“‘And I shall stop bowing, and turn my back on you,’ said the beautiful little man.
“‘And I shall not courtesy again, but I shall turn my back on you,’ said the lovely lady.
“‘And I shall walk away,’ said the beautiful little man.
“‘And I shall walk away from you,’ declared the lovely lady.
“And so they both whirled around, and walked away as fast as ever they could from each other; and when they got to the funny twisted handle on the back of the mug, the lovely lady went under it, but the beautiful little man hopped over it briskly, and on they both hurried; and the first thing either of them knew, there they were on the front of the mug staring into each other’s faces as they went by. And so round and round the mug they walked, and they never spoke when they went past each other except to say, ‘I shall not bow to you,’ and ‘I shall not courtesy to you,’ and then away they went again. Oh, it was too dreadful to think of!
“And at last they had been going on so, around and around, oh! two million times, I guess; and the lovely lady’s poor little feet had become so tired out, that she could hardly step on them, and she sobbed out to herself,—she had just passed the beautiful little man on the front of the mug, so he couldn’t see her,—‘I know I shall drop down and die, if I keep on like this;’ so she gave a great jump, and she flew clear over the edge of the mug, and hopped down inside.”
“Oh, oh!” screamed little Dick in a transport.
“And when the beautiful little man came stepping around to the front of the mug the next time, lo, and behold! there was no lovely lady, with a basket of roses hanging on her arm, to say, ‘I won’t courtesy to you.’
“‘How glad I am that that tiresome creature has gone!’ he exclaimed, as he skipped off around the mug. And he said it the next time, and”—
“I don’t think he was nice at all,” observed little Dick, bobbing his head so decidedly that some of the brown paper concluded to fly off at once.