“Where do you suppose that well would be if it wasn’t for the roots of that old tree? Why, it would have all caved in, wouldn’t it?”
“Absolutely. And I wouldn’t have spent an evening in it. Don’t talk to me about erosion, I’m in favor of it.”
“Well, you’re interested in government work, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yes, I love, I love, I love my country best.”
“Well, then,” said Tom, “we’ve got to look at it just as if that fellow was billeted with us and treat him right.”
“Have you ever known me to be impolite?”
“No, but you’re funny; everybody doesn’t understand you.”
“I’m like Spiff, I am not understood. So far as I’m concerned, Tommy, our forest home is open to the stranger and the cause he represents. Are we going fishing?”
They went fishing in the brook that afternoon and so much enjoyed their catch of trout that they went again the next day. They found the fish a grateful variation to their rather restricted diet. On returning with their luscious string of trout on that second afternoon they were hailed by Lawton, who was invisible among the branches of a tree.
“The cat came back,” he called cheerily.