It took me still longer, and Terry, to his intense annoyance, came third.
Then Celis set up the little tripod again, and looked back at us, knocking it down, pointing at it, and shaking her short curls severely.
"No," she said.

"Bad--wrong!" We were quite able to follow her.
Then she set it up once more, put the fat nut on top, and returned to the others; and there those aggravating girls sat and took turns throwing little stones at that thing, while one stayed by as a setter-up; and they just popped that nut off, two times out of three, without upsetting the sticks.

Pleased as Punch they were, too, and we pretended to be, but weren't.
We got very friendly over this game, but I told Terry we'd be sorry if we didn't get off while we could, and then we begged for knives.

It was easy to show what we wanted to do, and they each proudly produced a sort of strong clasp-knife from their pockets.
"Yes," we said eagerly, "that's it! Please--" We had learned quite a bit of their language, you see.

And we just begged for those knives, but they would not give them to us.