“Mud-colour all over, with a black tongue and pale grey eyes that gleamed with unspeakable ferocity.  The first thing that it saw in the park was Bertha; her pinafore was so spotlessly white and clean that it could be seen from a great distance.  Bertha saw the wolf and saw that it was stealing towards her, and she began to wish that she had never been allowed to come into the park.  She ran as hard as she could, and the wolf came after her with huge leaps and bounds.  She managed to reach a shrubbery of myrtle bushes and she hid herself in one of the thickest of the bushes.  The wolf came sniffing among the branches, its black tongue lolling out of its mouth and its pale grey eyes glaring with rage.  Bertha was terribly frightened, and thought to herself:  ’If I had not been so extraordinarily good I should have been safe in the town at this moment.’  However, the scent of the myrtle was so strong that the wolf could not sniff out where Bertha was hiding, and the bushes were so thick that he might have hunted about in them for a long time without catching sight of her, so he thought he might as well go off and catch a little pig instead.  Bertha was trembling very much at having the wolf prowling and sniffing so near her, and as she trembled the medal for obedience clinked against the medals for good conduct and punctuality.  The wolf was just moving away when he heard the sound of the medals clinking and stopped to listen; they clinked again in a bush quite near him.  He dashed into the bush, his pale grey eyes gleaming with ferocity and triumph, and dragged Bertha out and devoured her to the last morsel.  All that was left of her were her shoes, bits of clothing, and the three medals for goodness.”

“Were any of the little pigs killed?”

“No, they all escaped.”

“The story began badly,” said the smaller of the small girls, “but it had a beautiful ending.”

“It is the most beautiful story that I ever heard,” said the bigger of the small girls, with immense decision.

“It is the only beautiful story I have ever heard,” said Cyril.

A dissentient opinion came from the aunt.

“A most improper story to tell to young children!  You have undermined the effect of years of careful teaching.”

“At any rate,” said the bachelor, collecting his belongings preparatory to leaving the carriage, “I kept them quiet for ten minutes, which was more than you were able to do.”

“Unhappy woman!” he observed to himself as he walked down the platform of Templecombe station; “for the next six months or so those children will assail her in public with demands for an improper story!”

A DEFENSIVE DIAMOND