nd some gave him little pieces of
dark-colored bread.

And he ate his pieces of bread and drank his milk, and the foreman
gave him two of some little thin molasses cookies that were all
crackly and crumbly; for little crackly cookies like those aren't much
like cake.

When all the men had finished their dinner and had drunk their tea and
their coffee, they went and put their pails and their baskets away and
then came back and sat down again, and some of them got out their
pipes and filled them.

The little boy was very happy, and he sat on the board with his hands
in his lap, and he smiled.

"Now," said the foreman, "there's time for a story before you go to
work again. Do any of you know a story?"

He looked all about and, last of all, he looked at the little boy. "Do
you know any story?"

"Well," the little boy said, "I know about Jonah."

"Will you tell us about Jonah?" the foreman asked. "I should like to
hear that story."

"Yes," said the little boy, "I will tell it. Well, once upon a time
there was a man named Jonah. And he had to go to Nineveh to tell the
people how bad they were. But he didn't want to go; so he didn't. He
ran away in a ship.

"And when he got into the ship, he lay down and went to sleep. And the
ship started, and pretty soon the wind began to blow terribly hard,
and there were 'normous great waves, and the ship got all tippy. And
the sailors were afraid, and they threw out the things that were in
the ship.

"So the captain went to the place where Jonah was. 'Wake up, Jonah!'
he said. 'Why don't you get up and pray?'

"Then the sailors talked together, and said that it must be Jonah's
fault. 'Who is this Jonah, anyway?' they said. 'Where did he come from,
and what is he doing here? Let's ask him.'

"So they did. And Jonah told them, and said: 'I guess you'll have to
throw me out of the ship.' So they threw Jonah over into the water,
and there wasn't any more storm.

"And Jonah, he went down and down and down in the water, and I guess
he thought he was going to be drowned. Then a great, big whale came
along and saw Jonah, and he opened his mouth wide and went at Jonah
and swallowed him. But he didn't bite him or chew him or anything.

"But Jonah was terribly scared, 'cause he couldn't hardly guess where
he was. The insides of the whale were all wet, and it was all pitchy
dark in there.

"There wasn't anything for Jonah to do but to think, and after he had
thought for a long,