[Pg 34] "You see, I don't want to swallow an acorn and have a great big tree like that grow up in me." "I'm digging up this oak tree," said the Unwiseman. "I want to get the acorn it grew out of. I'm very fond of acorns, but I'm afraid to eat them, unless the tree that's in 'em has grown out. You see, I don't want to swallow an acorn, and have a great big tree like that grow up in me. It wouldn't be comfortable." Whistlebinkie said he thought that was a very good idea, because there could not be any doubt that it would be extremely awkward for any man, wise or unwise, to have an oak tree sprouting up inside of him. "What are you so anxious to know about my house for?" asked the Unwiseman, suddenly stopping short in his work with the teaspoon. "You don't want to rent it for the summer, do you?" "Whistlebinkie and I have come down to call upon you, that's all," explained Mollie. "Well now, really?" said the Unwiseman, rising, and dropping the teaspoon. "That's[Pg 35] too bad, isn't it? Here you've come all this way to see me and I am out. I shall be so disappointed when I get home and find that you have been there and I not there to see you. Dear! Dear! How full of disappointments this world is. You couldn't come again last night, could you? I was home then." [Pg 35] Turning the clock back. "Not very well," said Whistlebinkie. "Mollie's father doesn't like it if we turn the clock back." "Dear me! That's too bad, too! My!" said the old fellow, with a look of real sadness on his face. "What a disappointment, to be sure. You call and find me out! I do[Pg 36] wish there was some way to arrange it, so that I might be at home when you call. You can't think of any, can you, Miss Whistlebinkie?" [Pg 36] "Perhaps now that you know we are coming," said Mollie, who, while her last name was not Whistlebinkie, did not think it necessary to pay any attention to the old man's mistake, which amused her very much, "perhaps now that you know we are coming you might run ahead and be there when we arrive." "That's the scheme!" said Whistlebinkie. "Yes, that's a first-rate plan," said the old man, nodding his
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