Well, I told you before....

The Beagle Posse called a meeting.  

Tuppence began.  “We’re here to tell you that we did not do That.”

Worried, I asked, “Didn’t do what?”

“Oh,” said Tommy, “we did what, but we didn’t do That.”

Not wanting to get into an Abbot and Costello routine with dogs, I just said, “Explain."

Deep beagle sighs of weary exasperation.

“The Rock ‘n Roll That,” snorted Tuppence.  “We’ve been careful not to do it.”

“Driving around,” said Tommy, “you listen to all that satellite music.  And it talks about “That” all the time.  And we didn’t do it.”

I just raised an eyebrow.

“Like,” he continued, “those Beatle peoples.  They keep saying, 'I told you before, you can’t do that.'  And we haven’t.”

“Or,” said Tuppence, “That Meatloaf guy, great name by the way, keeps singing, 'I’ll do anything for love, but I won’t do THAT.'  We didn’t do it either.”

Tommy added, “The Rock ‘n Roll That.”

“Guys,” I said, “those are just silly pop songs, there’s really no 'that', it’s just a literary device.”

“Well,” huffed Tuppence, “you sing along with them, and WE. DID. NOT. DO. THAT.  We are innocent.”

I broke the reasoning circle, “Hey, I want to get back to the ‘what’ you said you did do.  Which what was it?”

“Did you find it on the floor?”

“No.”

“Then maybe we didn’t do it either.”

“Yeah,” said Tuppence with a slow awakening, “we hearby deny doing either that or what, and we certainly didn’t do both of them.”

“Well, maybe one,” mumbled Tommy.

I pounced.  “Which one?”

The Beagle Posse looked at me, at each other, and turned to leave the room.  “There’s a ‘which’ we can do?” asked Tommy.  “A which?  Let's go.”

“Yessssss,” said Tuppence.

I did a face palm.