Well, to go on with the story. I just wrote that first part while I was thinking up something else, just as the man in the circus goes hopping around on one leg, while he's waiting for the elephant to get through eating peanuts so he can jump over his back.
I mean the man can jump over the elephant's back. Gracious! I hope you didn't think I meant that the elephant would leap over the man's back. No, indeed! Just supposing he should fall—I mean the elephant fall on the man. There wouldn't be anything left of him; would there? I mean anything left of the man.
Well, anyhow, now to go on with the story.
After the animal children got through laughing at Miss Lady Bug's funny little song, Professor Rat said:
"Noodle Flat-tail, you may stand up and read me the lesson in the book about the old lady hen finding a grain of corn, and planting it so that it grew up to be an orange tree with lemonade lollypops on it."
Now all the children liked that story better than any other in the book, so Noodle, the little beaver boy, was very glad indeed to stand up before all the class and read it.
But when he looked among his books for his reader he could not find it. A queer look came over his funny face, and he said:
"Oh, teacher, I guess I forgot, and left my book at home."
"You did?" cried Professor Rat, combing some more shavings out of his whiskers with one of the blackboard erasers.
"Left your book home?"