it?"

"Oh!" said Marmaduke, "I thought of it--_just like this_"; and he
snapped his fingers to show just how quick. "But pshaw! I could think
of lots more galoochious than that." Then he added in delight,--"The
one who loses has to pull the peg out of the ground with his teeth."

Meanwhile the Toyman was driving that peg into the ground. When it was
in so far that it seemed as if no Thirty White Horses could ever pull
it out, they began the game--the famous game of Mumbledy Peg.

First, Marmaduke put the knife in the palm of his right hand and made
that knife turn a somersault in the air. And it landed right on the
blade point and stuck upright in the ground.

Then, taking the knife in the palm of his left hand, he made it turn
another somersault in the air. Again it landed on the point of the
blade and stuck in the ground, quivering deliciously.

"Neat work!" said the Toyman. Probably he said it too soon, for on the
very next try Marmaduke missed, and the Toyman had his turn.

_He_ took the knife and got just as far as Marmaduke with his
tricks, then he missed, too.

So Marmaduke took another turn and clenched his right fist tight shut,
and threw the knife in the air from that, and it turned another
somersault clean, and landed straight up in the ground. And he did the
same with his left hand clenched. He was getting on famously!