BOB’S FRIEND.
It was while Tom and Bob were yet searching for the missing ones, that
Josiah decided it would be impossible for him to walk any farther until
after taking a rest.
He and Sadie had, as it appeared to them, traveled from one end of
the Island to the other without seeing any buildings which looked
familiar; and when the boy from the country was so weary that it seemed
impossible to take another step, he seated himself on the edge of the
board walk, saying mournfully:--
“It’s no use, Sadie! We’ll have to give it up for a while. I never was
so tired in my life, an’ don’t understand where Bob and Tom can be.”
“They must have gone home, ’cause it wouldn’t seem reasonable we’d be
walkin’ ’round all this time without meetin’ ’em. Perhaps they think
that’s where we are now.”
“I don’t believe they’d leave us; ’cause you see Bob knows we’d have to
buy other tickets, an’ his would be wasted.”
“But he couldn’t stay here all night.”
“He’d hold out a pretty long while before he left us,” Josiah said
decidedly, and Sadie ceased all attempts at persuading him her opinion
was correct.
“It seems to me as if it had been two days since we had that clam
chowder,” the boy said after a few moments of silence. “This runnin’
’round has made me hungry. S’pose we get somethin’ to eat before
huntin’ any more?”
“But remember how much Bob had to pay for dinner! I think after all
that money has been spent, we oughter get along a good while without
anything else.”
“There wasn’t so very much of it, except the price;” and the thought of
what he had eaten caused Josiah to grow more hungry.
There had been so many times in her life when the little match-girl was
obliged to get along without either dinner or supper, that she would
have been perfectly contented to wait until the boys should be found,
or, in fact, dispense with a second meal entirely; but Josiah was not
accustomed to anything of the kind, and it seemed a duty which must be
performed, regardless of expense.
Therefore, without further argument, he led his companion to the booth
where a not very cleanly looking man was dispensing sausage sandwiches.
“There!” he said in a tone of satisfaction, “they are five cents
apiece, an’ this ain’t any chowder business where they tuck on the
price after you’ve ordered the stuff. Now fill right up, an’ when you
can’t eat any more we’ll start out agin.”
Sadie obeyed meekly, and when each had eaten three of the sandwiches,
their hunger was appeased.
“I’ve had all I want,” Sadie said as she wiped her mouth with the
sleeve of her dress, “an’ they were good; but this payin’ fifteen cents
for three of ’em when you can get a tony dinner up to the Jim Fisk
restaurant for the same money, seems like a pretty big price.”
“Yes, that’s so,” Josiah added reflectively. “Out our way you can buy a
whole pound of sausages for ten cents. This man must be makin’ hisself
rich.”
During the five minutes spent in watching the vendor on his supposed
road to wealth, Josiah forgot that he and Sadie were lost; and then the
girl reminded him of the unpleasant fact by saying:--
“It won’t do to wait ’round here. I’m most certain we’re nowheres near
the place we agreed to meet the fellers, an’ we’ve got to hunt pretty
lively, ’cause it’ll be dark in a little while.”
Josiah followed without a word of remonstrance, although he would
have been willing to remain almost anywhere rather than continue the
exercise; but Sadie walked on rapidly, regardless alike of his or her
weariness of body.
When night came they were still apparently as far from accomplishing
the object of their search as at any time previous, and now Sadie
believed the proper course was to return to New York.
Josiah would not listen to anything of the kind.
He insisted his friends were yet on the Island, and announced his
determination of remaining all night rather than take the chances of
leaving them behind.
“What will we do when the last boat goes?” Sadie asked anxiously.
“Perhaps we’ll find the boys before then.”
“But s’posen we don’t?”
“Look here, Sadie, we won’t s’posen anything about it. We’ve got to
find ’em, an’ that’s all there is of it; but if the last boat _should_
go before either of ’em turned up, why we’d have to walk.”
“I’m ’fraid you couldn’t do much of that because you’re so tired now;”
and Sadie ceased her efforts at persuasion, shutting her teeth hard as
she thought they might possibly be forced to remain on their feet all
night; but determined to say nothing more lest the boy who had been so
kind should think her importunate.
From this hour until ten o’clock Josiah and his companion alternately
walked and rested, and just at the moment when he was beginning to
think it would be necessary to abandon the search, a stranger of about
his own age halted suddenly in front of him, as he asked:--
“Say, ain’t you the feller what come down from the country to see Bob
Green an’ Tom Bartlett?”
“Well, s’posen I am?” Josiah replied, rendered cautious by his previous
unpleasant experience.
“Nothin’; I reckoned you was, but couldn’t figger out where they were.
Hello, Sadie!” the stranger added as the match-girl stepped forward a
few paces where she could be seen. “You down here too?”
“Yes, an’ we’ve got lost. We come with Tom an’ Bob, an’ Bill Foss, but
now can’t find any of ’em.”
“How did that happen?”
“They went in bathin’, you see, an’ Josiah an’ me was goin’ to look
’round a little while. We went into a show, an’ when we come out
couldn’t find the place where they was goin’ to meet us.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Jest after dinner.”
“They’ve gone home by this time,” the boy said confidently. “It ain’t
likely they’d wait here so late if they didn’t find you, an’ you’d
better toddle right up to Baker’s Court.”
“That’s jest what I told Josiah,” Sadie said earnestly; “but he seemed
to think they’d stay here.”
“Of course not. What you want to do is go right on board the boat.”
“But Bob’s got the tickets,” Josiah said hesitatingly.
“Well, that can’t be helped now. Haven’t you enough cash for the fares?”
“Yes; but I don’t believe they’d like it if so much money was wasted.”
“They can’t help theirselves, if you don’t turn up. It ain’t likely
they’d think of stayin’ here all night, an’ you’ve got to hustle ’round
pretty lively if you want to get away. Come on, I’m goin’ up, an’ after
we get into town I reckon Sadie can take you to Baker’s Court.”
