, after prostrating himself, decided that it would be a relief
to obey and to consider his responsibilities in this matter at an end.
He withdrew beyond a corner of the house, thinking deeply.

"Why'n't you let him bark at the ole cat?" Sam Williams inquired,
sympathizing with the oppressed. "I guess you'd want to bark if a cat
had been treatin' you the way this one did Duke."

"Well, we got to get this cat out o' here, haven't we?" Penrod demanded
crossly.

"What fer?" Herman asked. "Mighty mean cat! If it was me, I let 'at ole
cat drownd."

"My goodness," Penrod cried. "What you want to let it drown for?
Anyways, we got to use this water in our house, haven't we? You don't
s'pose people like to use water that's got a cat drowned in it, do
you? It gets pumped up into the tank in the attic and goes all over the
house, and I bet you wouldn't want to see your father and mother usin'
water a cat was drowned in. I guess I don't want my father and moth--"

"Well, how CAN we get it out?" Sam asked, cutting short this virtuous
oration. "It's swimmin' around down there," he continued, peering into
the cistern, "and kind of roaring, and it must of dropped its fishbone,
'cause it's spittin' just awful. I guess maybe it's mad 'cause it fell
in there."

"I don't know how it's goin' to be got out," said Penrod; "but I know
it's GOT to be got out, and that's all there is to it! I'm not goin' to
have my father and mother--"

"Well, once," said Sam, "once when a kitten fell down OUR cistern, Papa
took a pair of his trousers, and he held 'em by the end of one leg, and
let 'em hang down through the hole till the end of the other leg was in
the water, and the kitten went and clawed hold of it, and he pulled it
right up, easy as anything. 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 ma