The Charcoals and the Speckkums on Their Good Behavior.
“Their mother made them sit close together, in a row, with their ears all turned the same way and their eyes all turned the same way, and their tails all turned the same way around their fore paws, and Frisky Spekkum sat so still that when their uncle Thomas came to see he could not tell which one was Frisky.
“Not long after this the same kind girl gave them all new neck-ribbons and their mother said that as they had new neck-ribbons and Frisky had stopped being too frisky, she would have a party. Then she thought it would be a good plan to have them go to singing-school and learn something to sing at the party. She spoke to their uncle Thomas about it and their uncle Thomas said he would try their voices and find out which had voices to sing. He tried their voices and found out that only one of the Charcoals and two of the Spekkums had voices to sing. Frisky Spekkum was not one of the two Spekkums that had voices to sing, and she did not go to the singing-school.
“The three that had voices to sing went to singing-school, and were put in a row by themselves where they sat very still with their tails around their fore paws as their mother and their uncle Thomas told them to, and had their voices tried and were taught to sing the song of The Two Tailed Mouse, every word of which was as true as cream.
“The party was to be in a barn-room on account of a large basket of fish and lobsters which had been placed there, and it was to be an evening party.
“Before it was time for the party to begin, the three who were to sing the song of The Two Tailed Mouse, were told by their mother to go to the barn-room and sit in a proper manner and sing the song until they could sing it well enough to sing it at the party and please all who might hear it. They obeyed her, and as Frisky Spekkum had not been too frisky for a very long time, she was allowed to go and hear them sing, if she would sit still. She sat still a great while, but hearing the singing and looking much at the lobster-feelers made her want to be too frisky and she frisked with the lobster-feelers, and went into the basket and frisked with lobster claws, and gnawed them, and clawed them, and gnawed and clawed some little fishes, and ate all she could of the fishes and the lobsters, and made herself sick, and could not stay up at the party. She had to go to bed in the haymow, and when she was asleep she dreamed that her name was Mab Fizz-Fuzz, and that rats dragged her off by the tail through a place that was too small.
