"I feel particularly upset about the Umpire," continued the Unwiseman, "because I sat up almost all last night getting up some polite conversation to be held with him this morning. I found just the thing for it in my book."
"Howdit-go?" whistled Whistlebinkie.
"Like this," said the Unwiseman. "I was going to begin with:
| "'Shall you buy a horse?' |
"And the Umpire was to say:
| "'I should like to buy a horse from you.' |
"And then we were to continue with:
| "'I have no horse but I will sell you my dog.' |
| 'You are wrong; dogs are such faithful creatures.' |
| 'But my wife prefers cats——'" |
"Pooh!" cried Whistlebinkie. "You haven't got any wife."