ome."

"I'll go b-b-by m-m-myself," Little Tom said, and started back into
the cave, but I knew it was too dark for him to see, so I grabbed his
arm and pulled him back. "We'll all go with you."

"But we wanted to see Old Man Paddler," Dragonfly said, "What's the
use to go home? I want some sassafras tea."

"Keep still," I said, "Tom's sick. He ought to go home." I knew Little
Tom was terribly embarrassed, and that he'd be like a little scared
rabbit if we took him into Old Man Paddler's cabin now.

We must have made a lot of noise talking 'cause right that minute I
heard Old Man Paddler's voice up there calling down to us, "Wait a
minute, boys! I'll be right down...."

Well, it would have been impolite to run away now, and so I whispered
to Tom, "Me and Little Jim are the only ones who heard him praying
and--and we--we like you anyway." I gave Tom a kinda fierce half a hug
around his shoulder, just as I heard Old Man Paddler's trap door in
the floor of his house opening, and a shaft of light came in through
the crack in the door right in front of us.... In a jiffy our door
would open too, and we'd see that kind old long whiskered old man,
with his twinkling grey eyes, and pretty soon we'd all climb up the
cellar steps and be inside his warm cabin with a fire crackling in his
fireplace and with the teakettle on the stove for making sassafras
tea, and the old man would be telling us a story about the Sugar Creek
of long ago....

All of a sudden, I got the strangest warm feeling inside of me, and I
felt so good, something just bubbled up in my heart.... It was the
queerest feeling, and made me feel good all over, 'cause right that
second one of Little Tom's arms reached out and gave me a very awkward
half a hug real quick, like he was very bashful or something, but like
he was saying, "You're my best friend, Bill.... I'd lick the stuffin's
out of the biggest bum in the world for you, in fact I'd do
_anything_."

But his arm didn't stay more'n just time enough for him to let it fall
to his side again, but I knew he liked me a lot and it was a wonderful
feeling.

Right that second, I heard the old man lift the bar on the big wooden
door, and push it open, and real bright light came in and shone all
over all of us, and the old man said, "Well, well, well, well, the
Sugar Creek Gang! Come on in, boys, we'll have a party."

A jiffy later, we were all inside his cellar, and scrambling up his
cellar steps into his wa