“Oh! I’m out hunting for a Goo,” answered the Crow, “and, being rather short-sighted, I am obliged to wear glasses.”
“Oh, do you know what a Goo is?” asked Girlie eagerly.
“Yes,” said the Crow, “our family have come to the conclusion that it is a kind of worm, an enormously large worm, because everybody is so very anxious to find it, and a worm being the only thing in the world worth troubling about, it must be a worm. If it isn’t, it isn’t worth looking for, that’s all,” he added.
“O’ugh! I am sure I shouldn’t like to find one, then,” said Girlie, shuddering.
The Crow lifted up his eyebrows (such as he had) in surprise.
“There’s no accounting for taste,” he said presently, in a sarcastic voice; “and pigs—but there, no matter! I won’t finish it. Hush! what’s that?” he went on, as a great bell tolled in the distance. “The curfew,” he said, after listening for a minute, “now we shall all have to go to bed.”
“But how can we?” cried Girlie in alarm.
“There are plenty of trees,” suggested the Crow.
“But I can’t sleep in a tree,” said Girlie.
“Oh, can’t you? well, you’ll have to to-night, anyhow,” said the Crow. “The Watchman will be along presently and, if he catches you awake, he will extinguish you, and then where will you be?”