"No," she said. "Bad--wrong!" We were quite able to
follow her.
Then she set it up once more, put the fat nut on top, and
returned to the others; and there those aggravating girls sat and
took turns throwing little stones at that thing, while one stayed
by as a setter-up; and they just popped that nut off, two times
out of three, without upsetting the sticks. Pleased as Punch they
were, too, and we pretended to be, but weren't.
We got very friendly over this game, but I told Terry we'd be
sorry if we didn't get off while we could, and then we begged for knives.
It was easy to show what we wanted to do, and they each proudly produced
a sort of strong clasp-knife from their pockets.
"Yes," we said eagerly, "that's it! Please--" We had learned
quite a bit of their language, you see. And we just begged for
those knives, but they would not give them to us. If we came a
step too near they backed off, standing light and eager for flight.
"It's no sort of use," I said.
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