"More's the shame to me; but it's never too late to mend. When'll Billy
get home, an' Tom?"

"Goodness knows; Billy gets kep' in so much, an' Tom plays hookey so
often, that I don't ever expect either of 'em much 'fore supper-time.
They talk of sendin' Tom to the Reform School if he don't stop."

"I'll have to stop him, then. I'll try it, anyway."

"It needs somebody that can wollup him harder'n I can; he's gettin' too
big for my stren'th. Well, if here they don't both come! I don't know
when I've seen them two boys together before, 'less they was fightin'.
I wonder what's got into 'em to-day."

The two boys came through the back yard, eying the house curiously,
Billy with wide open eyes, and Tom with a hang-dog leer from under the
brim of his hat. Their father met them at the door and put his arms
around both.

"Don't do that," said Tom, twitching away, "that sort o' thing's for
women, an' gals an' babies."

"But I'm your dad, boy."

"Needn't make a baby of me, if you be," growled the cub.

"I'd give a good deal, old as I am, if I had a dad to make a baby of me
that way, if 'twas only for a minute."