"Down, Toozle; silence, sir.

Go, my dear Poopy, and put on another frock; and make haste, for I have something to say to you." Thus admonished, the girl ran to a small apartment that opened off the kitchen, and speedily reappeared in another tunic.

Meanwhile, Corrie had seated himself on the floor, with Toozle between his knees and Alice on a stool at his side.

Poopy, in a fit of absence of mind, was about to resume her seat on the iron pot, when a simultaneous shriek, bark, and roar recalled her scattered faculties, produced a "hee! hee!" varied with a faint "ho!" and induced her to sit down on the floor beside her mistress.
"Now, tell me, Poopy," said Alice, "did you ever hear of friends who were not really friends, but enemies ?" The girl stared with a vacant countenance at the bright, intelligent face of the child, and shook her head slowly.
"Why don't you ask _me_ ?" inquired Corrie.

"You might as well ask Toozle as that potato Kickup.