Here Malleville’s story was interrupted by Phonny, who suddenly called out:
“Here comes Beechnut, Malleville.”
“I don’t care,” said Malleville, “I’m telling a story to Kitty, and you must not interrupt me.”
Here the kitten jumped down from the stone and ran away.
“Now Phonny!” said Malleville, “see what you have done;—you have made my Kitty go away.”
“I didn’t make her go away,” said Phonny.
“Yes you did,” said Malleville, “you interrupted my story, and that made her go away.”
Phonny laughed aloud at this assertion, though Malleville continued to look very serious. Phonny then repeated that he did not make the kitten go away, and besides, he said, he thought that it was very childish to pretend to tell a story to a kitten.
Malleville said that she did not think it was childish at all; for her kitten liked to hear stories. Phonny, at this, laughed again, and then Malleville, appearing to be still more displeased, said that she was not any more childish than Phonny himself was.
By this time Beechnut, as Phonny called him, had come up. He was driving a cart. The cart was loaded with wood. The wood consisted of small and dry sticks, which Beechnut had gathered together in the forest.