"Your head comes off!" cried the Clown in great surprise. "I should think that would hurt!"
"No, it's made to do that," the Cat explained. "You see I'm a match safe, and I also have a place inside me where burned matches may be put. To put them in me you have to lift off my head. It doesn't hurt at all—I'm used to it."
"Oh, that's different," said the Calico Clown. "Well, I am very glad to meet you. Do you know the Candy Rabbit?"
The Cat said she did, and very well, too.
"He sleeps here on the closet shelf with me every night," she added.
"You'll see him, pretty soon!"
"I shall be very glad to," remarked the Clown. "Excuse me for not sitting up as I talk," he said, for Sidney had laid him down flat on his back. "The truth of the matter," went on the Clown, "is that my leg was broken a while ago, and the boy just glued it together."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" mewed the Match-Safe Cat.
"I'm not—I'm glad," said the Clown. "If it wasn't glued I'd be a slimpsy lopsy sort of chap."
"Oh, I didn't mean I was sorry your leg was GLUED, I meant that I was sorry it was BROKEN," went on the Cat. "Now let's tell each other our adventures."
So they did, talking until late in the evening when, suddenly, the closet door was opened by Madeline. Of course, then the Cat and the Calico Clown had to be very still and quiet.