But among those whose opinion really amounted to anything Sube and Gizzard were heroes.
Biscuit Westfall's mother was a prudent woman; she had laid down the law that Biscuit could not go in swimming until after he had learned to swim. But when Biscuit tried to explain this to his friends, he succeeded only in raising a shout of tantalizing laughter. And although Biscuit knew that it was wicked to allow his angry passions to arise, he seemed to be unable to control them. To stoop to the inelegant, the ridicule "got his goat."
"You ack like a lot of boneheads!" he burst out finally. "What's the matter of you, anyway?"
No words were said in reply, but the tantalizing laughter increased in volume.
"Go on, laugh!" he cried angrily. "And when you get through, laugh some more. What do _I_ care?"
"What do I care how much you fools laugh?" he sneered, when once more he could make himself heard.
At this his tormenters began to roll about on the grass apparently quite helpless, and Biscuit, thoroughly disgusted, started for home.
"Hey, Biscuit!" Sube called after him teasingly. "Don't go home mad! Come on down 'in'; and we'll teach you how to swim on the way down!"
But Biscuit did not so much as glance back.
"Learnin' to swim 'fore he could go in the water!" howled Gizzard derisively.
"That'd be like learnin' to eat without grub," suggested Sube as the party moved off in the direction of the swimming-hole.
When Biscuit walked into the house a few minutes afterwards, he came upon his mother in conversation with a tall young man, who, had he lived up to his teeth, would have been prominent.
"Yes, madam," the caller was saying, "we have added a number of new courses to our curriculum and are now in a position to offer to the world, I might say, universal knowledge. We now cover, I might say, the entire field of human endeavor.
"Take for example the ordinary day of life. It begins the instant one is out of bed in the morning. First, take our morning exercises. They come in our excellent course in _Physical Culture and Muscle-building_, with full directions how to increase your weight a pound a day"--he glanced at Mrs. Westfall and observing her ample figure, added--"also, I might say, how to reduce your weight to any desired figure.