Miss Hare spent one evening with Reynard. Puss Snowball, Winkie Weasel, and Tiny were present. They had a pleasant time, in Reynard’s humble room, which the stars made almost bright as day.
“Shall I get you some corn?” Miss Hare finally asked.
“I don’t want no corn,” groaned Reynard, whose head ached severely.
“Very well, I will bring you some,” said Miss Hare, rising to leave the room.
“I don’t want no corn!” repeated Reynard, so surprised that his head almost stopped aching.
“That means that you do want some corn,” laughed Miss Hare. “I suppose you meant to say that you don’t want any corn, or that you want no corn. Be careful what you say, Reynard, and never use two denying words where the meaning needs but one. The other day I heard you say, ‘I haven’t seen nothing,’ which meant that you must have seen something. You also said, ‘He is not doing nothing,’ which meant that he was doing something.”
“Thank you, Miss Hare,” said Reynard, with chagrin. “I know that I am sometimes very careless in the use of English. But now my head feels so much better that perhaps, after all, I don’t need no corn.”
Miss Hare laughed again, with more pleasure this time, and gave him a few kernels of corn which she had brought with her.
“Now we must do something to amuse Reynard,” said Miss Hare, pleasantly. “What shall we do?”