"How are you going to get it greased to the top?" inquired Terry.
Billy's face lengthened. "That's so!" he said. "The thing is to begin at
the top and grease down. I'll show you!"
Billy put the butter in his handkerchief and took the corners between
his teeth. He climbed the pole, greasing it as he slid down.
"Now, I got to try first," he said, "because I'm the biggest and so I
have the best chance; only the one that goes first hasn't hardly any
chance at all, because he has to wipe off the grease on himself, so the
others can get up at last. See?"
"All right!" said Terry. "You go first and then I will and then Alice.
Phew! It's slick. He'll never get up."
Billy wrestled manfully, and when he was exhausted he boosted Terry, and
then both of them helped Alice, to whom they awarded a prize of her own
doll. As they rested Billy remembered.
"Do your folks keep cows?" he asked.
"No, we buy milk," said Terry.
"Gee! Then what about the butter? Maybe your ma needs it for dinner!"
"No, she doesn't!" cried Alice. "There's stacks of it! I can have all
the butter I want."
"Well, I'm mighty glad of it!" said Billy. "I didn't just think. I'm
afraid we've greased our clothes, too."
"That's no difference," said Terry. "We can play what we please in these
things."
"Well, we ought to be all dirty, and bloody, and have feathers on us to
be real Indians," said Billy.
Alice tried a handful of dirt on her sleeve and it streaked beautifully.
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