"Oh yes, he has changed," continued Tommy. "He is very good now. He has entirely reformed."
"I should say he had. His form is entirely different. I knew a Pie Rat once, but he was not at all like this one. He does not look like a Pie Rat at all."
"Oh yes he does!" exclaimed Tommy, eagerly, although he realized as soon as he had spoken that he had never seen any real active pirate. But he added, "He is all fixed up just like a real pirate."
"Well, he isn't," said the Gopher, dictatorially. "The Pie Rat I knew looked like any other rat, but he only ate pie. Does this one eat pie?"
"Did you say rat?" asked Tommy.
"I said Pie Rat," answered the Gopher.
"Well, you don't want to let him hear you say rat. You must say ex-Pirate; that means that he is not a pirate any more."
"That's just what I said," persisted the Gopher. "I said he did not look like a Pie Rat, and so he is not a Pie Rat, and that's all there is to it." Then he threw up his hands and shouted, "Oh my! look at that!"
Tommy glanced up toward the head of the table, and saw that the Lion was helping himself to fully half of what had been placed before him.
"What a lot he takes!" remarked the little boy, in surprise.