“I think it would be fun!” said Andy.
“And what if the ground you stand on should not be the ground it appears to be, but a great pit, and should let you fall into it when you think you are walking on the grass? Suppose that everything was a lie, that nothing was what it pretends to be, that the whole world should trick and cheat us?” cried the old woman, raising her voice.
“I should like to see the spot!” said Andy, giggling again.
“Should you?” almost shrieked the old woman, with a terrible look.
“Yes!” and Andy grinned at a safe distance.
“Then try it!” exclaimed Mother Quirk.
And holding her crutch under her shoulder, she brought her hands together with a loud slap. Although Andy was at least three yards off, it seemed to him exactly as if she had boxed his ear. He was almost knocked down, and his head hummed like a beehive; but he could not, to save his life, tell which ear had been boxed, nor which he ought to rub. For a minute, he kept whirling around, as dizzy as a top. Then a voice cried, “Catch that rabbit!”
J. T. Trowbridge.
(To be continued.)
