“Hey, there, Bugs!” greeted another Ranger sitting up.

“My name’s Brown,” Stacy informed him with dignity.  “When did you come in?”

“We blew in with the dawn,” answered Dippy.

“And we’re going to blow out with the sun,” added Polly Perkins.

“Say, Kid,” growled Cad Morgan, rubbing his eyes sleepily as he sat up blinking.

“His name is Bugs,” interrupted Dippy.

“All right.  Say, Bugs, I’ve got some news for you.”

“I don’t care about any news you’ve got to give out It’s probably got a bullet in it somewhere.  I’m sick of bullets.  What I need is a little rest from chunks of lead.  I’m coming down with nervous prostration as it is.  Everything seems to happen around me.  No matter what I do, I always get the worst of it.  Why, that reminds me—–­”

“Is Chunky going to tell a story?” cried Ned, stepping over the sleeping captain as he came out.

“It sounds that way,” laughed Tad.  “Go on the Rangers are here to protect us if you tell another watch story.  I reckon they’ll arrest you if you try anything like that on them.”

“As I was saying that reminds me of a couple of years ago when my uncle bought a lawn mower because the grass was getting so long in our front yard that the cats couldn’t chew it—–­”

“Cats chew it?” jeered Dippy.

“Yes, before a rainstorm.  They always do.”

“Go on, go on.  I’m pretty tough,” urged Polly.  “But don’t drive me too far or I’ll buck.”

“As I was about to say—–­”

“You said that once before.”

“I offered to run the lawn mower.  Uncle thought that was fine.  You see work and I never had hitched very well together.  But I thought that would be some fun.  So I started in mowing the yard the next morning,” finished Chunky thoughtfully.

“Well, what happened?”

“Would you believe it, be—–­before I’d been at work half an hour, the town constable came up and arrested me for exceeding the speed limit.  Now—–­now wasn’t that hard luck?”

The Rangers gazed at each other hopelessly.  No one laughed, though Walter Perkins was heard to chuckle under his breath.

“If it might be proper, I reckon I’d like to ask what being arrested for exceeding the speed limit has got to do with catching bugs in a ’possum bag?” demanded Dippy Orell.

“Why—–­why—–­the—–­the constable came up in a buggy, don’t you see?  Ha, ha.  Don’t laugh.  It might hurt your countenance.  I’m used to laughing at my own jokes and—–­”

“Hee—–­haw, hee—–­haw!” wheezed Polly in imitation of a donkey.  “What’d we better do with him, fellows?”

“I reckon I’d better tell him the news I was going to,” answered Morgan.

“I reckon that’ll take the starch out of him right smart,” nodded Polly.

“Dunk Tucker has got away, Bugs.”

“Em” Chunky was interested at once.