"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