Ruggiero had once seen a puppet show and had not found it at all funny.

The theatre was only a big puppet show, and he could pay for a seat there if he pleased; but he did not please, because he was sure that it would not amuse him to go.

Why should Beatrice like the theatre?
And she liked the races at Naples, too, and those at Paris much better.

Why?
Everybody knew that one horse could run faster than another, without trying it, but it could not matter a straw which of two, or twenty, got to the goal first.

Horses were not boats.