the small lad, "and you're to ride with me, Nellie."
"Oh, that will be fun!" she cried, clapping her hands. "But your goat won't bite; will he?"
"I won't let him bite you, anyhow," promised Tommy, kindly.
Although Mr. Bunn had tacitly agreed to ride the mule, he had many misgivings on the subject, and several times he might have been seen standing near the animal, carefully studying it, as though it were a piece of complicated machinery that had to be mastered in detail.
"Is it a—er—a gentle beast?" the actor asked of Sandy.
"Allers has been," replied the young farmer. "'Hee-haw,' as we call him, ain't never done no harm to speak of."
"He may begin on you," predicted Pepper Sneed, gloomily.
"I wish you wouldn't say such things!" exclaimed the other actor, testily. "You are always looking for trouble."
"Well, you'll get some without looking for it, if you ride that mule," declared the "grouch," as he walked off.
"Yes, and if anything happens, I suppose you'll say 'I told you so!'" remarked Mr. Bunn, with a gloomy countenance.
