l.

"How doggedly he speaks," said Lowboy, who burst into loud laughter.
Nobody 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."

Nobody 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 nobody 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 nobody 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. Muffled 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