Page:The art of story-telling, with nearly half a hundred stories, y Julia Darrow Cowles .. (IA artofstorytellin00cowl).pdf/257

 proceeded to roll up the entangling trouser leg.

While he was in the midst of this occupation, there was a startling "honk, honk," close at hand and a big red motor car flashed into sight.

The sudden noise startled Jerusalem Artie. It also startled Molly Cottontail. Her limp, and apparently lifeless, body gathered itself, leaped, and cleared the roadway, barely escaping the wheels of the big red motor car as it flashed by.

Jerusalem Artie rose to his feet, the trouser leg half rolled, and shrieked: "M' Chris'mus dinnah! M' Chris'mus dinnah!" for Molly Cottontail had disappeared.

As he stood looking helplessly after the offending cause of his loss, a man in the back seat turned, laughed, and, leaning over the side of the car, threw something bright and shining back into the road.

Jerusalem Artie pounced upon the spot, dug with his disentangled toes in the dust, and brought to view a silver half-dollar.

"Chris'mus dinnah yit," he exclaimed, "as suah as I'se a niggah chile!"

Then, with the half-dollar held hard be