“I will give him something to drink,” said Phonny.
“Yes,” said Beechnut.
The boys turned and saw Beechnut standing at the door of the shop, looking at them. He continued,
“His name is Frink,
And so I think,
I’d give him a little water to drink.”
So saying, Beechnut went away. Phonny took up an old tin cover which lay upon a shelf behind the bench, and which had once belonged to a tin box. The box was lost, but Phonny had kept the cover to put nails in. He now poured the nails out upon the bench, and went out to the pump to fill the cover with water.
In a minute or two he came back, walking carefully, so as not to spill the water. He raised the lid of the trap a little, very cautiously, and then pushed the cover in underneath it, in such a manner that about half of it was inside the trap.
“There! That’s what I call complete. Now he can have a drink when he pleases, and we will go in to dinner.”
At the dinner table, Phonny and Stuyvesant sat upon one side of the table, and Malleville sat on the other side, opposite to them. Mrs. Henry sat at the head, and Wallace opposite to her, at the foot of the table. The dinner consisted that day, of roast chickens, and after it, an apple pudding.