"Of course," said Norah, after a quarter of an hour's silence, "you want to make the words difficult and define them as subtly as possible." "Of course," I said, wrestling with '?—?.' I could only think of one word, and it was the one everybody else was certain to have. "Are we all ready? Then somebody begin." "You'd better begin, Norah, as you know the game," said Mrs. Gerald. We prepared to begin. "Mine," said Norah, "is a bird." "---," we all shouted; but I swear I was first. "Yes." "I don't think that's a very subtle definition," said Dennis. "You promised to be as subtle as possible." "Go on, dear," said Gerald to his wife. "Well, this is rather awkward. Mine is——" "---," I suggested. "You must wait till she has defined it," said Norah sternly. "Mine is a sort of feathered animal." "---," I said again. In fact, we all said it. Gerald coughed. "Mine," he said, "isn't exactly a—fish, because it——" "---," said everybody. "That was subtler," said Dennis, "but it didn't deceive us." "Your turn," said Norah to me. And they all leant forward ready to say "---." "Mine," I said, "is—all right, Dennis, you needn't look so excited—is a word I once heard a man say at the Zoo." There was a shriek of "---!" "Wrong," I said. Everybody was silent. "Where did he say it?" asked Norah at last. "What was he doing?" "He was standing outside the ---'s cage." "It must have been ---." "It wasn't." "Perhaps there's another animal beginning with '?' and ending with '?,'" suggested Dennis. "He might have said,'Look here, I'm tired of this old ---, let's go and see the _-doesn't-__,' or whatever it's called." from "Once a Week" by A.A. Milne
