Scissors Shears was strutting on tip-toe up and down the sewing table, closing up each time to take a step.

“Why,” said Mary Frances, slipping in, “can you talk, too?”

“Can you talk?”

“I can
even
cut
myself!”

“Can I talk?” exclaimed Scissors Shears in a growling voice. “Can I talk? Yes, and walk, too! As if I weren’t years older than that Sewing Bird— Rip ’er up the back! Rip ’er up the back! That conceited thing thinks she knows everything,—why I could tell you all about how to cut out anything. Why, I know all about cutting things out! I can even cut myself!”

Click—click, came his legs together.

“Well, well,” laughed Mary Frances. “If that is so, perhaps Sewing Bird will let you explain some things to me.”