The president's face cleared. "Thank you for the suggestion," he said.
"I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings; but you know there is a rule
in the band that only true stories are to be told here. We have five
more minutes for foreign stories. Has any one else one?"

CHAPTER XX STORIES ABOUT ANIMALS

A SMALL girl, with twinkling eyes and a merry face, got up, just behind
Miss Laura, and made her way to the front. "My dranfadder says," she
began, in a piping little voice, "dat when he was a little boy his
fadder brought him a little monkey from de West Indies. De naughty boys
in de village used to tease de little monkey, and he runned up a tree
one day. Dey was drowing stones at him, and a man dat was paintin' de
house druv 'em away. De monkey runned down de tree, and shook hands wid
de man. My dranfadder saw him," she said, with a shake of her head at
the president, as if she was afraid he would doubt her.

There was great laughing and clapping of hands when this little girl
took her seat, and she hopped right up again and ran back. "Oh, I
fordot," she went on, in her squeaky, little voice, "dat my dranfadder
says dat afterward de monkey upset de painter's can of oil, and rolled
in it, and den jumped down in my dranfadder's flour barrel."

The president looked very much amused, and said, "We have had some good
stories about monkeys, now let us have some more about our home animals.
Who can tell us another story about a horse?"

Three or four boys jumped up, but the president said they would take one
at a time. The first one was this: A Riverdale boy was walking along
the bank of a canal in Hoytville. He saw a boy driving two horses, which
were towing a canal-boat. The first horse was lazy, and the boy got
angry and struck him several times over the head with his whip. The
Riverdale boy shouted across to him, begging him not to be so cruel;
but the boy paid no attention. Suddenly the horse turned, seized his
tormentor by the shoulder, and pushed him into the canal. The water was
not deep, and the boy, after floundering about for a few seconds, came
out dripping with mud and filth, and sat down on the tow path, and
looked at the horse with such a comical expression, that the Riverdale
boy had to stuff his handkerchief in his mouth to keep from laughing.

"It is to be hoped that he would learn a lesson," said the president,
"and be kinder to his horse in the future. Now, Bernard Howe, your
story."

The boy wa