that Beechnut would tell them a story. Now Beechnut was a boy of
boundless fertility of imagination, and he was almost always ready to
tell a story. His stories were usually invented on the spot, and were
often extremely wild and extravagant, both in the incidents involved
in them, and in the personages whom he introduced as actors. The
extravagance of these tales was however usually no objection to them
in Phonny's and Malleville's estimation. In fact Beechnut observed
that the more extravagant his stories were, the better pleased his
auditors generally appeared to be in listening to them. He therefore
did not spare invention, or restrict himself by any rules either of
truth or probability in his narratives. Nor did he usually require any
time for preparation, but commenced at once with whatever came into
his head, pronouncing the first sentence of his story, very often
without any idea of what he was to say next.

On this occasion Beechnut began as follows:

"Once there was a girl about three years old, and she had a large
black cat. The cat was of a jet black color, and her fur was very soft
and glossy. It was as soft as silk.

"This cat was very mischievous and very sly. She was _very_ sly:
very indeed. In fact she used to go about the house so very slyly,
getting into all sorts of mischief which the people could never find
out till afterwards, that they gave her the name of Sligo. Some people
said that the reason why she had that name was because she came from
a place called Sligo, in Ireland. But that was not the reason. It was
veritably and truly because she was so sly."

Beechnut pronounced this decision in respect to the etymological