"Now, Booge ain't going to have time to sing songs to you daytimes, Buddy, because everybody that lives in this boat has work to do," said Peter, "and as I've got to make some spoons, Booge is going to take this ax and clear away a path through the willows. And you want to cut them off close down to the roots," he warned Booge, "or you'll have to do it over again. You cut a path from the front door through that willow clump, so we can pass in and out and get fire-wood, and when you 've got the path you can fetch the fire-wood. I'm going to stay in to-day and make spoons."
Booge took the ax and looked at it quizzically.
"Well, if this ain't my old friend wood-splitter I've been dodging for years and years," he said good naturedly. "How-do, wood-splitter? How's your cousin buck saw? Is all the little saw-bucks well?"
"You'd better get at them willows," said Peter.
"I just wanted to enquire about them old friends of mine," said Booge.
"You'll have time enough to talk to Mr. Wood-ax before you get done with him," said Peter dryly, and Booge laughed and went out.
That evening, when Buddy was in bed Peter put down his jack-knife long enough to scribble down the new variations of the "Tell the Little Baby" song.
"Writing home to my folks to tell them how much I'm enjoying your visit," Peter said, "and how sorry I am you 've got to be moving along in a day or so."
But Booge did not move along. After Peter had ostentatiously bathed once or twice Booge became painfully clean. He would come in from the jobs Peter set him and wash his face and hands violently.
"You 're getting as clean as them fellows that get five dollars' worth of baths at the Y. M. C. A., ain't you?" Peter said scornfully.
"A feller can get lots of things at the Y. M. C. A. for five dollars that he can't get without it," said Booge good naturedly. "You don't want to knock me all the time, Peter. A horse crops grass one way, and a cow crops it another way, and the Lord is the maker of them all, as the feller said. So long as a man has a clean conscience and a clear eye he can walk right up to any bull alive--if the bull wants to let him."
"I'm glad you got a clean conscience," said Peter. "Maybe that's why you don't worry."