"Like what, my dear little boy?"

"Like stars," he finished drowsily, then fell asleep, her hand still
on his forehead.




VIII

THE ANIMALS' BIRTHDAY PARTY


Birthdays are always important events, but some are more important
than others. The most important of all, of course, is one you can't
remember at all--the zero birthday, when you were born.

After that, the fifth, I suppose, is the red letter day. A boy
certainly begins to appreciate life when he gets to be five years old.
Next, probably, would come the seventh, for a boy--or a girl--is
pretty big by then, and able to do so many things. In old Bible days
seven was supposed to be a sacred number, and even today many people
think it lucky. Why, at the baseball games the men in the stands rise
up in the seventh inning and stretch, they say, to bring victory to
the home team.

The seventeenth birthday is the next great event. By that time a boy
is quite grown up and ready for college; and on the twenty-first he
can vote. But after that people don't think so much of birthdays until