the reins into James's hands, and jumped out.
Rollo climbed over the seat, and sat by his side. Presently James saw a
large stone in the road, and he asked Rollo to see how well he could
drive round it; for as the horse was going, he would have carried one
wheel directly over it. So he pulled one of the reins, and turned the
horse away; but he contrived to turn him out just far enough to make the
_other_ wheel go over the stone. Rollo laughed, and asked him to let him
try the next time; and James gave him the reins; but there was no other
stone till they got up to the top of the hill.

Then James said that Rollo might ride on the front seat now, and when
Jonas got in, he climbed back to the back seat, and took his place by
the side of Rollo's mother.

"Come, mother," then said Rollo, "we are rested enough now: please to
begin the story."

"Very well, if you are all ready."

So she began as follows:--

THE STORY Of SHALLOW, SELFISH, AND WISE.

Once there were three boys going into town to buy some playthings:
their names were Shallow, Selfish, and Wise. Each had half a
dollar. Shallow carried his in his hand, tossing it up in the air,
and catching it, as he went along. Selfish kept teasing his mother
to give him some more money: half a dollar, he said, was not
enough. Wise walked along quietly, with his cash safe in his
pocket.

Presently Shallow missed catching his half dollar, and--chink--it
went, on the sidewalk, and it rolled along down into a crack under
a building. Then he began to cry. Selfish stood by, holding his own
money tight in his hands, and said he did not pity Shallow at all;
it was good enough for him; he had no business to be tossing it up.
Wise came up, and tried to get the money out with a stick, but he
could not. He told Shallow not to cry; said he was sorry he had
lost his money, and that he would give him half of his, as soon as
they could get it changed at the shop.

So they walked along to the toy-shop.

Their mother said that each one might choose his own plaything; so
they began to look around on the counter and shelves.

After a while, Shallow began to laugh very loud and heartily at
something he found. It was an image of a grinning monkey. It looked
very droll indeed. Shallow asked Wise to come and see. Wise laughed
at it too, but said he should not want to b