Suppose a girl saw a mouse with
her eyes half covered, wouldn't she run?"
Everybody laughed, and the president asked some one to tell him who
invented blinders.
"An English nobleman," shouted a boy, "who had a wall-eyed horse! He
wanted to cover up the defect, and I think it is a great shame that all
the American horses have to suffer because that English one had an ugly
eye."
"So do I," said the president. "Three groans for blinders, boys."
All the children in the room made three dreadful noises away down in
their throats. Then they had another good laugh, and the president
became sober again. "Seven more minutes," he said; "this meeting has got
to be let out at five sharp."
A tall girl at the back of the room rose, and said. "My little cousin
has two stories that she would like to tell the band."
"Very well," said the president; "bring her right along."
The big girl came forward, leading a tiny child that she placed in front
of the boys and girls. The child stared up into her cousin's face,
turning and twisting her white pinafore through her fingers. Every time
the big girl took her pinafore away from her, she picked it up again.
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