jo handed her a bit of the bread and she put it in her mouth.

"What next?" she asked, scarcely able to speak.

"Chew it and swallow it," said the boy.

Scraps tried that. Her pearl teeth were unable to chew the bread and
beyond her mouth there was no opening. Being unable to swallow she
threw away the bread and laughed.

"I must get hungry and starve, for I can't eat," she said.

"Neither can I," announced the cat; "but I'm not fool enough to try.
Can't you understand that you and I are superior people and not made
like these poor humans?"

"Why should I understand that, or anything else?" asked the girl.
"Don't bother my head by asking conundrums, I beg of you. Just let me
discover myself in my own way."

With this she began amusing herself by leaping across the brook and
back again.

"Be careful, or you'll fall in the water," warned Ojo.

"Never mind."

"You'd better. If you get wet you'll be soggy and can't walk. Your
colors might run, too," he said.

"Don't my colors run whenever I run?" she asked.

"Not in the way I mean. If they get wet, the reds and greens and
yellows and purples of your patches might run into each other and
become just a blur--no color at all, you know."

"Then," said the Patchwork Girl, "I'll be careful, for if I spoiled my
splendid colors I would cease to be beautiful."

"Pah!" sneered the Glass Cat, "such colors are not beautiful; they're
ugly, and in bad taste. Please notice that my body has no color at all.
I'm transparent, except for my exquisite red heart and my lovely pink
brains--you can see 'em work."

"Shoo--shoo--shoo!" cried Scraps, dancing around and laughing. "And
your horrid green eyes, Miss Bungle! You can't see your eyes, but we
can, and I notice you're very proud of what little color you have.
Shoo, Miss Bungle, shoo--shoo--shoo! If you were all colors and many
colors, as I am, you'd be too stuck up for anything." She leaped over
the cat and back again, and the startled Bungle crept close to a tree
to escape her. This made Scraps laugh more heartily than ever, and she
said:

"Whoop-te-doodle-doo!
The cat has lost her shoe.
Her tootsie's bare, but she don't care,
So what's the odds to you?"

"Dear me, Ojo," said the cat; "don't you think the creature is a little
bit crazy?"

"It may be," he answered, with a puzzled look.

"If she continues her insults I'll scratch off her suspender-button
eyes," declared the cat.

"Don't quarrel,