Then the Baby came out and the Mistress said: “Look, Baby, at what a naughty, bad dog Fritz has been. He’s lost his nice new collar.”
Baby laughed and gurgled. “Collar!” she said.
“Yes, dear, and see how ashamed he looks. Naughty dog!”
“Mild’ed tooked it off,” said the Baby.
“You took it off? Oh, you shouldn’t have done that, dear,” said the Mistress. “What did you do with it?”
“Tooked it off!” said the Baby, and clapped her hands.
By that time William had come up, with a rake in his hands, and the Mistress told him about it. William scratched his head, which is what he always does when he tries to think very hard.
“Where were you when you took it off, dear?” asked the Mistress.
The Baby toddled across to the lawn and we all followed her. I pretended to be very much surprised when we found that the collar wasn’t there.