By this time Master Meadow Mouse had recovered from his surprise and wasn't afraid in the least. Now he laughed heartily.
"I was walking the way you walk," he cried.
"Oh, no!" Turkey Proudfoot exclaimed.[p. 33] "No, indeed! You certainly weren't." He didn't ask Master Meadow Mouse's pardon for contradicting.
"I'd like to know why I wasn't," Master Meadow Mouse replied somewhat hotly. "I was strutting right behind you, all the way across the yard. That's why everybody was giggling."
"It's no wonder they were poking fun at you," Turkey Proudfoot told him. "You amused the neighbors because you thought you were strutting, while you really weren't."
Master Meadow Mouse put his foot down on the ground. He was puzzled.
"I don't know why I wasn't strutting," he retorted. "I was raising my feet just as high as I could lift them."
"Ah, yes?" said Turkey Proudfoot. "But you forgot one thing."
"What was that?"