"Well, boys," said Frank, "we've got to do something to make a living. Here we are out here in Missouri, a long distance away from home, and it's a case of hustle."
"How we peen goin' to donet dot, Vrankie?"
"We'll hev to start up a three-cornered variety show," suggested Ephraim, with a sickly grin.
"If I had the old company here now," mused Merriwell, "I'd put what money I've made in the past week into backing it."
"An' lose it, same as t'others did."
"Perhaps so. Nothing venture, nothing have, you know."
"Waal, yeou ain't got the comp'ny."
"No, I haven't anything but this broken stuff."
Frank did not say that dejectedly. Indeed, he did not seem crushed by what had happened, somewhat to Ephraim's surprise, for the Vermonter could not understand how anyone could help being downcast by such misfortune.