But still things didn’t come out right. The sugar wafers put an end to the salmon but there were still quite a few sugar wafers, and it was necessary to open a jar of peanut butter to put the sugar wafers out of business, which left them with a jar half full of peanut butter. A detachment of Holland rusks was therefore called up to eliminate the peanut butter. The Holland rusks tasted pretty good with peanut butter on them, but without peanut butter they were dry.
“I don’t like them without anything on them, do you?” Pee-wee asked, feeling his way to the next step.
“No, I don’t,” said Townsend; “they have about as much flavor as a whisk-broom, but did you ever hear the story about the man with one leg shorter than the other one? They sawed his right leg off to make it even with his left one and they sawed it too short. So then they had to saw his left one off to make it even with his right one. And they sawed off a little too much so—”
“That’s a dandy argument,” shouted Pee-wee; “I tell you what let’s do. We’ll throw the rusks away so the birds can get them and then start even with two things.”
“If we throw the rusks away we will be even,” said Townsend. “Otherwise we’ll be like the man who ended by not having any legs.”
“That didn’t stop him from eating though,” said Pee-wee.
“Well, I’m going to stop you from eating,” Townsend observed. “What do you suppose would happen to you if they sawed off your appetite?”
“It would grow again,” said Pee-wee.
“Well,” laughed Townsend, “I’m going to saw off some sleep.”
“That’s another thing I like to do,” said Pee-wee.