“Gustavius? Why, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Wouldn’t he? Just look at my forty-dollar Panama!”
“Oh, Arthur, surely there must be some mistake—some misunderstanding.”
“It’s past the misunderstanding stage when I’m treed like this.”
“You must have said something that offended Gustavius. He’s terribly sensitive, poor fellow!”
“Said something! I treated them like friends and fellow citizens till they all set upon me at once; then, seeing it was a conspiracy, I said ‘Abracadabra,’ of course.”
“Oh, Arthur! You forgot that you had no right—that you were not a member of our family—yet.”
“They seemed to remember it all right—especially the bull-calf. I nearly burst a blood-vessel getting up here.”
“It is really most unfortunate, Arthur.” She looked about her, at the late pansies, at the tulip-bed, and at the house roof, and said reproachfully: “William! Mrs. Cowslip! Cleopatra!”
The goat came meekly down from the roof. The cow and the mare walked slowly off toward the barn, much mortified.