"I say, you two on leave, what?" he asked with a grin.
"Yes, sir," they replied together, and gave him a funny look.
"Will you be in town come next Wednesday?" Freddy asked again.
"Yes, sir," they replied in the same breath.
"Good!" Freddy beamed, and held out the hockey tickets. "Use these, if you like. And half a minute! Here, buy yourselves some little thing, what? And good luck."
Freddy Farmer added two one-dollar bills to the hockey tickets and walked away. The two soldiers gaped down at the two tickets and the two dollars.
"What's the matter with that guy; is he touched?" one of them mumbled. "And did you hear him, Fuzzy? He didn't even speak English!"
"Who cares?" Fuzzy asked as he came out of his trance. "Two four-buck-forty hockey tickets, and two bucks in cash! Who cares if the guy is touched? He's okay by me!"
"Well, well!" Dawson chuckled when Freddy joined him. "Darned if the kid didn't at that! And even let go of two bucks."
"All I had on me," Freddy said with a smile. "So that makes you the one to pay for our meal, see?"