ins 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 buy it, as he
thought he