The other shook his head in the negative.
"Bull!" he articulated.
"Oh, he means that our poor pard has been chewed up by a bulldog!" cried Landy. "And Ty never did like dogs, either; only hot ones at the county fair."
"No, no!" whispered Ted. "Gentleman cow, you thee, and the motht thavage looking beatht ever. Wow!"
"A bull! Now I know what you mean," Landy went on, as the light of understanding broke over his mottled countenance. "Some of these farmers up here do keep terrors, and enter them in the exhibition for prizes. But what did the bull do to our poor chum Ty?"
"Don't know; didn't ask Ty," replied the other, now beginning to get his breath back again fairly well, so that his voice, lisp and all, was audible. "You thee, I wath jutht about to thaunter acroth a field, when I heard thome one yelling like the dickenth. Then I thaw a big red bull pawing the grath at the foot of a tree; and there wath Ty, ath big ath life, thitting up on a limb. That'th all I thaw, for the bull tharted after me, and I got over the fenthe like fun."
The boys stared at each other; then a wide grin began to appear on their faces. Since it seemed as though their chum had not been seriously injured they could not resist the temptation to chuckle over the comical aspect of the adventure.
"Say, perhaps the bull just went and heaved Ty up in that tree," suggested Landy.
"Oh, I hardly think it went as far as that," said Elmer. "The chances are, Ty had plenty of warning, and climbed without any help from the beast."
"But why would the bull hang around all the time?" asked the fat boy, wonderingly. "Bulls don't feed on boys, do they?"