show, an' it would sharpen things if yo'
run it slow. But dis yeah lawn-moah won't wuk slow ner fast."

"I guess it was an even exchange, then," went on Tom. "You didn't
get bitten any worse than the other fellow did."

"Yo' doan't s'pose yo' kin fix dis yeah moah so's I kin use it, does
yo', Mistah Swift?" asked Eradicate, not bothering to go into the
ethics of the matter. "I reckon now with summah comin' on I kin make
mo' with a lawn-moah than I kin with a grindstone--dat is, ef I kin
git it to wuk. I jest got it a while ago an' decided to try it, but
it won't cut no grass."

"I haven't much time," said Tom, "for I'm anxious to get home, but
I'll take a look at it."

Tom leaned his motor-cycle against the fence. He could no more pass
a bit of broken machinery, which he thought he could mend, than some
men and boys can pass by a baseball game without stopping to watch
it, no matter how pressed they are for time. It was Tom's hobby, and
he delighted in nothing so much as tinkering with machines, from
lawn-mowers to steam engines.

Tom took hold of the handle, which Eradicate gladly relinquished to
him, and his trained touch told him at once what was the trouble.

"Some one has had the wheels off and put them on wrong, Rad," he
said. "The ratchet and pawl are reversed. This mower would work
backwards, if that were possible."

"Am dat so, Mistah Swift?"

"That's it. All I have to do is to take off the wheels and reverse
the pawl."

"I--I didn't know mah lawn-moah was named Paul," said the colored
man. "Is it writ on it anywhere?"

"No, it's not the kind of Paul you mean," said Tom with a laugh.
"It's spelled differently. A pawl is a sort of catch that fits into
a ratchet wheel and pushes it around, or it may be used as a catch
to prevent the backward motion of a windlass or the wheel on a
derrick. I'll have it fixed in a jiffy for you."

Tom worked rapidly. With a monkey-wrench he removed the two big
wheels of the lawn-mower and reversed the pawl in the cogs. In five
minutes he had replaced the wheels, and the machine, except for
needed sharpening, did good work.

"There you are, Rad!" exclaimed Tom at length.

"Yo' suah am a wonder at inventin'!" cried the colored man
gratefully. "I'll cut yo' grass all summah fo' yo' to pay fo' this,
Mistah Swift."

"Oh, that's too much. I didn't do a great deal, Rad."

"Well, yo' saved me from bein' swindled, Mistah Swift, an' I suah
does 'preciate dat."

"How ab