“I suppose you have no pie to-day?” said Mr. Rabbit.
DRUSILLA WAITING ON MR. RABBIT
“Oh, yes,” said Mrs. Meadows, “we’ll have the pie and the story, too.”
Mr. Thimblefinger smacked his lips and winked his eye in such comical fashion that the children laughed heartily, but they didn’t forget the story.
“I don’t know that I can remember the best of it,” said Mr. Thimblefinger. “The wind was blowing and the keyhole was trying to learn how to whistle, and I may have missed some of the story. But it was such a queer one, and I was listening so closely, that I came very near falling off the door-knob when some one started to come out. I think we’d better eat our pie first. I might get one of those huckleberries in my throat while talking, and there’s no doctor close at hand to keep me from choking to death.”
So they ate their huckleberry-pie, and then Mr. Thimblefinger told the story.
“Once upon a time a farmer had five sons. He was not rich and he was not poor. He had some land, and he had a little money. He divided his land equally among his four oldest sons, giving each just as much as he could till. To each, he also gave a piece of money. Then he called his youngest son, and said:—
“‘You have sharp eyes and a keen wit. You want no land. All you need is a saddle. That I will give you.’