Besides, cuckoo, you and I alone couldn't have much fun at blindman's-buff; there'd be only me to catch you or you to catch me." "Oh, we could easily get more," said the cuckoo.

"The mandarins would be pleased to join." "The mandarins!" repeated Griselda.

"Why, cuckoo, they're not alive! How could they play ?" The cuckoo looked at her gravely for a minute, then shook his head.
"You have a _great_ deal to learn," he said solemnly.

"Don't you know that _everything's_ alive ?" "No," said Griselda, "I don't; and I don't know what you mean, and I don't think I want to know what you mean.

I want to talk about playing." "Well," said the cuckoo, "talk." "What I call playing," pursued Griselda, "is--I have thought about it now, you see--is being amused.