The man stood rubbing his chin, and looking up in the tree.
“You had better come down, bub,” he called to Harold. “That there cat’ll stay up there as long as you do. I’ll find a way to get her.” And Harold began, slowly, to descend. “You just keep an eye on my horse for a minute, and don’t let nobody run off with him, and I’ll find a way to get your cat,” said the man, smiling down at Mabel.
He crossed the street, and entered a small butcher shop, coming out presently with a bit of meat in his hand, and a long pole.
By this time, Harold had reached the ground, and both children were calling, coaxingly, “Pussy, pussy, pussy;” but Bobby did not move. He was away out on a slender limb, to which he clung steadfastly.
“It’ll most take a hook and ladder company to bring her down,” said the man, “but I’ll try this before we call out the force.” He tied the meat on the end of the pole, led his horse over so the cart would stand under the tree; then he climbed up on the seat, and, by so doing, could just reach the limb with his pole. Slowly he moved it along till it dangled under the cat’s nose. This was too much for Bobby, and he moved toward the tidbit, which the man drew slowly along till Bobby had reached the trunk of the tree in trying to reach the meat. But here he hesitated, and looked wildly around, fearing to go further.
“Here, sis, come take the pole,” the man called to Mabel, and she obeyed.
“You can rest it agen the tree,” he said, “and just ease it down as the cat follows. You and me has got to git out of the way,” he said to Harold, “the crittur’s used to petticoats, and ain’t goin’ to trust herself among men and boys.” He led his cart and horse away, bidding Harold to follow, and the two kept out of sight, till Bobby, seeing the coast clear of all but one little girl, began to descend. When he was safely within catching distance the man rushed from behind the tree where he had been hiding, grabbed Bobby, and thrust him into the bag which Harold held.
“There you are!” said the man. “No, no! I don’t want no thanks; I ain’t had such fun in a coon’s age. Here, take along this piece of meat; he’d ought to have it; ’taint right to tempt critturs that way and then disappint ’em.” And, giving them a good-natured nod as he mounted his cart, he drove away.
“What an awfully good, kind man,” exclaimed Mabel, watching him depart. “I couldn’t have believed anyone so rough, and in such coarse, dirty clothes could be so nice.”
“He is a brick,” pronounced Harold. “Come, Mabel, we must hurry; it’s getting awfully late, and I expect we shall miss the auction altogether.”