"MR PUFF-PUDGY WOULD SAY HIS PRAYERS BACKWARDS"
"How could he?" asked Chubbins, much surprised.
"He was always contrary," answered the Mayor, with a sigh, "and wouldn't do things the same way that others did. His good wife, Mrs. Puff-Pudgy, had to scold him all day long; so we finally made him leave the town, and I don't know where he's gone to."
"Won't he be sorry not to have his little children any more?" asked Twinkle, regretfully.
"I suppose so; but if people are contrary, and won't behave, they must take the consequences. This is Mr. Chuckledorf," continued the Mayor, and a very fat prairie-dog bowed to them most politely; "and here is Mrs. Fuzcum; and Mrs. Chatterby; and Mr. Sneezeley, and Doctor Dosem."
All these folks bowed gravely and politely, and Chubbins and Twinkle bobbed their heads in return until their necks ached, for it seemed as if the Mayor would never get through introducing the hundreds of prairie-dogs that were squatting around.
"I'll never be able to tell one from the other," whispered the girl; "'cause they all look exactly alike."
"Some of 'em 's fatter," observed Chubbins; "but I don't know which."