"But--" said Istra. "Isn't this like Alice in Wonderland!
But you must learn the buttering of English muffins most of all.
If you get to be very good at it the flunkies will let you take
tea at the Carleton. They are such hypercritical flunkies, and
the one that brings the gold butter-measuring rod to test your
skill, why, he always wears knee-breeches of silver gray.
So you can see, Billy, how careful you have to be. And eat them
without buttering your nose. For if you butter your nose
they'll think you're a Greek professor. And you wouldn't like
that, would you, honey?" He learned how to pat the butter into
the comfortable brown insides of the muffins that looked so cold
and floury without. But Istra seemed to have lost interest; and
he didn't in the least follow her when she observed:
"Doubtless it _was_ the best butter. But where, where, dear
dormouse, are the hatter and hare? Especially the sweet bunny
rabbit that wriggled his ears and loved Gralice, the _princesse
d' outre-mer._
"Where, where are the hatter and hare,
And where is the best butter gone?"
Presently: "Come on.
Pages:
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182