“The nail is no good if he has a watch and it’s no good if he hasn’t got a watch,” Simon said soberly. “He can’t have the back of a watch unless he has the front of a watch.”
“You’re crazy!” Pee-wee yelled. “Suppose—suppose—suppose it’s night and he can’t see the hands of his watch, he might see a nail shining. So there! Do you know what preparedness is?” he added blightingly.
“Is it being able to tell time by the sun at night?” Simon asked.
“That shows how much you know!” Pee-wee shouted, almost beside himself. “Suppose the sun should break—I mean your watch. You’d have the back of it, wouldn’t you? And besides, I can tell when it’s twelve o’clock when there isn’t any sun at all. Do you know how?”
“No, how?”
“By my stomach.”
“Do you mean laying a nail against it slanting-ways?”
“By my appetite,” Pee-wee yelled; “and it’s twelve o’clock now, so there!”
“Your appetite is a little fast,” Simon said; “it’s half past eleven.”
“Well, anyway I have my appetite kind of set ahead,” Pee-wee explained.