“Well,” said Budge, “Once upon a time the Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people they was all bad. But Jonah didn’t want to go, so he went on a boat that was going to Joppa. An’ then there was a big storm, an’ it rained an’ blowed and the big waves went as high as a house. An’ the sailors thought there must be somebody on the boat that the Lord didn’t like. An’ Jonah said he guessed _he_ was the man. So they picked him up and froed him in the ocean, an’ I don’t think it was well for ’em to do that after Jonah told the troof. An’ a big whale was comin’ along, an’ he was awful hungry, ’cos the little fishes what he likes to eat all went down to the bottom of the ocean when it began to storm, and whales can’t go to the bottom of the ocean, ’cos they have to come up to breeve, an’ little fishes don’t. An’ Jonah found ’twas all dark inside the whale, and there wasn’t any fire there, an’ it was all wet, an’ he couldn’t take off his clothes to dry, ’cos there wasn’t no place to hang ’em, and there wasn’t no windows to look out of, nor nothin’ to eat, nor nothin’ nor nothin’ nor nothin’. So he asked the Lord to let him out, an’ the Lord was sorry for him, an’ He made the whale go up close to the land, an’ Jonah jumped right out of his mouth, and _wasn’t_ he glad? An’ then he went to Nineveh, an’ done what the Lord told him to, an’ he ought to have done it in the first place if he had known what was good for him.” [Illustration: BUDGE’S IDEA OF JONAH AND THE WHALE] “Done first payshe, know what’s dood for him,” asserted Toddie, in support of his brother’s assertion. “Tell us ’nudder story.” “Oh, no, sing us a song,” suggested Budge. “Shing us shong,” echoed Toddie. I searched my mind for a song, but the only one which came promptly was “M’Appari,” several bars of which I gave my juvenile audience, when Budge interrupted me, saying:— “I don’t think that’s a very good song.” “Why not, Budge?” ”’Cos I don’t. I don’t know a word what you’re talking ’bout.”