"Do you feel better now, Hippo?" said Snorky solemnly.
"Yes, sir, but I'd like a little more time, sir."
"Stand up," said Skippy frowning.
Hippo, unchastened, bounded to his feet and saluted.
"And, Hippo, I'm afraid," said Skippy relentlessly, "that you don't appreciate what a mother's love means. Think how your mother has watched over you all these years, think how she has scrubbed behind your ears, think of the hundreds and hundreds of toothbrushes—"
But at this, as Snorky gulped and barely converted a laugh into a sneeze with a hurried dive into the closet, Skippy abandoning his pedagogical air said in a more natural tone:
"Well, Hippo, I shall want to talk with you very seriously on this some other time. Your manners are shocking and your morals worse, but I am here. Don't worry. Meanwhile, ahem, you can bring your family in to tea."
"Thank you, kind sir."
"Hippo, you are fresh."
"But you are kind, aren't you, sir?" said Hippo with assumed innocence.