"Well, he reached over the fence, and lifted the latch with his teeth,
that's how he opened the gate; and he shut it by backing up against it
till it latched itself. Then he pulled out the wooden pin of the
barn-door, and it swung open by its own weight--see?"
"Well, pa had a horse that slipped his halter and shoved up the cover
of the oat-bin, when he got hungry in the night and wanted a lunch,"
said Sammy; "and I read about a horse the other day which turned the
water-tap when he wanted a drink, and pulled the stopper out of the pipe
over the oat-bin, just as he 'd seen the coachman do, so the oats would
come down, and"--
"But really now," Ruth Elliot, interrupted, "interesting and wonderful
as all this is, we must stop somewhere. I have another story to tell
you, about a minister's horse, but it can wait over till next week. Lay
aside your work, girls; it is past five o'clock."
CHAPTER IX.
TUFTY AND THE SPARROWS.
Florence Austin came early to the Society the next Wednesday afternoon,
and found Miss Ruth on the piazza,
"I am glad to see you, Florence," she said. "I was just wishing for a
helper. Mollie and Susie have gone on an errand, and I am alone in the
house, and here is a whole family in trouble that I can't relieve.
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