Here Malleville's story was interrupted by Phonny, who suddenly called out: "Here comes Beechnut, Malleville." "I don't care," said Malleville, "I'm telling a story to Kitty, and you must not interrupt me." Here the kitten jumped down from the stone and ran away. "Now Phonny!" said Malleville, "see what you have done;--you have made my Kitty go away." "I didn't make her go away," said Phonny. "Yes you did," said Malleville, "you interrupted my story, and that made her go away." Phonny laughed aloud at this assertion, though Malleville continued to look very serious. Phonny then repeated that he did not make the kitten go away, and besides, he said, he thought that it was very childish to pretend to tell a story to a kitten. Malleville said that she did not think it was childish at all; for _her_ kitten liked to hear stories. Phonny, at this, laughed again, and then Malleville, appearing to be still more displeased, said that she was not any more childish than Phonny himself was. By this time Beechnut, as Phonny called him, had come up. He was driving a cart. The cart was loaded with wood. The wood consisted of small and dry sticks, which Beechnut had gathered together in the forest. "Beechnut," said Phonny, "are you going into the woods again for another load?" "Yes," said Beechnut. "And may I go with you?" said Phonny. "Yes," said Beechnut. "And I?" said Malleville. "Yes," said Beechnut. Beechnut drove on into the yard, and at length stopped near a great woodpile. Beechnut began to throw off the wood. Phonny climbed up into the cart too, to help Beechnut unload. Malleville sat down upon a log lying near to see. While they were at work thus, throwing off the wood, Phonny, instead of taking the smallest sticks that came in his way, tried always to get hold of the largest. He had three motives for doing this, all mingled together. The first was a pleasure in exercising his own strength; the second, a desire to show Malleville that he was no child; and the third, to make a display of his strength to Beechnut. After a while, when the load had been about half thrown off, Phonny stopped his work, straightened himself up with an air of great self-satisfaction and said, "Malleville says I am childish; do you think I am, Beechnut?" "No," said Malleville, "I did not say so." She began to be a little frightened at this appeal to Beechnut. "Yes," said Phonny, "you certainly did." "No," said Malleville. "What did you say?" asked Phonny. "I said I was not childish myself, any more than you." "Well, that is the same thing," said Phonny. Malleville was silent. She thought that it was a different thing, but she did not know very well how to explain the difference. In the mean time Beechnut went on unloading the wood. "Do _you_ think I am childish at all, Beechnut," said Phonny.