Emily Swallows a Horse

Summary
Emily tells a little white lie to get a sparkly ball she wants, then keeps having to embellish it to maintain her cover story.

Plot
The preschoolers sing “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” before naptime. Emily can't understand why the old lady would swallow a horse or why she swallowed a fly in the first place. D.W. then says to her that people often do strange things for no reason.

Emily Swallows a Horse

D.W. finds a rubber ball in the preschool sandbox. She and the Tibbles squabble over it. Emily falsely claims that the ball was given to her by Marie-Hélène. D.W. wants to ask Marie-Hélène to give her one too.

When D.W. and the Tibbles visit Emily to ask about the ball, Emily lies that Marie-Hélène is sick and that she may have caught it too. D.W. is suspicious and looks through the window. Emily has to keep up the pretense.

In the supermarket Arthur tries to reassure D.W. that Emily is telling the truth, only for D.W. to remind him that he is a snowball thief. D.W. sees Marie-Hélène at the checkout.

The next day in preschool, D.W. and the Tibbles try to catch Emily lying. Emily claims to be feeling better after taking medicine, that the person in the supermarket was Marie-Hélène's twin sister Hélène-Marie, and that Marie-Hélène is in the hospital.

That evening Mrs. Read calls on the phone to speak to Emily's mother. When she mentions that D.W. told her about Marie-Hélène, Emily claims that her mother is not home, then tells her mother that the call came from a telemarketer.

At night she has a dream in which she and a talking horse are being chased by a giant D.W. who calls her liar. An old lady gives her shelter. She claims to have magical powers and offers Emily food, which turns out to be a fly. The old lady suggests eating other animals just as in the song. When Emily is skeptical, the old lady admits to having lied and then been unable to stop lying. She has no magical powers either, so Emily is caught by the giant D.W.. Emily wakes up and tells her mother.

The next day in preschool Emily apologizes to D.W. and the Tibbles. None of them wants the ball anymore, but they forgive Emily and play tag. James picks up the ball.

Major

 * D.W. Read
 * Emily
 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble

Minor

 * Ms. Morgan
 * Jane Read
 * Marie-Hélène
 * Arthur Read
 * Emily's mother

Cameo

 * Lisa
 * Edwin
 * Maryann's father
 * Sarah
 * Amanda Hulser
 * James MacDonald
 * Kyle
 * Mrs. Hulser
 * Liam
 * Emily's father

Trivia

 * Miss Morgan plays an autoharp.
 * Emily says that cheval in French means "ball," but the word cheval actually means "horse."
 * Marie-Hélène drives a Citroën 2CV, France's (in)famous answer to the VW bug.
 * Halitosis is the medical term for "bad breath."

Episode connections

 * The soap opera that Emily and her nanny watch is the same soap opera that appears in "Is There a Doctor in the House?" and "Based on a True Story."
 * D.W. once again mentions her snowball from "D.W.'s Snow Mystery."

Cultural references

 * The song Ms. Morgan sings with her preschool students is a nursery rhyme called "There Was an Old Lady."