ket in her hand and went away to see Auntie. The six mince pies sat
cooling in a row on the doorstep.

And then,--and then,--Epaminondas _was_ careful how he stepped on those
pies!

He stepped (imitate)--right--in--the--middle--of--every--one.

* * * * *

And, do you know, children, nobody knows what happened next! The person
who told me the story didn't know; nobody knows. But you can guess.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] A Negro nonsense tale from the Southern States of America.

THE BOY WHO CRIED "WOLF!"

There was once a shepherd-boy who kept his flock at a little distance
from the village. Once he thought he would play a trick on the villagers
and have some fun at their expense. So he ran toward the village crying
out, with all his might,--

"Wolf! Wolf! Come and help! The wolves are at my lambs!"

The kind villagers left their work and ran to the field to help him. But
when they got there the boy laughed at them for their pains; there was
no wolf there.

Still another day the boy tried the same trick, and the villagers came
running to help and got laughed at again.

Then one day a wolf did break into the fold and began killing the lambs.
In great fright, the boy ran for help. "Wolf! Wolf!" he screamed. "There
is a wolf in the flock! Help!"

The villagers heard him, but they thought it was another mean trick; no
one paid the least attention, or went near him. And the shepherd-boy
lost all his sheep.

That is the kind of thing that happens to people who lie: even when they
tell the truth no one believes them.

THE FROG KING

Did you ever hear the old story about the foolish Frogs? The Frogs in a
certain swamp decided that they needed a king; they had always got along
perfectly well without one, but they suddenly made up their minds that a
king they must have. They sent a messenger to Jove and begged him to
send a king to rule over them.

Jove saw how stupid they were, and sent a king who could not harm them:
he tossed a big log into the middle of the pond.

At the splash the Frogs were terribly frightened, and dived into their
holes to hide from King Log. But after a while, when they saw that the
king never moved, they got over their fright and went and sat on him.
And as soon as they found he really could not hurt them they began to
despise him; and finally they sent another messenger to Jove to ask for
a new king.

Jove sent an eel.

The Frogs were much