One day three little girls were talking about hats and feathers.
The first girl said: "I have such a long feather in my best hat; it goes
all down one side".
Then the next girl said: "Oh! =my= feather is longer than that, for it
goes all round the hat"; and the third girl said: "Ah! but =my= feather
is longer than either of yours, for it goes round the hat and hangs down
behind as well".
On the next Sunday each of these little girls went walking in the park
with her parents, wearing her best hat with the wonderful feather; it
never occurred to =one= of them that she might meet the other two, but
that is just what happened, and the three "long" feathers proved to be
nothing but three =short=, little feathers, one in each hat! Can you
guess how =ashamed= each girl felt?
You have seen a piece of elastic stretched out. How =long= you can make
it, and how =short= it goes when you leave off stretching! Each girl
wanted to be better than the other, and to =appear= so, each "stretched"
the story of her feather, just as the length of elastic was stretched,
forgetting that
(Blackboard)
When we "Stretch" a Story, we do not Speak the Truth.