"Yes, mother, dear, you can." And Sally ran out, quite happy, to untie the giraffe. "What you goin' to do, Sally?" he asked. "Giraffes can't talk," remarked Sally. "Aren't a giraffe. I'm the keeper. But I'll turn into a giraffe again as soon as you answer me." "I'm going down in that little clump by the wall, where there are plenty of things for giraffes to eat." Reminded that he was hungry, Charlie began to cry. "What's the matter?" asked Sally, stopping short. "Don't _want_ to be a giraffe and eat old leaves and things," Charlie wailed. "Can't I have some gingerbread, Sally?" "Well, here," said Sally. She took from her pocket some little crackers, which she gave him. "I guess those won't hurt you." Charlie made no reply, being busy with the crackers; and Sally led him into the clump by the wall and tied him. "Sally," asked Charlie, somewhat anxiously, "what you goin' to do?" "I'm going up in the tree, of course." "Yes, but Sally, what will you be?" "I haven't decided," replied Sally thoughtfully. "I'll be deciding while I go up." She turned and began to climb the tree, skillfully. She had got no farther than the lower branches when she stopped. "Oh, I'll tell you, Charlie," she cried. "It's just the thing. I'll be father's little lizard." "What lizard?" Charlie demanded. "Father's little lizard, that he's got the skeleton of, up in his room." "Isn't any little lizard," Charlie returned, very positively. "That's a croc." "It is, too, a lizard, Charlie. Father said so." "Lizards are little weenty things," Charlie objected. "'Sides, they don't live in trees." Sally did not feel sure on this point, so she evaded it. "That little lizard lived millions of years ago." What were a few million years, more or less, to her? "And father said that it could fly like a bat. It used to fly right up into the coal trees and--and eat the coal that grew on them." Sally was giggling at the recollection. "Now, this is a coal tree and I'm that little lizard, and this is millions of years ago." Charlie had been paralyzed into momentary silence by the information poured into him so rapidly. The silence was but momentary, but Sally took advantage of it and climbed swiftly. "Sally!" Sally paused. "What?" she asked. "You that same lizard that father has the skeleton of?" Sally acknowledged that she was. "Then," Charlie retorted, "you haven't got any bones in you. They're up in father's room." Sally chuckled, but she did not reply to this remark directly. "Charlie," she called, "you be a saurus something." "Don't _want_ to be a--Sally, what's a--that thing that you said for me to be? What is it?" "Well," replied Sally slowly, "it's an animal kind of like an alligator--and such things, you know. I guess I'm one. And Charlie, you can't talk. Animals--especially sauruses--_never_ talked." "Parrots can," returned Charlie sullenly. Sally did not think it worth while to try to answer this objection.