"You're welcome to shoulder this one if you want to. I give you permission," Elisha said eagerly.
"Oh, I wouldn't think of doin' that, 'Lish. I wouldn't want to steal the glory from you. You're the big shot on this occasion," cajoled Eleazer. "Wal, what do you say to our settin' out?"
Elisha did not move.
"Don't it 'most seem as if we'd oughter eat somethin' 'fore we go? I might turn faint doin' arrestin' on an empty stomach."
"But man alive, you et your breakfast, didn't you?"
"That was some little while ago," argued Elisha. "I'm feelin' a wee mite gone a'ready. I'd oughter have a lunch or somethin'."
"Wal, since you mention it, I could do with a couple of doughnuts an' slab of cheese myself," Eleazer confessed.
This information delighted Elisha.
"We might put off goin' 'til after dinner," he suggested. "Then we'd be primed by a good square meal an' be braced for it."