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Show I DADDY'S 01 EVENING f FAIRYTALE Mary Graham Banner AN ADVENTURE "They call people who read books all the time bookworms and they aren't at all," said the first bookworm whose name was Willie, "so that shows you how foolish people are." "That shows us," said Biliie, the second sec-ond bookworm, "they don't care for books as I do." "But then," said Willie, "1 am called a bookworm and I really belong to the bookworm family and yet the last thing I did was to bite through a cork." "Let us not talk of that subject of people any more then," said Biliie. "Let us tell each other of the adventures adven-tures we have had." "Well," said Willie, "the last adventure ad-venture I had was, as I started to tell you, when I tried biting through a cork. "It was a lovely adventure and . while I enjoyed it so much, still it i seems absurd to think how often I am , known as the bookworm when I find pleasure in biting corks." "Well," said Biliie, "would you like to hear about the last thing I did?" "I would like to hear about it immensely," im-mensely," said Willie. "Pray tell me the story as soon as you can." "I have been spending a long time over this adventure, as you may well believe when I tell you what It was." "I am anxiously waiting to hear," said Willie. "I have been true to my family name, for I have gone through twenty-seven twenty-seven books, all standing together in a row all in good standing as you might say. "I have gone through every single (fill ' People Who Read Books Ail the Time. page. I haven't skipped a single one." "Twenty-seven volumes, or wenty-seven wenty-seven books," said Willie. "Tp .think of that! That is truly amazing.'" "Yes," said Biliie, "I went through a whole set of books." "I wasn't like some lazy creatures who pick up a little short book to read. I chose a long set of books I did." "You deserve the family name, " said ; Willie. .. v- "Perhaps I do," said Biliie, ."but I am quite willing to share it with : others." "That's good of you," said Willie. "Well, did you find anything interesting inter-esting in all those books?" asked Willie after a paus-e. "Not a thing," said Biliie. "To go through a book, or many books is one thiug, but to read any of them would be quite different." "I love books, but 1 don't care for reading. That might sound strange to some people, but the bookworm family fam-ily know that a bookworm doesn't mean reading words. "And I went through each page of each book along on the shelf in just the very same spot, so that they could have put through a ribbon or a string or anything they might have had near at hand through all those many holes and hung the books up instead of standing them on the shelves. "I thought they might care to change the books a little, so I did' my best to help." "That was good of you." said Willie, "and you certainly have an adventure to relate well worth hearing." "The final result was quite worth seeing, too, and by final result I mean I after i had finished going through all those many books in that same place, all the way through." "1 congratulate you," said Willie, "you're a bookworm, all right." |