“And wasn’t he lapping at the pool after you struck him?”
“Ah, that’s true.” His face lit up.
“Then you did strike him?”
“Don’t tease. Yes, I’d forgotten, he lapped then, or rather I scarcely noticed it.”
“I suppose you shut your eyes when going for him, just like a bull does.”
“I didn’t go for him, I tell you. I just swished my stick.”
“Well, if you’d kept your eyes open, you’d have seen him drinking and saved your fright.”
He was disappointed as well as irritated. “Then when you let him bite you, you knew there was no danger.”
“There’s never any danger on these roads—didn’t I tell you so? Why, there was more danger in that monkey you gave me, for I sucked the paint off.”
“I don’t remember giving you any monkey.”