'THIS COMES HOPPING' 



9 



his ugly teeth, and wanting to seize you by the 

 back, and worry you all to Httle pieces ? Would 

 not you want to call him names — the very rudest 

 names that you could invent ? Well, those are 

 just my identical feelings about you. 



But it was not about that way of saying ' Rats !' 

 that I wanted you to tell me. You have another 

 way of saying the word, when you curl up your 

 noses, and put an m in front of the r, and a lot 

 more as into the middle of the word. It looks to 

 me as if you meant to say, * You go along ; I don't 

 believe one single word of what you are telling me.' 

 Only the other day I was listening to a couple of 

 boys — or, rather, I was not listening to the little 

 villains, but 1 could not possibly help hearing them, 

 they were talking so disgustingly loud. I wished 

 that I could have changed places with them just for 

 a couple of hours, so as to let them feel what it is like 

 to live as I do. If I talked out loud, as they were 

 talking, and made just as much noise as I pleased, 

 I should be stiff and cold and dead in no time, and 

 either eaten up or left about for everyone to kick 

 and say, * Ugh ! you ugly beast ! Ugly, indeed ! 

 You would not look pretty, either, if you were 

 knocked on the head and left to lie about just 

 anyhow. 



