“Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old-timers were rather womanish, some of them, he thought. All a man had to do was keep his head, and he was all right. Any man who was a man could travel alone.”
″ ‘If we only had a cat!’ sighed the very old woman. ‘A cat?’ asked the very old man. ‘Yes, a sweet little fluffy cat,’ said the very old woman. ‘I will get you a cat, my dear,’ said the very old man.”
“And so he went back over the sunny hills and down through the cool valleys, to show all his pretty kittens to the very old woman. It was very funny to see those hundreds and thousands and millions and billions and trillions of cats following him.”
″ ‘But look!’ said the very old man, and he pointed to a bunch of high grass. In it say one little frightened kitten. They went out and picked it up. It was thin and scraggly. ”
″ ‘It is the most beautiful cat in the whole world,’ said the very old man. ‘I ought to know for I’ve seen hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats but not one was as pretty as this one.’ ”
“They bit and scratched and clawed each other and made such a noise that the very old man and the very old woman ran into the house as fast as they could.”
“There was an Old Man of the West,
Who never could get any rest;
So they set him to spin on his nose and his chin,
Which cured that Old Man of the West.”
“There was an Old Man of Dundee,
Who frequented the top of a tree;
When disturbed by the Crows, he abruptly arose,
And exclaimed, ‘I’ll return to Dundee!’ ”
“There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, ‘It is just as I feared! -
Two Owls and a Hen, four Larks and Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard.’ ”
“Your gardeners do not understand their business: but what can you expect of men whose fathers were cobblers and carpenters? How should they have learned to cultivate your garden?”
“The old man was standing with his back to Cass, bent over a squat potbellied stove from which a length of stovepipe launched off awkwardly into the ceiling. The rest of the garage was an incredible chaos of junk and clutter.