The Terrible Twins

For all that their voices rang high and hot the Twins were really discussing the question who had hit Stubb's bull-terrier with the greatest number of stones in the most amicable spirit. It was indeed a nice question and hard to decide since both of them could throw stones quicker straighter and harder than any one of their size and weight for miles and miles round; and they had thrown some fifty at the bull-terrier before they had convinced that dense but irritated quadruped that his master's interests did not really demand his presence in the orchard; and of these some thirty had hit him. Violet Anastasia Dangerfield who always took the most favorable view of her experience claimed twenty hits out of a possible thirty; Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield in a very proper spirit had at once claimed the same number; and both of them were defending their claims with loud vehemence because if you were not loudly vehement your claim lapsed.