THE END OF THE PARTY. 101

 

A call upon Beechnut for a story. Seating of the audience.

 

said to Augusta to quiet her. Beechnut smiled, but did
not answer.

After this, some of the older girls and boys gathered
around Beechnut on the piazza, and proposed that he
should tell them a story. Beechnut seldom made any ob-
jection to such a proposition as this, as he could always
make up stories on such occasions, as fast as he could tell
them. So he took his seat on the steps of the piazza, and
prepared to tell a story, while all the more quiet and
thoughtful of the company came around him. Some took
seats on the settee, and others on the steps, by the side of
Beechnut. Before he began, Livingston brought him his
piece of wood, and asked him whether he could not carve
it into a cow, while he was telling his story.

“[ will try,” said Beechnut. “It is quite a respectable
cow now.”

 

 

THE sToRy-TELLING