His surmise as to the hospitality of farmers proved correct, and
presently they were sitting down to a breakfast which it did his
famished soul good to contemplate.
William Bannister seemed less enthusiastic. Steve, having disposed
of two eggs in quick succession, turned to see how his young charge
was progressing with his repast, and found him eyeing a bowl of
bread-and-milk in a sort of frozen horror.
"What's the matter, kid?" he asked. "Get busy."
"No paper," said William Bannister.
"For the love of Pete! Do you expect your morning paper out in the
woods?"
"No paper," repeated the White Hope firmly.
Steve regarded him thoughtfully.
"I didn't have this trip planned out right," he said regretfully. "I
ought to have got Mamie to come along. I bet a hundred dollars she
would have got next to your meanings in a second. I pass. What's your
kick, anyway? What's all this about paper?"
"Aunty Lora says not to eat bread that doesn't come wrapped up in
paper," said the White Hope, becoming surprisingly lucid. "Mamie undoes
it out of crinkly paper."
"I get you. They feed you rolls at home wrapped up in tissue-paper, is
that it?"
"What's tissue?"
"Same as crinkly. Well, see here. You remember what we was talking
about last night about germs?"
"Yes."
"Well, that's one thing germs never do, eat bread out of crinkly paper.
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