"And can't you ever see them at all?"
"No; 'cause they don't come out till you're asleep."
"Oh ... Well, Harry—now—if a Gummy-gum had a head like a horse, and a tail like a cow, and a bill like a duck, what?"
"Why—why, he wouldn't, 'cause he isn't."
"Oh ... Well, is the Gummy-gum just afraid of the little gnomes, and that's all?"
"Um-hm; 'cause the little gnomes have little knives, all sharp and shiny, what they got on the Christmas-tree."
"Our Christmas-tree?"
"No; the little gnomes's Christmas-tree."
"The little gnomes's Christmas-tree?"
"Um-hm."