“That’s all the credit a fellow gets when he tries to be generous,” complained Jimmy, in an aggrieved tone, as he emptied the pockets in question of half a dozen doughnuts. “Here I wait until the doughnuts are made so that I can bring along a lot for you fellows, and what do I get? Nothing but abuse. I was just crazy to help you fellows put up that aerial, but I sacrificed my own feelings and waited for the doughnuts so that you could have some.”
“Those doughnuts were cooking three hours ago,” retorted Joe.
“How do you know?” asked Jimmy.
“Because I smelled them as I came past your house,” replied Joe.
“Oh, that was the first batch,” explained Jimmy. “Most of those have gone by now.”
“What became of them?” grinned Bob.
“How do I know?” countered Jimmy. “My father and mother have pretty good appetites. Then of course I sampled one or two. Mother would have thought I didn’t like her cooking if I hadn’t. And if there’s anything I won’t do it’s to hurt my mother’s feelings. We never have more than one mother, you know,” he added virtuously.
“Sampled one or two!” sniffed Joe. “One or two dozen you mean.”
“How did you fellows come to get in such a fix?” queried Herb. “Did the ladder fall down?”
“It did not,” returned Bob with emphasis. “It was taken down while we weren’t looking by somebody who wanted to play a trick on us. And I can come pretty near to guessing who did it, too,” he added.