The boys ran up to him.
"What's the matter, professor?" asked Dick.
"Yes, you called for help," added Tom.
"Um—er—ah did I call?" inquired the man of science.
"You certainly did. You scared us almost to death," said Dick.
"Something about lions," added Tom.
"Lions—er—did I say lions, boys?"
"You did," Dick assured him.
The professor gave a rather shamefaced smile. He looked at the donkey suspended from the ladder between the two straightened saplings.
"Um—er—perhaps it would be better to say no more about it," he said. "I do not suppose that I am the first man to have been scared by a sheep in wolf's clothing."