"But you wouldn't really set Clyde on her kitten, would you?" asked Johnny.
"Why, of course I would! What harm would it do? It would only scare the kitten a little, and make her bristle up her tail, and run up a tree."
"How would you like to have a great, savage-looking animal run after you?" replied Johnny.
"Perhaps I shouldn't like it. But what has that to do with it?"
"The kitten wouldn't like it, either," said Sue.
This putting himself in the place of a kitten, imagining her terrors, and pitying them, was an entirely new idea to Felix; but he was not willing to admit that he saw any force to the argument. "Oh! girls have queer notions," he said, "and Johnny's just like them. For my part, I'm going to do as other boys do: I ain't going to be a girl-boy. I shall tease Julia some; and if Sue wants to keep on being a tell-tale, she can."
Julia then came running down-stairs.
"I've had a splendid visit," she said, "and I'm going home to tell mamma about it. Now, don't you follow me, Felix!"
She ran down the steps and towards home like a flash. Possibly it might have been Felix's intention to follow her with Clyde; but as his uncle appeared at the door just after Julia left, he sat still on the steps.
"That is a nice, bright girl," said Mr. Le Bras: "you are very lucky to have such a neighbor, children."