human
Oh, Ricky! exclaimed Mazie (which was a pet name for Mary) as she walked around the side path with her brother.
gpt
Oh, Ricky! What you think?
human
What?
gpt
Why Mabel and I are goin' to have a doll party to-morrow, and you can come to it if you want to, Ricky!
human
I don't want to come to a doll party! exclaimed Rick, as he tossed a bit of stick up into the air, and then hit it with a swiftly-thrown stone.
gpt
Doll party! Pooh!
human
We're goin' to have _real_ things to eat--not make-believe!
gpt
Honest?
human
Honest cross-my-heart! exclaimed his sister. She was about two years younger than Rick, who was
gpt
Um! Well, maybe I'll come, said Rick, as if he were giving the favor, instead of getting it.
human
Could I bring my dog, Mazie?
gpt
Your dog! exclaimed the little girl.
human
You hasn't _got_ any dog, Ricky Dalton!
gpt
I know I haven't got one _now_! he admitted, very frankly.
human
But maybe I'll get one. I keep on asking mother, every day, and maybe she'll let me have one after a while. You wouldn't be afraid of a dog; would you, Mazie?
gpt
Course not!
human
went on Rick.
gpt
I wish I had a dog. He could bring in chips and go to the store with me. I was down to the beach to-day, and I just wanted a dog an awful lot.
human
Does dogs ever come up out of the ocean?
gpt
Dogs come out of the ocean? Course not! exclaimed her brother.
human
How could they?
gpt
Well, we get wood for the fire out of the ocean--it comes up on the beach, said Mazie, stopping to look at a little speck of dirt on her doll's nose.
human
Wood comes out of the ocean and once we got some lemons and cocoanuts--don't you 'member?
gpt
Yes, I remember, answered Rick.
human
But the lemons and cocoanuts were washed overboard off a ship that sank, and some of the cocoanuts were spoiled sour.
gpt
A dog wouldn't spoil sour if he was in the ocean; would he?
human
Course not! laughed Rick.
gpt
But dogs couldn't come up out the ocean, and be washed on the beach like the lemons and cocoanuts.
human
A dog could, if he was washed overboard off a ship, went on Mazie, for, having lived all her life near the sea, she knew what being washed overboard meant.
gpt
If a dog fell off a ship and come on shore then you could have him; couldn't you, Ricky?
human
Yes, answered her brother, slowly,