king some eye measurements of his
knickerbockers, he shook his head. "They'd be too short. They wouldn't
be NEAR long enough!"

"Then neither would mine," said Sam promptly.

"Herman's would," said Penrod.

"No, suh!" Herman had recently been promoted to long trousers, and he
expressed a strong disinclination to fall in with Penrod's idea. "My
Mammy sit up late nights sewin' on 'ese britches fer me, makin' 'em
outen of a pair o' pappy's, an' they mighty good britches. Ain' goin'
have no wet cat climbin' up 'em! No, suh!"

Both boys began to walk toward him argumentatively, while he moved
slowly backward, shaking his head and denying them.

"I don't keer how much you talk!" he said. "Mammy gave my OLE britches
to Verman, an' 'ese here ones on'y britches I got now, an' I'm go' to
keep 'em on me--not take 'em off an' let ole wet cat splosh all over
'em. My Mammy, she sewed 'em fer ME, I reckon--d'in' sew 'em fer no
cat!"

"Oh, PLEASE, come on, Herman!" Penrod begged pathetically. "You don't
want to see the poor cat drown, do you?"

"Mighty mean cat!" Herman said. "Bet' let 'at ole pussy-cat 'lone whur
it is."

"Why, it'll only take a minute," Sam urged. "You just wait inside the
stable and you'll have 'em back on again before you could say 'Jack
Robinson.'"

"I ain' got no use to say no Jack Robason," said Herman. "An' I ain' go'
to han' over my britches fer NO cat!"

"Listen here, Herman," Penrod began pleadingly. "You can watch us every
minute through the crack in the stable door, can't you? We ain't goin'
to HURT 'em any, are we? You can see everything we do, can't you? Look
at here, Herman: you know that little saw you said you wished it was
yours, in the carpenter shop? Well, honest, if you'll just let us take
your trousers till we get this poor ole cat out the cistern, I'll give
you that little saw."

Herman was shaken; he yearned for the little saw.

"You gimme her to keep?" he asked cautiously. "You gimme her befo' I
han' over my britches?"

"You'll see!" Penrod ran into the stable, came back with the little saw,
and placed it in Herman's hand. Herman could resist no longer, and two
minutes later he stood in the necessary negligee within the shelter of
the stable door, and watched, through the crack, the lowering of the
surrendered garment into the cistern. His gaze was anxious, and surely
nothing could have been more natural, since the removal had exposed
Herman's brown legs, and, although the we