"Mr. Carson!"
Carson had enough time to look up from his account books to see his door pushed open and a small girl run across his office. She skidded to a halt beside his chair to look up at him excitedly with a book clutched to her chest. Carson couldn't help but smile at her exuberance.
"Miss Mary," he chided. "How many times have we talked about running through the house?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Carson," she said looking anything but. "I wanted to show you my new book Papa sent me from Africa!"
"My, what a handsome book!" Carson exclaimed appropriately as Miss Mary handed it to him. I was a book of illustrations of African animals.
"Edith and Sybil got one too, but mine's best," she said while clambering into his lap. She took the book back from him and placed it on top of his accounts. Carson listened attentively as Miss Mary opened the book to show him all of her favorite animals. "...And this is a cheetah. It's the fastest animal in the whole world."
"Ah, yes," Carson nodded sagely. "I've heard of those. Do you know that's why no one likes to play any games in Africa?"
Miss Mary wrinkled her nose in confusion. "Why?"
Carson smiled and waggled his eyebrows at her. "Because there are too many cheetahs!"
The little girl began to giggle uncontrollably. "That's silly, Mr. Carson!"
Carson laughed along with her until she flipped through the book to find another picture. She pointed at it and looked up at him seriously. "Do you know why you can never trust one of these, Mr. Carson?"
"No," he said equally as serious. "Why is that, my Lady?"
Miss Mary smirked up at him. "Because they're always lion!"
"That's very good, my Lady!" Carson laughed heartily making Miss Mary beam with pride.
The two worked their way through the rest of the book seeing who could come up with the most outrageous jokes until they were both consumed in fits of laughter.
A/N Sorry not sorry for the awful jokes. ;)