“’Cause I knew you wouldn’t let me come any other way,” Sammy answered. “I wanted to go houseboating awful bad, but I didn’t think you’d take me and Billy. So this morning, when you was packing up, me and him came down here and we got on board. I hid us in a closet, and we was going to stay there until night and then maybe you’d be so far away you couldn’t send us back. But something tickled my nose and I sneezed, and I guess Billy thought I was sneezing at him, for he bleated and then he butted his head against the door and it came open and—and—”
But Sammy really had to stop—he was out of breath.
“Well, of all things!” cried Agnes.
“It is rather remarkable,” agreed Mr. Howbridge. “I don’t know that I ever before had to deal with a stowaway. The question that’s puzzling me is, what shall we do with him?”
“Can’t me and Billy stay?” asked Sammy, catching drift of an objection to his presence on board.
“Of course not!” voiced Ruth. “What would your mother and father say?”
“Oh, they wouldn’t care,” Sammy said, easily enough and brightening visibly at the question. “They let me stay when I went with you on our auto tour.”
“They surely did,” remarked Agnes dryly.
“And Billy’s strong, too!” went on Sammy eagerly. “If one of the mules got sick he could help pull the boat.”
“The idea!” exclaimed Agnes.