dchuck. "I've come over to tell you the news
about the Muley Cow. I hope you haven't heard it already," she added,
for she dearly loved to be the first to spread a bit of gossip.

"I fear I do know it," Aunt Polly replied, as she pushed her poke bonnet
back and began to fan herself with a plantain leaf. "I suppose you've
just heard about the Muley Cow's meeting Cuffy Bear in the back
pasture."

Mrs. Woodchuck had begun to look disappointed. But now her honest face
brightened. "Oh, no! There's newer news than that," she explained. "It
hasn't anything to do with the Muley Cow's jumping the fence into the
back pasture."

"Do tell!" Aunt Polly exclaimed.

"It's something about her clothes--something new she's wearing." Mrs.
Woodchuck wasn't going to give up her news too soon. She liked to get
people well interested before she actually told them anything.

"She hasn't a pair of horns, has she!" Aunt Polly inquired eagerly.

"Oh, no! Not that! But I knew you'd like to hear the news. I knew it
would please you."

"Well, _what_ is it?" Aunt Polly demanded.

"That's a pretty poke that you have on," Mrs. Woodchuck remarked.

Aunt Polly straightened her poke bonnet. "Thank you!" she said. "But do
let me hear the news."

"Can't you guess it?" Mrs. Woodchuck asked her. "Can't you guess it, now
that I've given you a hint?"

But Aunt Polly couldn't. So at last Mrs. Woodchuck told her the news:

"The Muley Cow is wearing a poke! I knew you'd approve of it, because
you always wear one yourself."

Aunt Polly Woodchuck threw up her hands in astonishment.

"I didn't suppose the Muley Cow had sense enough to do that!" she
exclaimed.

X

A SLIGHT MISTAKE

Mrs. Woodchuck was glad that she had gone to Aunt Polly Woodchuck's
house to tell her the news about the Muley Cow. Aunt Polly was all in a
flutter, she was so eager to see the Muley Cow in her new poke bonnet.

"Is the poke becoming to her?" Aunt Polly asked Mrs. Woodchuck.

"I haven't set eyes on it," Mrs. Woodchuck said. "Old Mr. Crow told me
the news only this morning. I asked him to describe the poke. But all he
could say was that I'd be surprised when I saw it."

"That's the way with men folks," Aunt Polly Woodchuck declared. "They
never know anything about the styles--except that queer Mr. Frog, the
tailor."

Both ladies giggled at the mere mention of Ferdinand Frog. And while
they were busy tittering, Mrs. Woodchuck's son Billy helped himself to a