Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/159

 never had a kind word for each other but they were always together.

"Dey had to put yo' in my outfit," said Dirk, "so's to make a good soldier o' me, to keep me roarin' to go."

"No," replied Joe, "nuthin' o' de sort. I'se here to push yo' forward when yo' want to run back."

"Course," sniffed Dirk, "you'd be in back o' me. Yo'd be too all fired scairt to be up front. Why, say, I couldn' run 'way widout failin' over yo'. Yo'd be crouchin' down behin' me prayin'."

"I'd sure have to get down lower'n ma knees to be crouchin' lower'n you. It 'ud look like I was diggin' a oil-well."

And so it continued day after day, month after month, endlessly.

Joe and Dirk were put on earth to make each other's life miserable and they were miserable—when they were not together.

As time went on Enoch grew very much attached to his two arguing companions and sitting in on one of their everlasting combats