for the parrot.

His sister Polly would not think that a boy ought to want to ride on a buffalo; she would say that none of the Plummers had ever done such a thing. But Aunt Kate was different.

“There are other things I want, Aunt Kate,” said Sonny Boy suddenly, and he stood as tall as he could before his aunt—so tall that his shoulders scarcely stooped and his bow-legs were almost straight. “I’ve got to have them!” Sonny Boy’s red cheeks grew quite pale and his voice was gruff with feeling.

“Why, Sonny Boy dear, what can the things be that you want so much!” said Aunt Kate wonderingly.

“Spelling and fractions,” said Sonny Boy firmly.

“You dear boy! I never heard of a boy who thought so much of his lessons as that!” exclaimed Aunt Kate.

“It’s to show another fellow—stupider than I am,” said Sonny Boy. “And crookeder. I’ve got to get straight and be a soldier, too, to show him how.” And he told her about Otto.

Aunt Kate hugged him and laughed a little and cried a little. And she said it was a beautiful idea and he should have a tutor so that he could learn spelling and fractions very fast. And he should go to a gymnasium and straighten his shoulders and his legs. And his uncle would take him to camp to see the soldiers drill.

And she would buy him some more white mice. But that last offer Sonny Boy declined. He wanted no white mice but those! And he didn’t want those, because he liked better to have Otto and the poor invalid children have them.

It was quite wonderful to see how Sonny Boy learned spelling and fractions. The tutor was surprised, and what the Poppleton schoolmistress would have thought no one can even guess! For Sonny Boy had been dull at his lessons.

And presently he straightened himself out in the most surprising way, and learned to drill soldiers like a major. He had a fine military company, in the “almost well” room of the children’s ward at the hospital. The officers sent word to Aunt Kate that he was a very welcome visitor and did the children great good.

He bought a drum and fife with the parrot money, and sent them to the Poppleton Guards, the company to which “the fellows didn’t want him to belong.” And he wrote a letter to the Guards, telling them about the military tactics that he had learned at the camp, where his uncle had taken him.

“How quickly you have learned!” said Aunt Kate one day. “You are the very brightest one of the Plummers.”

But Sonny Boy shook his head. “I never could learn until ’twas for another fellow,” he said.

“Anyway, you’re the dearest one of the Plummers!” said Aunt Kate, with a hug. By this time they were at Bolton for the summer, and they awoke one morning to find the place gay with show-bills and huge placards.

The “Wonder of the World” was coming to town. Among the attractions were the “Wild Man of Borneo,” fresh from his native jungles, and “The Monster Tuscarora,” the greatest buffalo in the world.