“Could he swallow a jaguar?”
“Well, I don’t know about that. A jaguar is a very large animal.”
“Well, then,” asked Dimples, “could a jaguar swallow a boa-’strictor?”
“Silly ass,” said Laddie. “If a jaguar was only nine feet long and the boa-constrictor was thirty-five feet long, then there would be a lot sticking out of the jaguar’s mouth. How could he swallow that?”
“He’d bite it off,” said Dimples. “And then
another slice for supper and another for breakfast—but, I say, Daddy, a ’stricter couldn’t swallow a porkpine, could he? He would have a sore throat all the way down.”
Shrieks of laughter and a welcome rest for Daddy, who turned to his paper.
“Daddy!”
He put down his paper with an air of conscious virtue and lit his pipe.
“Well, dear?”