"Can't split on me mates, Jess."
"You're a nasty, good-for-nothing boy, Joe Blain: that's what I think of you, and I don't care if you do know it."
"Tweedlum, tweedlum, tweedlum twee,
The cat and the rat ran up the tree,"
quoth Joe, as he capered about just out of reach of the girl, who chased him round the room with a broom.
It so happened that as Joe was dancing past the kitchen window, Ah Fat the cook was in the very act of throwing out a dish of kitchen slops, and the contents struck him fair on the head and shoulders.
This unintended but well-delivered blow came so swiftly and so unexpectedly that for the moment Joe was stupefied, gasping and spluttering between wind and water, so to speak. He cut so ludicrous a figure that Jessie had to fairly hold her sides with laughter. Meanwhile the innocent Ah Fat stood gazing at the spectacle in amazement.
"Oh, Missee Joe, I welly solly. Me neffer see you when me tlew um——"
"You jolly Chinaman!" cried Joe, in great wrath. "You—you—yellow joss!"
With that the irate boy jumped through the window and vigorously assaulted the cook with hands and feet.
"Oh!—Missee Joe—welly solly. O—h! Oh, Clismus! O-u-c-h!"