"'Because it's blue, too,' said she.
"'And what makes you blue?' I asked.
"'The same cause that makes the mountain blue,' said she.
"'Hum,' said I. 'Then it must be distance.'
"'Something like that,' she said. 'I sometimes think I'm the most distant person in the world.'
"'You're probably not the only person who thinks that!' said I.
"And she said, 'No? Really?' And that was all I could get out of her. Except that, just as I was walking away, I heard a sharp whistling sound and my cap—my new plaid cap—was suddenly tweaked from the top of my head and hung in a tree. She must have practised a lot with that rod of Pritchard's. It was a beautiful cast——"
"She might have put your eye out!" exclaimed Mary.
"She hung the apple of my eye in a tree," said he dolefully. "You know that one with the green and brown? And last night it rained."