can't tell," said the papa. "It's a fairy-prince story to begin
with, but it may turn out a little-pig story before it gets to the end.
It depends upon how the Prince behaves. But _I'm_ not anxious to tell
it," and the papa put his face into the pillow and pretended to fall
instantly asleep again.

"Now, brother, you see!" said the niece. "Being so particular!"

"Well, sister," said the nephew, "it wasn't my fault. I _had_ to ask
him. You know what they said."

"Well, I suppose we've got to wake him up all over again," said the
niece, with a little sigh; and they began to pull at the papa this way
and that, but they could not budge him. As soon as they stopped, he
opened his eyes.

"Now don't say, 'Where am I?'" said the niece.

The papa could not help laughing, because that was just the very thing
he was going to say. "Well, all right! What about that story? Do you
want to hear it, and take your chances of its being a Prince to the
end?"

"I suppose we'll have to; won't we, sister?"

"Yes, we'll leave it all to you, uncle," said the niece; and she thought
she would coax him up a little, and so she went on: "I know you won't be
mean about it. Will he, brother?"

"No," said the nephew. "I'll bet the Prince will keep a Prince all the
way through. What'll _you_ bet, sister?"

"I won't bet anything," said the niece, and she put her arm round the
papa's neck, and pressed her cheek up against his. "I'll just leave it
to uncle, and if it _does_ turn into a little-pig story, it'll be for
the moral."

The nephew was not quite sure what a moral was; but at the bottom of his
heart he would just as soon have it a little-pig story as not. He had
got to thinking how funny a little pig would look in a Prince's clothes,
and he said, "Yes, it'll be for the moral."

The papa was very contrary that morning. "Well," said he, "I don't know
about that. I'm not sure there's going to be any moral."

"Oh, goody!" said the niece, and she clapped her hands in great delight.
"Then it's going to be a Prince story all through!"

"If you interrupt me in that way, it's not going to be any story at
all."

"I didn't know you had begun it, uncle," pleaded the niece.

"Well, I hadn't. But I was just going to." The papa lay quiet a while.
The fact is, he had not thought up any story at all; and he was so tired
of all the stories he used to tell his own children that he could not
bear to tell one of them, though he knew very well that th