Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/253

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XIV]
BRUNO'S PICNIC.
215

"Oo don't know nothing about Owls!" Bruno scornfully remarked. "When they're hungry, they're very, very sorry they killed the little Mouses, 'cause if they hadn't killed them there'd be sumfin for supper, oo know!"

Bruno was evidently getting into a dangerously inventive state of mind, so Sylvie broke in with "Now I'm going on with the story. So the Owls——the Chickens, I mean——were looking to see if they could find a nice fat Mouse for their supper——"

"Pretend it was a nice 'abbit!" said Bruno.

"But it wasn't a nice habit, to kill Mouses," Sylvie argued. "I can't pretend that!"

"I didn't say 'habit,' oo silly fellow!" Bruno replied with a merry twinkle In his eye. "'abbits that runs about in the fields!"

"Rabbit? Well it can be a Rabbit, if you like. But you mustn't alter my story so much, Bruno. A Chicken couldn't eat a Rabbit!"

"But it might have wished to see if it could try to eat it."

"Well, it wished to see if it could try ——oh, really, Bruno, that's nonsense! I shall go back to the Owls."