“All right, Mammy,” said Epaminondas.

Next day, Epaminondas went to see his Auntie again, and when he came to go home she gave him a loaf of bread to carry to his Mammy; a brown, fresh, crusty loaf of bread.

So Epaminondas tied a string around the end of the loaf and took hold of the end of the string and came along home, like this.  (Imitate dragging something along the ground.) When he got home his Mammy looked at the thing on the end of the string, and she said,—­

“My laws a-massy!  Epaminondas, what you got on the end of that string?”

“Bread, Mammy,” said Epaminondas; “Auntie gave it to me.”

“Bread!!!” said his Mammy.  “O Epaminondas, Epaminondas, you ain’t got the sense you was born with; you never did have the sense you was born with; you never will have the sense you was born with!  Now I ain’t gwine tell you any more ways to bring truck home.  And don’t you go see your Auntie, neither.  I’ll go see her my own self.  But I’ll just tell you one thing, Epaminondas!  You see these here six mince pies I done make?  You see how I done set ’em on the doorstep to cool?  Well, now, you hear me, Epaminondas, you be careful how you step on those pies!”

“Yes, Mammy,” said Epaminondas.

Then Epaminondas’ Mammy put on her bonnet and her shawl and took a basket in her hand and went away to see Auntie.  The six mince pies sat cooling in a row on the doorstep.

And then,—­and then,—­Epaminondas was careful how he stepped on those pies!

He stepped (imitate)—­right—­in—­ the—­middle—­of—­every—­one.
  . . . . . . . . 
And, do you know, children, nobody knows what happened next!  The person who told me the story didn’t know; nobody knows.  But you can guess.

THE BOY WHO CRIED “WOLF!”

There was once a shepherd-boy who kept his flock at a little distance from the village.  Once he thought he would play a trick on the villagers and have some fun at their expense.  So he ran toward the village crying out, with all his might,—­

“Wolf!  Wolf!  Come and help!  The wolves are at my lambs!”

The kind villagers left their work and ran to the field to help him.  But when they got there the boy laughed at them for their pains; there was no wolf there.

Still another day the boy tried the same trick, and the villagers came running to help and got laughed at again.  Then one day a wolf did break into the fold and began killing the lambs.  In great fright, the boy ran for help.  “Wolf!  Wolf!” he screamed.  “There is a wolf in the flock!  Help!”

The villagers heard him, but they thought it was another mean trick; no one paid the least attention, or went near him.  And the shepherd-boy lost all his sheep.

That is the kind of thing that happens to people who lie:  even when they tell the truth no one believes them.