"Thank you," said Lowboy, "Our beauty is due to contrast. We set each other off. He is tall and graceful, and I am short, and round like a ball. Some think me handsomer than he."
Hortense turned her back upon him.
"I"m out of patience with you," she said disgustedly.
Lowboy"s mouth began to droop at the corners; his eyes closed and round tears, like marbles, began to roll down his cheeks. Highboy hastened to offer him a handkerchief.
"You musn"t cry, you know," said Highboy, "or you"ll warp yourself--maybe even stain your varnish."
"Then I"ll abstain," said Lowboy, and was so pleased with his pun that he at once began to laugh.
Hortense, however, was still out of temper, quite unreasonably, because she couldn"t really think of anything which any one should have done.
"Where were you, Coal and Ember?" she demanded severely.
"In the corner where you put us," Coal and Ember growled with one voice.
"Why didn"t you do something?"
"Take a bite out of Grater?" Coal suggested sarcastically. "You can"t bite anything that hasn"t a smell!"
"Why can"t you?" Hortense inquired sharply.
"Because if it hasn"t any smell it hasn"t any taste, and how can you bite a thing if you can"t taste it?"
"You mean, how can you taste it if you don"t bite it," said Hortense.
"I mean what I say," said Coal.
"How doggedly he speaks," said Lowboy, who burst into loud laughter.
n.o.body else laughed, and Lowboy explained his joke. "Dog, doggedly, see?"
"It"s a poor joke," said White Owl, flying down the stairs.
"Make a better one then," said Lowboy.
"I never joke," said Owl. "None of our family ever did."
"So that"s what"s the matter with them all," said Lowboy. "I always wondered--or should I say I _owlways_ wondered?"
"That"s really a good joke," said Ember. "I didn"t suppose you had it in you."
"It isn"t in me," said Lowboy. "If it were in me, you couldn"t have heard it."
"It _was_ in you or it couldn"t have come out," said Ember.
Hortense stamped her foot.
"Oh do hush, all of you," she said. "The trouble with you all is that you talk and talk and do nothing. Only Malay Kris says little and acts."
"And look what happens to him," said Owl.
Malay Kris did, indeed, look uncomfortable, half buried in the wall, but he endeavored to be cheerful.
"Some one will rescue me in the morning," he said. "I shouldn"t mind at all if I"d tasted blood."
"Instead you only struck the air," said Lowboy. "You must be an Airedale like Coal and Ember."
n.o.body laughed.
"It"s no use making jokes for such an unappreciative audience," Lowboy grumbled. "Take care, Kris, that you don"t get wall-eyed during the night."
Still n.o.body laughed.
"Surely you get that one!" said Lowboy. "It"s very simple--wall, wall-eyed, you see."
"I appreciate you," said Highboy, "but you know I never laugh."
"You"d grow fat if you did," said Lowboy. "Speaking of fat, let"s see what"s happened to Alligator. Three guesses, what has he done?"
But n.o.body guessed because they were all quite sure what Alligator had done. They went out in a body to look for him. He lay beside the barn with his eyes shut and a smug smile on his face. m.u.f.fled grunts and squeals sounded from his inside.
"What good does it do to eat things when you have to give them up in the morning?" Hortense asked.
"What good does it do you to eat supper when you have to eat breakfast in the morning?" demanded Alligator.
"It isn"t the same thing," said Hortense.
"It"s meat and cake and milk at night, and oatmeal and toast in the morning," said Lowboy. "Not the same thing at all."
"That isn"t what I mean," said Hortense.
"Well, say what you mean then," said Owl sharply.
"You are all very disagreeable to-night," announced Hortense.
"Let"s vote for the most disagreeable person," said Lowboy. "I nominate Hortense. Are there any questions? If not, the ayes have it and Hortense is elected."
Hortense was so angry that she walked away and would hear no more. Nor did she even wait to see that Alligator returned to the parlor.
In the morning as she lay in bed, she wondered if he had and, dressing herself quickly, ran outdoors to see. As she ran around the barn, she came upon Grandfather and Fergus looking at the sofa. Grandfather was stroking his chin.
"How could it possibly have got here?" said he. "All the doors and windows were locked as usual this morning."
"Well, who would carry it out and leave it in such a place, anyhow?"
said Fergus.
A slight movement which stirred the seat of the sofa caused them all to gaze at it wonderingly. Then a sound came from within.