84 



Charley s Wonderful Journey. 



change heads again, that's contrary to the 

 rules, but if you have anything else to pro- 

 pose, I am ready to listen to it." 



At this Charley's head burst out crying, 

 and the whole school appeared ready to fol- 

 low its example, only Charley enjoyed the 

 fun. All the same he felt sorry for his own 

 head from the bottom of his heart. So he 

 turned to the Donkey and said, "We have 

 gone so far, we may as well change bodies 

 too, now." 



No sooner said than done. They all 

 changed bodies with their partners. Char- 

 lev's head got his own body back again, and 

 felt and looked quite comforted. 



"Now," said the Donkey, addressing 

 Charley, "are you the boy or the Fox?" 

 "Please, sir; I'm the boy," said Charley. 

 " Now, how can that be?" said the Don- 

 key. "You first gave your head to the Fox 

 in exchange for his, didn't you?" 

 "Yes, sir." 



"And then you gave him your body in 

 exchange for his ?" 

 "Yes, sir." 



"And after changing you still think you 

 are the same as before?" 



" Please, sir," said Charley — but he didn't 

 know what more to say. 



"Never mind," said the Donkey, "it is a 

 difficult problem, and no wonder it puzzles 

 you. A great deal might be said on both 

 sides, and I should like nothing better than 

 to sit down with a clever lawyer and argue 

 it out. Now we will have a drawing les- 

 son, take your slates all of you and draw a 

 schoolmaster." 



All the scholars took their slates and be- 

 gan drawing away very busily. 



Charley soon finished his drawing, but he 

 wanted to see some of the other scholars 

 hand theirs up first. 



"Are you all ready?" asked the Donkey. 

 "Not yet, sir," came a chorus of voices. 

 "I am, sir," said Charley, as he handed 

 up his slate. 



The Donkey looked at it, rubbed his eyes, 



looked at it again ; finally he adjusted his 

 spectacles, and this is what he saw. 



"You young scoundrel," said he, dancing 

 with rage, "Fll teach you !" 



With the words he sprang from the plat- 

 form, but at that moment the Cock crew, 

 the school house vanished, the Geese cack- 

 led, the Lambs and Kids bleated, and the 

 Donkey, instead of finishing the sentence as 

 he intended to, kept saying " You-eh ! you- 

 eh ! you-eh !" in fact, he brayed like an or- 

 dinary Donke)', dashing out with his heels. 

 Charley sprang out of the w^ay, and in do- 

 ing so sprang up in bed. The Donkey kept on 

 braying. There could be no mistake about 

 that, but to make sure, Charley crept to the 

 window, and looking out in the gray dawn, 

 saw him with his own eyes. There too, 

 was the Rooster, whose shrill clarion had 

 roused the echoing morn only a few min- 

 utes before. 



But it was cold, and Charley crept back 

 into bed and soon fell asleep again, and 

 when his mother awoke him he had forgot- 

 ten all about his dream. He knew he had 

 been dreaming, of course, but he couldn't 

 remember what it was about, and never 

 could think of it until one day a long time 

 after when he was in school, he heard one 

 of the boys say "two from one you cannot," 

 when he sprang up in his place and said, 

 "Please, sir, you cannot if you don't try." 

 Chas. F. Amery. 



