"Oh!" She considered the reply. Pillery—it was a word she had never chanced upon in the large Dictionary. Yet she felt she could hardly ask any questions about it. She had asked so many already. "It's kind of you to answer and answer and answer," she said aloud. "Nobody else ever did that."
"Ask anything you want to know," he returned cordially. "I'll always give you prompt attention. Though of course, there are some things—" He hesitated.
"Yes?"—eagerly.
"That only fathers and mothers can answer."
"Oh!"
"Didn't you know that?" demanded the Policeman, surprised.
"Tee! hee! hee! hee!" snickered Jane. Though she was some few steps in the rear, her difficult breathing could be plainly heard. She had laughed so much into her sleeve, and had grown so stout, that by now not a single wrinkle remained in the black sateen; worse—she was beginning to try every square inch of the cloth sorely. And having danced every foot of the way, she was tiring.
"Oh, fath-er-and-moth-er questions," said Gwendolyn.
"Precisely," answered the little old gentleman; "—about my friends, Santa Claus and the Sand-Man, for instance—"
"They're not friends of Potter's, I guess. 'Cause he—"