tiny sound, appeared
Grater. Tom and Jerry, in their stalls, began to tremble. Grater
laughed unpleasantly and chanted in a rough voice:

_Ride, ride, ride
For the world is fair and wide.
The moon shines bright
On a magic night,
And Tom and Jerry
Are able very
To ride, ride, ride._

With one bound Grater and Jeremiah were on the backs of the horses, and
in a twinkling the horses were out of their stalls and running toward
the door. Quick as they were, Malay Kris was almost as swift. In a
flash he hurled himself at Grater, grazed him, and stuck deep in the
wall, where he quivered and grew still.

"Missed!" Malay Kris said bitterly.

Andy and Hortense, with open mouths, watched the horses and riders grow
smaller and smaller against the moon, and finally disappear.

"Did you ever!" Hortense gasped at last.

Hortense and Andy crawled out from under their sacks and found the rest
of their band. Highboy and Lowboy, hand in hand, were leaning against
the wall, fast asleep, and had seen nothing at all. Hortense shook them
vigorously to awaken them.

"You're a pretty pair," she said.

"Thank you," said Lowboy, "Our beauty is due to contrast. We set each
other off. He is tall and graceful, and I am short, and round like a
ball. Some think me handsomer than he."

Hortense turned her back upon him.

"I'm out of patience with you," she said disgustedly.

Lowboy's mouth began to droop at the corners; his eyes closed and round
tears, like marbles, began to roll down his cheeks. Highboy hastened to
offer him a handkerchief.

"You musn't cry, you know," said Highboy, "or you'll warp
yourself--maybe even stain your varnish."

"Then I'll abstain," said Lowboy, and was so pleased with his pun that
he at once began to laugh.

Hortense, however, was still out of temper, quite unreasonably, because
she couldn't really think of anything which any one should have done.

"Where were you, Coal and Ember?" she demanded severely.

"In the corner where you put us," Coal and Ember growled with one
voice.

"Why didn't you do something?"

"Take a bite out of Grater?" Coal suggested sarcastically. "You can't
bite anything that hasn't a smell!"

"Why can't you?" Hortense inquired sharply.

"Because if it hasn't any smell it hasn't any taste, and how can you
bite a thing if you can't taste it?"

"You mean, how can you taste it if you don't bite it," said Hortense.

"I mean what I say," said Coa