“Well, the front door is closed,” he observed, after hopping round looking closely at the monster’s head.
“Yes, it is!” agreed Coppertop, in a depressed tone. Then she said, “Do you happen to remember any funny stories?”
“Why?” asked the Bird.
“Because if you do, tell one to the crocodile, and when he smiles my brothers can just hop out!”
“The only one I know was told me by a bear who had once been in a thing he called a circus.”
“Say it all in a loud voice,” interrupted Coppertop, “so that the crocodile can hear!”
“The man thing who looks after the animals,” began the Bird, chirping his loudest.
“You mean the Keeper!”
“Yes, the Keepit!” corrected the Bird, flurried by the interruption. “The Keepit man thing had to give the bear a powder. And so he put it in a long tube, and he put one end in the bear’s mouth and the other end in his own, ready to blow it down the bear’s throat. But the bear blew first!”
They both waited anxiously for the smile on the face of the crocodile. But it never came.