CHAPTER VIII.
WHAT MADE MR. TOMPKINS LAUGH.
One afternoon, when the Jimmyjohns were playing in the back-yard, Mr. Doty, the funny man as we sometimes call him, came jogging along. When he saw the little boys, he stopped, and began to push his hat up on one side, and to scratch his head, and to twinkle the corners of his eyes. Then he began:—
“Oh! you’re out here, so you are. What are you doing?”
“Making a flow,” they answered, looking up from the mud and water in which they stood.
“Hem! well, why don’t you go somewhere?”
“Ma won’t let us.”
“Won’t she? Oh, no, she won’t! will she? Well, hem! Why don’t you have a party?”
“’Tisn’t our birthday yet!” cried Johnny, hopping up and down with the pump-handle.
“Well, why not have a cocoanut-party?”
“We haven’t got any cocoanut.”