“——Nothing like animals to bring out the protective instinct—feebler dependent on the stronger,” she concluded rapidly, and then addressed the objects of these theories.
“Sneezed loudly and unexpectedly.”
“Now, children, I’m going to tell you a nice story—you all like stories, I’m sure.”
At just that moment little Richard Willetts sneezed loudly and unexpectedly to all, himself included, with the result that his ever-ready suspicion fixed upon his neighbor, Andrew Halloran, as the direct cause of the convulsion. Andrew’s well-meant efforts to detach from Richard’s vest the pocket-handkerchief securely fastened thereto by a large, black safety-pin strengthened the latter’s conviction of intended assault and battery, and he squirmed out of the circle and made a dash for the hall—the first stage in an evident homeward expedition.
This broke in upon the story, and even when it got under way again there was an atmosphere of excitement quite unexplained by the tale itself.
“’Yesterday, children, as I came out of my yard, what do you think I saw?’”
“Yesterday, children, as I came out of my yard, what do you think I saw?” The elaborately concealed surprise in store was so obvious that Marantha rose to the occasion and suggested:
“An el’phunt!”