rock at me!'

"This made Mr. Wolf so mad that he seized the white rock and threw it
at Mr. Dog with all his might. It fell near Mr. Dog, and instantly
became Mr. Billy-Goat again. But in falling a piece was broken off,
and it happened to be Mr. Billy-Goat's tail. Ever since then he has
had a very short tail."

"Were you there, Mr. Rabbit?" asked Sweetest Susan bluntly.

"I was fishing at the time," replied Mr. Rabbit. "I heard the noise
they made, and I turned around and saw it just as I've told you."

Drusilla touched Buster John on the arm. "We ain't dreamin', is we,
honey?"

Buster John looked at her scornfully. "What put that in your head?" he
asked.

"Suppose the rock had hit Mr. Dog?" suggested Sweetest Susan.

THE PUMPKIN-EATER.

"Now, that's so!" exclaimed Mr. Thimblefinger. "And it reminds me of a
little accident that happened in my mother's family. But it's hardly
worth telling."

"Well, tell it, anyhow," said Mrs. Meadows.

"Yes," remarked Mr. Rabbit, "the proof of the pudding is in chewing
the bag."

"Well," said Mr. Thimblefinger, "as far back as I can remember, and
before that, too, my mother was a widow, and she had a great many
children to take care of. The reason she had so many children was
because she was poor. I have noticed all my life that when people are
very poor they happen to have more children than they know what to do
with. This was the way with my mother. She had a houseful of children,
and she found it a hard matter to get along.

"One day she went down to the creek to wash the clothes, such as she