“It won’t l-l-last long,” says Mark. “Come on.”
We started back, with Rock looking pretty dubious over his prospects. If he had known Mark Tidd as well as we did he wouldn’t have felt so much that way, though I’ll admit I wouldn’t have been tickled to death if I’d been in his place.
Jethro just rushed at us and grabbed a-holt of Rock, rough-like.
It didn’t take us a great while to get back to the farm with Rock, and there was Jethro walking up and down and growling and acting pretty anxious. When he saw us turn in the yard with Rock he just rushed at us and grabbed a-holt of Rock, rough-like.
“Hey, there!” says Mark. “G-go easy.”
Jethro looked at him a second and let right go, and then began to grin. “I guess,” says he, “that you kids have earned your money,” and he passed it over.
“Now,” says he to Rock, “what you mean by runnin’ off, eh? Had a perty time of it, hain’t you? Well, you let me ketch you tryin’ it again, and you’ll wisht you’d been shut up in a cage like a monkey in a circus. You bet you will.”
“G-got anythin’ to eat around this p-place?” says Mark.
Jethro looked Mark over and laughed right out. Not the kind of laugh a fellow likes, but a noisy, bossy kind of a laugh. “You look like you gen’ally got plenty,” says he.