IMAGINATION

Oncet, when I was a gret big man, I got mad at the way Ol' nurses bossed the childruns an' so I wouldn't stay; I jest got up and PUSHED MY HOUSE right over—yes, I did; An' then I turned the streets all round, and runned away and hid! When I come back, my childruns was cryin' awful loud, Fer nobody knowed wher they lived, an' there was such a crowd. I says, "Now, folks must shet their eyes—don't open them a crack!"— An' then I straightened out the streets, an' put the houses back.

'N oncet I was a NELUPHANT, as big as all outdoors, 'N every time I turned around it shook the roofs and floors; I walked down to the river, and I drunk it up—ALL up, Jest like it was some cambric tea in my ol' silver cup. An' when the people come fer me, I jest set down, kerplunk! An' squashed 'em flat—an' picked them up—an' packed 'em in my trunk! 'N then I TWIST MY TRUNK OFF, an' throwed it all away— You better let me go, Louise—I MIGHT do that to-day!

You won't? All right—you'd BETTER DID, for one time long ago, Before I gotter be a boy, I was a BEAR—oh, no— I was a SNAKE—a yaller snake, an' I was TEN MILES long, 'N all I et was nurse girls—yes, I DID, although 'twas wrong. That was a million years ago, but something—inside me— Tells me I'm goin' to be a snake AGAIN—jest watch and see! You don't believe a word I say? Well, I don't care—I DO— How could I 'MEMBER all these things, unlessen they was true?