"Um, no, yer lordship, we do not," Smudge added, miserably. He knew he should never have come here, today.

"Well." The mayor leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. "Whatever shall we do about this, then?" he asked, of no one in particular.

"If it's all the same to yer lordship," Smudge said, rising from his chair and preparing for a quick exit, "we'll just forget all about that little award thing ye talked about and call it even, then, shall we?"

His lips were still smiling, but the mayor's eyes glared at Smudge as he said, "Sit DOWN." Smudge sat. "I'm afraid that the commendation is already in the works, boys and can not be canceled at this late date," he said sadly, while still smiling. "However, we can not very well give such an award to people who refuse to pay their taxes, now can we?"

"We did not refuse to pay anything!" Bodkin protested.

"Aye," Smudge said. "We didn't even know about any bloody taxes, after all."

"Be that as it may, ignorance of the law is no excuse," the mayor told them, somewhat sadly.

Smudge turned aside to Bodkin and asked quietly, "Is he calling us ignorant, now?"

"Shut UP!" Bodkin whispered to his friend, then turned to the mayor.
"Surely, yer Honor, there must be some way to solve this problem, so that everyone is satisfied, think ye not?"

"Hmm, well, let me see," Mayor McCrown said, rubbing his chin again, as if he were really thinking about a solution, when Bodkin was fairly sure that this was exactly how the mayor had wanted this meeting to turn out.

"I suppose there is a way," he told the boys after a few moments of thought. His smile was really wide now and Smudge cringed. "I have a job that needs doing and ye lads can do it for me and in a week or so, ye can work off yer taxes and no one will have to know that there was any problem, at all."

"A job?" moaned Smudge.

"Aye," the mayor said. "And, it's something that be right up yer alley, as it were," he told them, smiling broadly.