At last, when she was at the foot of a hill that rose up out of the woods, she stamped her foot and cried out:
“Oh, you good-for-nothing naughty bird!”
“Naughty bird!” came back her own voice to her from the top of the hill.
Merrimeg was astonished. She had never heard an echo before.
She thought she would try it again, so she called out:
“Oh, you naughty bird, come down here!”
Her own voice came back to her from the same place up the hill, but it didn’t quite repeat her words; it said:
“Come on down!”
The echo must have made a mistake. Merrimeg was more than ever astonished. She waited a minute, and then the same voice came down to her from the top of the hill, and it said:
“Down here!”