“Have some!”
“What are they?” asked Teddy.
“Gum drops. I bought them in Mrs. Traddle’s store while you and Dick were out looking at the deer’s hoof marks in the garden.”
“Thanks!” murmured Teddy as he began chewing some of the gum drops. “They’ll make me more thirsty. Candy always does. But it won’t matter as long as we’re near a spring.”
“Have some, Fatty!” Joe invited.
“Well—er—yes—thanks—I will. Maybe I oughtn’t to eat any. Candy makes you fatter they say, but I guess a couple of gum drops won’t, will they?”
“Try ’em and see!” suggested Joe.
They finished the bag of gum drops, Fatty eating his share, and then Teddy, taking a string from his pocket, began passing it around the Nolan boy’s waist.
“What are you trying to do, lasso me?” laughed the stout lad.
“No,” said Teddy, “I was just trying to measure to see if those gum drops had made you any fatter. I don’t believe they have. Not yet, anyway,” he ended with a laugh in which the others joined.