Page:Penrod by Booth Tarkington (1914).djvu/175

Rh "Well, what would you have?" insisted Penrod derisively. "You'd have to have sumpthing—you couldn't be a show yourself!"

"How do you know?" This was but meandering while waiting for ideas, and evoked another yell.

"You think you could be a show all by yourself?" demanded Penrod.

"How do you know I couldn't?"

Two white boys and two black boys shrieked their scorn of the boaster.

"I could, too!" Roderick raised his voice to a sudden howl, obtaining a hearing.

"Well, why don't you tell us how?"

"Well, I know how, all right," said Roderick. "If anybody asks you, you can just tell him I know how, all right."

"Why, you can't do anything," Sam began argumentatively. "You talk about being a show all by yourself; what could you try to do? Show us sumpthing you can do."

"I didn't say I was going to do anything," returned the badgered one, still evading.

"Well, then, how'd you be a show?" Penrod demanded. "We got a show here, even if Herman didn't point or Verman didn't talk. Their father