“Why did it stay in?”
“‘Cause it thought it couldn’t get out again,” Bruno explained. “It were a clever mouse. It knew it couldn’t get out of traps.”
“But why did it go in, then?”
“No matter why!” said Bruno decisively; “and it jamp, and it jamp, and at last it got right out again. And it looked at the mark in the shoe. And the man’s name were in it. So it knew it wasn’t its own shoe.
So the mouse gave the man his shoe. And the man were welly glad, ‘cause he hadn’t got but one shoe, and he were hopping to get the other.
And the man took the goat out of the sack.... No, I know oo hasn’t heard of the sack before, and oo won’t again.... And he said to the goat: ‘Oo will walk about here till I comes back.’ And he went and he tumbled into a deep hole. And the goat walked round and round. And it walked under the tree. And it wug its tail. And it looked up in the tree. And it sang a sad little song. Oo never heard such a sad little song!
It singed it right froo. I sawed it singing with its long beard.
And when it had singed all the song, it ran away—for to get along to look for the man, oo know. And the crocodile got along after it—for to bite it, oo know. And the mouse got along after the crocodile.”
“Wasn’t the crocodile running?”
“He wasn’t running,” said Bruno, “and he wasn’t crawling. He went struggling along like a portmanteau. And he held his chin ever so high in the air——”