Well, that's the way to do now, 'cause if a kitten could keep hold of a pair of trousers, I guess this ole cat could. It's the biggest cat _I_ ever saw! All you got to do is to go and ast your mother for a pair of your father's trousers, and we'll have this ole cat out o' there in no time."
Penrod glanced toward the house perplexedly.
"She ain't home, and I'd be afraid to--"
"Well, take your own, then," Sam suggested briskly.
"You take 'em off in the stable, and wait in there, and I and Herman'll get the cat out."
Penrod had no enthusiasm for this plan; but he affected to consider it.
"Well, I don't know 'bout that," he said, and then, after gazing attentively into the cistern and making 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.'"