“Winkie and I are both alike in our use of bad English,” he chuckled.
“You are especially apt to use unnecessary words, Snowball,” said Miss Hare. “Why should you say ‘Winkie and I are both alike,’ when it takes less time to say, ‘Winkie and I are alike’?”
Snowball stared stupidly for a while, but did not seem vexed.
“I thought to myself that Snowball was making an incorrect statement,” tittered Winkie.
“Of course, you thought to yourself,” said the teacher with a twinkle in her eye. “You certainly could not think aloud.”
“No, but he knows how to laugh aloud,” said Snowball, somewhat scornfully.
“Now, Tiny, you may tell us something about Squirreltown,” said Miss Hare.
Tiny did not feel so brave about talking as he did on the day he tried to address the mayor and citizens of his native town, for he knew that his present audience was a very critical one. However, he began:
“A wide path leads into Squirreltown. At the place where it enters the city it is very wide indeed. An oak tree stands on both sides of this path—”