. He broke the silence with a shout.

"_I_ know, Sam! I know what we'll do NOW! I just thought of it, and it's
goin' to be sumpthing I bet there aren't any other boys in this town
could do, because where would they get any good ole panther like we got,
and Herman and Verman? And they'd haf to have a dog, too--and we got
our good ole Dukie, I guess. I bet we have the greatest ole time this
afternoon we ever had in our lives!"

His enthusiasm roused the warm interest of Sam--and Verman, though
Herman, remaining cold and suspicious, asked for details.

"An' I like to hear if it's sump'm'," he concluded, "what's go' git me
my britches back outen 'at cistern!"

"Well, it ain't exackly that," said Penrod. "It's different from that.
What I'm thinkin' about, well, for us to have it the way it ought to be,
so's you and Verman would look like natives--well, Verman ought to take
off his britches, too."

"Mo!" said Verman, shaking his head violently. "Mo!"

"Well, wait a minute, can't you?" Sam Williams said. "Give Penrod a
chance to say what he wants to, first, can't you? Go on, Penrod."

"Well, you know, Sam," said Penrod, turning to this sympathetic auditor;
"you remember that movin'-pitcher show we went to, 'Fortygraphing Wild
Animals in the Jungle'. Well, Herman wouldn't have to do a thing more to
look like those natives we saw that the man called the 'beaters'. They
were dressed just about like the way he is now, and if Verman--"

"MO!" said Verman.

"Oh, WAIT a minute, Verman!" Sam entreated. "Go on, Penrod."

"Well, we can make a mighty good jungle up in the loft," Penrod
continued eagerly. "We can take that ole dead tree that's out in the
alley and some branches, and I bet we could have the best jungle you
ever saw. And then we'd fix up a kind of place in there for our panther,
only, of course, we'd haf to keep him in the cage so's he wouldn't run
away; but we'd pretend he was loose. And then you remember how they
did with that calf? Well, we'd have Duke for the tied-up calf for the
panther to come out and jump on, so they could fortygraph him. Herman
can be the chief beater, and we'll let Verman be the other beaters, and
I'll--"

"Yay!" shouted Sam Williams. "I'll be the fortygraph man!"

"No," said Penrod; "you be the one with the gun that guards the
fortygraph man, because I'm the fortygraph man already. You can fix up a
mighty good gun with this carpenter shop, Sam. We'll make spears for
our good ole beat