boy at the back of the room got up and said, "Mr. President, what
would be impossible in this climate, might be possible in a hot
country like India. Doesn't heat sometimes draw up and preserve
things?"

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."