CHAPTER I - Chirp the First
THE kettle began it! Don\'t tell me what Mrs. Peerybingle said. I
know better. Mrs. Peerybingle may leave it on record to the end of time
that she couldn\'t say which of them began it; but, I say the kettle did. I
ought to know, I hope! The kettle began it, full five minutes by the little
waxy-faced Dutch clock in the corner, before the Cricket uttered a chirp.
As if the clock hadn\'t finished striking, and the convulsive little
Haymaker at the top of it, jerking away right and left with a scythe in front
of a Moorish Palace, hadn\'t mowed down half an acre of imaginary grass
before the Cricket joined in at all!
Why, I am not naturally positive. Every one knows that. I wouldn\'t
set my own opinion against the opinion of Mrs. Peerybingle, unless I were
quite sure, on any account whatever. Nothing should induce me. But,
this is a question of act. And the fact is, that the kettle began it, at least
five minutes before the Cricket gave any sign of being in existence.
Contradict me, and I\'ll say ten.