Steve didn't think very highly of the matter, Bobby was sure from the way he laughed.
"Does your mother know you're out?" asked Steve, and in turn exchanged another prodigious wink with the man with whiskers.
"Ain't not got any mothers," said Bobby.
"Oh," said the bearded man in a different voice, "you're one of the kids old man Eller has out to his place."
"Yes'm," Bobby admitted and began to back away. These men were making fun of him and he felt uncomfortable, and they had made him think of his birthdays! He had taken only a few backward steps when a big pleasant voice behind him made him jump.
"Quite a ways from home, aren't you, son?"
"I'm hunting my——," but Bobby remembered just in time and stopped. "Yes'm," he added and turned to look up into a pair of friendly blue eyes and at lips that smiled under a blond mustache that curled up at the ends. The man put a hand on Bobby's shoulder and drew him closer.
"Lost, are you? Well, we'll soon fix that. What is your name?"
"No'm," said Bobby, trying to answer the man's questions in order.