THE LITTLE PIECE OF PINK WORSTED

Billy sat on his stone in the back yard, his chin in his hand. He had just gotten home from kindergarten and his mother had told him to go out in the yard and play with his toys until dinner was ready.

But he was not playing with his toys. He had laid his tin-soldier on the grass, though the little tin-soldier had been sleeping all morning and felt like a march. He had stood his horse-and-wagon in the shade, though the horse had been resting all morning and felt like a gallop. He had braced his Teddy Bear against a tree, though the Teddy Bear had been leaning against a chair all morning and felt like a romp. They all looked reproachfully at Billy, but he did not notice them. He seemed to be thinking deeply.

Suddenly he put his hand in his pocket. When he drew it out, it was a little fist. When he opened the little fist, he gazed lovingly at a piece of pink worsted, all crumpled up! He took an end of it in each hand and stretched it out as long as he could reach. Then he crumpled it up again and put it in his pocket.

"What's that in your pocket?"

"What's that, Billy?"

Billy jumped. Looking in the direction of the voice, he saw a grasshopper sitting on a blade of grass.

"What's that in your pocket?" asked the grasshopper.

"Just a little piece of worsted," Billy replied, putting his hand in his pocket again to be sure it was there.

"Where did you get it?" asked the grasshopper.

"At kindergarten," answered Billy.

"Teacher give it to you?"

Billy did not answer.

"Did she?" persisted the grasshopper.

"N—no," said Billy reluctantly while his face turned very red.

"Well, who did?" continued the grasshopper.

"Nobody! I found it on the floor!" replied Billy.

"Found it on the kindergarten floor," exclaimed the grasshopper, "and brought it home with you?"

"Well," Billy defended himself, "'findin's keepin's!'"

"O Billy," cried the grasshopper, "if you lost your little tin-soldier, and another little boy found it, wouldn't you want him to bring it back to you?"

"Course!"

The grasshopper put his head on one side and looked at Billy. Billy looked at the ground. Finally he spoke. "My teacher has so much worsted! I don't know how many cards you could sew with all she has—all colors too!"

The grasshopper put his head on the other side and looked at Billy. Billy began to feel very uncomfortable.

"Why don't you take it back and tell your teacher all about it?" asked the grasshopper.

"Take it back!" gasped Billy, "and give it to my teacher! I couldn't! I'll take it back and put it on the the floor."

"Mercy on us!" exclaimed the grasshopper, jumping over to another blade of grass, "Be a man! You will be happier after you have told her."

Now Billy knew that his teacher always stayed at kindergarten, after the children had gone, to "straighten up" and his kindergarten was right across the street. So he thought a moment and then jumped up. "You wait here till I come back!" And away he ran as fast as his little legs would carry him. But when he reached the kindergarten door, he stopped. His teacher was sitting with her back to the door, arranging the worsted in the large, linen worsted-case. She was humming a little song, too. Billy's heart beat fast, for he loved his teacher and thought her the most beautiful lady in all the world next to his mother. He started to run away, but he remembered the grasshopper's words, "Be a man!" So he put