Horton Hatches the Egg -faithfulness

Horton Hatches the Egg
Dr. Seuss

I still remember curling up on my father's lap in his big chair and listening to him read this story in the evening before bed. Horton is an elephant who displays the virtues of patience, faithfulness and caring. The odds are against poor Horton to be able to keep his word to sit on lazy Mazie bird's egg while she takes a break. (She decides to go to Palm Beach.) But he has a motto that he says to himself when the going gets really tough. "I meant what I said, and I said what I meant, an elephant's faithful one hundred per cent!" Since this recurs throughout the story, the listener easily learns it. When I sat with my daddy he would dramatically say the lines and pause right before the last word..."an elephant's faithful one hundred per ..."so I could chime in with him..."CENT!"