Sube Cane Part 16

But Gizzard brushed him ungently aside. "Dry up! Dry up! Cut out the noise and listen a minute! Three people can't play any decent tennis! We gotta have _four_ if we want to play the game! It wouldn't take us five minutes to clean up his work--and it's his court, anyway!"

Biscuit yielded ungraciously. He grumbled all the way to the front lawn, and then suddenly became embued with enthusiasm, and took upon himself the honor of informing Sube that they were at his service.

Sube was apparently not expecting anything of the sort. "Do you fellows mean that you're go'n' to help me with my work?" he asked incredulously.

"Sure thing!" cried Biscuit cheerfully. "You don't s'pose we want to be playin' tennis out there while you're workin', do you? And besides, the court belongs to you!"

"Say!--You're good scouts, all right!" Sube exclaimed with unguarded admiration.

"What-all you got t'do?" inquired Gizzard.

"Well, you give this ol' mower a few shoves, Giz, and I'll show the other fellers what to do," responded Sube genially.

Gizzard seized the handles of the lawn-mower and a.s.siduously applied himself to the task of depilating the lawn, while Stucky retired to the garden and began on hands and knees to thin the blus.h.i.+ng beets to five inches, putting the thinnings into a basket for greens.

Biscuit followed Sube about whining repeatedly:

"What am _I_ go'n'ta do? Sube, what am _I_ go'n'ta do?"

"I don't know as you _can_ do the only job that's left," Sube taunted with a triumphant gleam at the immaculate knickerbockers. "It's pretty pa'tic'lar work."

"I'll bet y'u I can do it! What is it?" cried the unsuspecting Biscuit.

"Show it to me! I'll eat it alive!"

"Did you ever sprout any potatoes?" inquired Sube as he led the way to the cellar.

"No; but I'll bet y'u I can do it!"

"Well, we'll see about that," was Sube's dubious-sounding answer as he guided Biscuit towards the potato bin.

"Gee, but it's dark in here," whined Biscuit.

Sube stopped short. "Look here!" he warned. "If it's too dark for you down here in this cool cellar, you go on outdoors, and I'll do these p'tates myself--or let one of the other fellers do 'em."

"Oh, no!" Biscuit hastened to a.s.sure him. "It ain't dark at all any more. It jus' seemed so at first. I can see _fine_ now."

"Well, all right then," muttered Sube. "But if you're goin' to back out, I want to know it 'fore you begin."

"No, sir! I ain't go'n'ta back out," Biscuit a.s.serted resolutely.

Sube picked up a potato from which several long white sprouts were dangling. "You jus' give 'em a simple twist of the wrist," he explained coordinating the action with the words, "and there you are!" He held up the beardless tuber for Biscuit's inspection. "Now, do you s'pose you can do that?" he asked.

"Of course I can," Biscuit replied disdainfully. "It's jus' like wipin'

dishes; and I've wiped my mother's dishes ever since I was big enough to walk!"

This burst of confidence was destined to come back to plague Biscuit, although at the time of its utterance Sube appeared not to have heard it.

"Let's see you do a few," was all he said.

Biscuit was a little awkward, but he managed to denude a large potato of its foliage and handed it to Sube for approval. Sube examined it very carefully.

"That's pretty fair," he admitted; "but you must clean 'em off good.

Chuck 'em in there," he added as he tossed the potato into a bushel basket.

"How many you got to do?" inquired Biscuit, plunging briskly into his task.

"Six bushels," replied Sube, with antic.i.p.ation of the day when he would be called upon to sprout potatoes on his own account. "And when the basket's full dump it over there in the corner. As soon as you get the six bushels done you come out and help Stucky with the beets. It's awful hot out there in the sun." And Sube withdrew, leaving Biscuit in sole possession of the musty cellar.

On returning to the lawn Sube found Gizzard busy with the clippers.

"What! Got her all cut!" he cried delightedly.

"You bet y'u!" replied Gizzard. "And I'm pretty near through with the clippin', too."

"Well, I'll put the ol' mower away and stick up the net. Chuck the clippers in the barn as you go by. Dad always gets sore if we don't put the tools away."

He had just finished stretching the net when Stucky walked out on the court.

"You're not done already!" beamed Sube.

"You _know_ it!" was Stucky's self-important reply.

"What did you do with the greens?"

"Give 'em to Annie."

"Stucky, you're a brick church!"

"Where's Biscuit?" asked Gizzard who at that moment came panting up.

"Down cellar sproutin' p'tates," replied Sube. "But I had him leave the new ball outside. I was afraid he'd get it dirty."

"Wisht he'd hurry up," said Stucky. "We wanta get to playin'. Don't you s'pose he's done?"

"Oh, I wouldn't want to bother him right in the middle of a bushel,"

Sube remonstrated. "Let's have a little three-hander while we're waitin'. I'll stand the two of you."

The little three-hander had become almost a set, and, strange to say, Biscuit had been entirely forgotten when his mother, accompanied by a slight, sallow gentleman in a black suit, drew up by the side of the street in a surrey from the livery.

"Boys!" she called.

The game stopped. There was momentary confusion among the players. Sube slipped the new ball into his pocket and carelessly kicked his sweater over a pair of shoes and stockings lying beside the court, before he appeared to be able to locate the speaker. When at last his eyes encountered Mrs. Westfall's, he s.n.a.t.c.hed off his cap with elaborate gusto and sang out politely:

"Good morning, M's Westfall! Did you call us?"

"Yes," she replied sharply. "Where's Karl?"

"Ma'am?"