'd you want to go and give
it to him for?"

"Well, you didn't say not to."

"Well, what if I didn't? I never said I did, did I? You go on in that
stall and take it away from him."

"_Yes_, I will!" Sam returned bitterly. Then, as Whitey had dragged the
remains of the branch from the manger to the floor of the stall, Sam
scrambled to the top of the manger and looked over. "There ain't much
left to _take_ away! He's swallered it all except some splinters.
Better give him the water to try and wash it down with." And, as Penrod
complied, "My gracious, look at that horse _drink_!"

They gave Whitey four buckets of water, and then debated the question
of nourishment. Obviously, this horse could not be trusted with
branches, and, after getting their knees black and their backs sodden,
they gave up trying to pull enough grass to sustain him. Then Penrod
remembered that horses like apples, both "cooking-apples" and
"eating-apples," and Sam mentioned the fact that every autumn his
father received a barrel of "cooking-apples" from a cousin who owned a
farm. That barrel was in the Williams' cellar now, and the cellar was
providentially supplied with "outside doors," so that it could be
visited without going through the house. Sam and Penrod set forth for
the cellar.

They returned to the stable bulging, and, after a discussion of
Whitey's digestion (Sam claiming that eating the core and seeds, as
Whitey did, would grow trees in his inside), they went back to the
cellar for supplies again--and again. They made six trips, carrying
each time a capacity cargo of apples, and still Whitey ate in a
famished manner. They were afraid to take more apples from the barrel,
which began to show conspicuously the result of their raids, wherefore
Penrod made an unostentatious visit to the cellar of his own house.
From the inside he opened a window and passed vegetables out to Sam,
who placed them in a bucket and carried them hurriedly to the stable,
while Penrod returned in a casual manner through the house. Of his
_sang-froid_[30-1] under a great strain it is sufficient to relate
that, in the kitchen, he said suddenly to Della, the cook, "Oh, look
behind you!" and by the time Della discovered that there was nothing
unusual behind her, Penrod was gone, and a loaf of bread from the
kitchen table was gone with him.

Whitey now ate nine turnips, two heads of lettuce, one cabbage, eleven
raw potatoes, and the loaf of bread. He ate the loaf of