His stories were usually invented on the spot, and were often extremely wild and extravagant, both in the incidents involved in them, and in the personages whom he introduced as actors.

The extravagance of these tales was however usually no objection to them in Phonny's and Malleville's estimation.

In fact Beechnut observed that the more extravagant his stories were, the better pleased his auditors generally appeared to be in listening to them.

He therefore did not spare invention, or restrict himself by any rules either of truth or probability in his narratives.

Nor did he usually require any time for preparation, but commenced at once with whatever came into his head, pronouncing the first sentence of his story, very often without any idea of what he was to say next.
On this occasion Beechnut began as follows: "Once there was a girl about three years old, and she had a large black cat.