back from somewhere or other.

"I think it's time to go home, now," he said; "don't you?"

"Well, you _are_ a pretty friend!" said the Camel. "The idea of your
making such a noise, with your shouting and singing! You brought this
upon me. What in the world made you do it? Why did you shout and sing?"

"Oh, I don't know _why_" said the little Jackal,--"I always sing after
dinner!"

"So?" said the Camel. "Ah, very well, let us go home now."

He took the little Jackal kindly on his back and started into the water.
When he began to swim he swam out to where the river was the very
deepest. There he stopped, and said,--

"Oh, Jackal!"

"Yes," said the little Jackal.

"I have the strangest feeling," said the Camel,--"I feel as if I must
roll over."

"'Roll over'!" cried the Jackal. "My goodness, don't do that! If you do
that, you'll drown me! What in the world makes you want to do such a
crazy thing? Why should you want to roll over?"

"Oh, I don't know _why_," said the Camel slowly, "but I always roll over
after dinner!"

So he rolled over.

And the little Jackal was drowned, for his sins, but the Camel came
safely home.

THE GULLS OF SALT LAKE

The story I am going to tell you is about something that really
happened, many years ago.

A brave little company of pioneers from the Atlantic coast crossed the
Mississippi River and journeyed across the plains of Central North
America in big covered wagons with many horses, and finally succeeded in
climbing to the top of the great Rockies and down again into a valley in
the very midst of the mountains. It was a valley of brown, bare, desert
soil, in a climate where almost no rain falls; but the snow on the
mountain-tops sent down little streams of pure water, the winds were
gentle, and lying like a blue jewel at the foot of the western hills was
a marvellous lake of salt water,--an inland sea. So the pioneers settled
there and built themselves huts and cabins for the first winter.

It had taken them many months to make the terrible journey; many had
died of weariness and illness on the way; many died of hardship during
the winter; and the provisions they had brought in their wagons were so
nearly gone that, by spring, they were living partly on roots, dug from
the ground. All their lives now depended on the crops of grain and
vegetables which they could raise in the valley. They made the barren
land fertile by spreading water from the little streams over