lines, and she replied thoughtfully:

"Well, really now, I can't say. Perhaps it's because he tells us it is
the best ever written. Why, I've even heard old Mr. Turtle repeating the
verses, and if he has lived five hundred years, surely he ought to know
whether they are good or bad. There's one thing I do know, though, which
is, that there's no person within two miles of this pond that can tell
as many good stories as Mr. Crow. He's got one about a lazy Mr. Horse
that means a good deal, if you take the trouble to think it over. Don't
you want to hear it?"

Your Aunt Amy really enjoys hearing Mr. Crow's stories, and when she
made such a statement, Mrs. Goose began the tale without delay.




THE LAZY MR. HORSE.


"'I don't see why I should work all the time, and others have nothing
whatever to do,' said lazy Mr. Horse, one day. 'I would like to live a
life of idleness as well as they.'

"Then he began to think it over, and decided to find some way to get rid
of hauling the farm wagon day after day. It wasn't easy to do this, but
after a time he hit upon a plan which seemed to be a good one. "'I'll
make believe that I am sick,' he said, 'and then my master won't call on
me for work.'