“That’s me! I’m always glad to oblige.”
“Thim chaps,” said Mike, who was too game to wince though none the less resolved to baffle his chums, “are two babes in the wood; it will be mighty kind of ye, Butler, to go along and kaap an eye on ’em.”
“Now, don’t you see there are two of them, and it will be the same with you and me, which is the right way to divide up? Just the idea, old chap!” And Butler whacked the knee of Mike, who made a grimace at the grinning Alvin and Chester. “Tell you what, Mike, I took a shine to you from the first; we must be pals.”
“You’ve hit it, Butler; we shall be glad to loan you Mike whenever you want him.”
“That will be all the time,” roared the interloper, “won’t it, Mike?”
“It begins to look that way,” was the lugubrious response of the victim.
Alvin and Chester rose to their feet, the former remarking:
“We’ll see you at supper. Take good care of Mike, who is so innocent that he is sure to run into trouble unless you hold him back. Mike, be sure to obey him just as you do us.”
And the two stepped from the porch and set off in the direction of the cabin of Uncle Elk, looking back in time to see their friend shake his fist at them.
“It looks as if I was catched,” mused Mike, “as the man said whin he stepped into a bear trap, but I’ll aven up matters wid thim before they’re much older.”