Then he showed Ozzie B. how it was done. “So, with yo' hand in yo' pocket—so! Then here comes Bonaparte round an' round an' skeered mighty nigh to the runnin' point. So—then sczit! It wus enough.”
Ozzie B. shuddered: “You run a terrible risk doin' that. They'd have killed you if they'd seen it, Jud an' Billy. An' all yo' money up too.”
“Of course,” said his brother, “but Ozzie B., when you bluff, bluff bold; when you bet, bet big; when you steal, steal straight.”
Ozzie B. shook his head. Then he looked up at the sun high above the trees.
He sprang up from the log, pale and scared.
“Archie B.—Archie B., jes' look at the sun! It must be 'leven o'clock an—an think what we'll ketch for bein' late at school. Oh, but I clean forgot—oh—”
He started off trembling.
“Hold on, hold on!” said his brother running and catching Ozzie B. in the coat collar. “Now you sho'ly ain't goin' to be sech a fool as that? It's too late to go now; we'll only ketch a whuppin'. We are goin' to play hookey to-day.”
But Ozzie B. only shook his head. “That's wrong—so wrong. The Lord—He will not bless us—maw says so. Oh, I can't, Archie B.”
“Now look here, Ozzie B. The Lord don't expec' nobody but a fool to walk into a tan-hidin'. If you go to school now, old Triggers will tan yo' hide, see? Then he'll send word to paw an' when you get home to-night you'll git another one.”