“Would you promise to go?” Emerson asked. “What are you talking about?” Pee-wee vociferated. “Would I promise to go! Oh, boy! You just get a picture of me refusing!”
“You’d have to ask your mother, but anyway I don’t think you can get the tickets.”
“You should worry about my mother,” said Pee-wee excitedly. “You leave her to me; handling mothers is my middle name—fathers too. And sisters and everything. Don’t you worry, I can go and I promise to go absolutely, positively, cross my heart. And I’ll get the tickets too.”
“I’ve already asked three boys and none of them could go,” said Emerson. “Two of them didn’t care to——”
“What?” gasped Pee-wee.
“The other two were not allowed to.”
“I want to and I’m allowed to both,” Pee-wee said with increasing elation. “And I promise absolutely and definitely and positively and double sure to go, so there! Gee whiz, I know how it is with those fellows, they just, you know, kind of——”
“I know I’m not popular,” said Emerson.
“Oh, boy, you’re popular with me,” said Pee-wee.