“Of course I can,” the match-girl replied confidently; and Josiah, much
against his will, allowed himself to be led on board the steamer, even
though he believed his friends were yet searching for him on the Island.
This second sea voyage was by no means as enjoyable as the first had
been.
Both Josiah and his companion were thoroughly tired, and the latter
took advantage of the opportunity to go to sleep almost immediately
after boarding the steamer.
Their new acquaintance professed to have important business with some
one on the lower deck, and Josiah was left to his own reflections,
which were not pleasant.
This last outlay had made serious inroads upon his already sadly
depleted capital, and the disagreeable thought came into his mind that
it would be necessary for him to return home minus the much-desired
gifts.
“Father an’ mother will have to do without anything, I’m afraid. It
makes me feel awful mean to go back as if I’d forgotten all about ’em
while I was here,” he said to himself. “I oughter sold them woodchuck
skins the first thing, an’ then I’d known jest how much they was worth.”
These thoughts naturally led to a desire on Josiah’s part to learn
exactly how much cash he had; and partially turning in his seat to
prevent those in the immediate vicinity from seeing his movements, he
took an account of the stock on hand.
“Here’s only ninety-two cents,” he said, as he returned the coins to
his pocket, “an’ seein’s how I’ve got to take the fellers up to that
museum, it don’t look as if I’d have very much left to buy things with.”
This fact, together with the weariness of body caused by long searching
for his friends, detracted from his pleasant memories of the forenoon;
and when the boat finally arrived at the pier, Josiah actually
regretted that the following day was not Saturday instead of Friday.
Sadie was not a particularly cheerful companion after having been
awakened from her nap, but she was a good guide, and this was the most
important of all.
Josiah followed her through the almost deserted streets, neither
speaking save at rare intervals, when the country boy, despairing
of ever reaching Baker’s Court, would ask how much farther it was
necessary to walk.
They had arrived within a block of their destination, when an outcry
from the opposite side of the street caused both to halt suddenly.
“It’s Bob!” Sadie said in mingled delight and surprise, and an instant
later Master Green was listening to his friend’s story of the fruitless
search at Coney Island.
“Tom’s ’round by the pier waitin’ for you. I tell you when we got
back an’ found you hadn’t come, things looked blue. I was ’fraid you
wouldn’t have money enough to pay for a lodgin’ down there, ’cause it
would cost pretty high if they charge for beds the same as they do for
chowder, an’ I couldn’t make out how you was goin’ to get along.”
“I guess we’d had to stay on the board walk all night,” Sadie said
laughingly; “but now we’ve found you there’s no use fussin’ any more.
I’ll go right home, ’cause I reckon Mother Hunter’ll be pretty ugly if
I don’t show up soon.”
“You’re goin’ to our house’ an’ stay till mornin’,” Bob said decidedly.
“You haven’t earned any money, an’ that old woman’ll jest about break
you all to pieces if you don’t give her a cent. I fixed it with mother,
an’ you can get along without a reg’lar bed.”
“I guess I can,” Sadie replied promptly. “It’s been so long since I
knew how it felt to sleep in one, that I shouldn’t get on very well if
I had a bed all to myself.”
While the three were talking, Tom returned breathless from long
running, and was on the point of announcing that their friends did not
arrive on the last boat, when he caught a glimpse of those who had been
lost.
“Well, I’m mighty glad to see you, an’ it’s too bad we was shut off so
on our swell time. We counted on showin’ you everything, an’ hadn’t
more’n begun when we got separated. It was all Bill Foss’s fault; he
would go in swimmin’.”
“It don’t make any difference,” Josiah said soothingly. “I reckon Sadie
an’ I saw a good deal more of Coney Island than you did. It seems to me
we went over every inch of the place two or three times. Is Bill ugly
’cause we got lost?”
“He’s ravin’ like an Injun. Anybody’d think this blow-out had cost him
all the money he’d made for a week, an’ he didn’t spend a single cent.
He was goin’ on terribly the last time I saw him.”
“I’m sorry,” Josiah began apologetically, and Bob interrupted him
impatiently:--
“Now don’t feel bad ’bout a little thing like that. If Bill don’t
fancy the way things was run, he needn’t go agin; an’ I’ll bet he
won’t, either. He made a regl’ar pig of hisself, fussin’ ’bout where he
wanted to go, an’ what he wanted to see. But come on! let’s get up to
the house as quick as we can.”
“Wait a minute; I’ve got some news to tell you,” Tom said. “What do you
s’pose the fellers are goin’ to do to-morrow afternoon?”
“What fellers?”
“Pretty nigh all we know. They’re gettin’ up a reg’lar dinner, so’s to
be friends with Josiah; an’ I reckon they’re thinkin’ of visitin’ out
to his farm next summer.”
“Where are they goin’ to have it?” Bob asked excitedly.
“There’s an old canal-boat over in the Erie Basin what Tim Black knows
about, an’ all the fellers are to buy somethin’ to eat. We strike there
as soon as the mornin’s business is done.”
“Is Sadie in the scrape?” Bob asked, thinking of the trouble caused by
her participation in the excursion.
“No, of course not. You see we’ve got to go in Saunder’s boat, an’ she
couldn’t do that, you know. I expect it’ll be a big time, ’cordin’ to
the way the fellers are gettin’ ready for it.”
Josiah was mildly pleased with the proposition; but he was a thoughtful
boy, and could not prevent himself from mentally asking what might be
the result if all these young gentlemen who proposed giving a feast in
his honor should visit the Shindle farm during the following summer.
Bob and Tom were not troubled by any such possibility, simply because
it did not chance to come into their minds; and both were in a high
state of excitement as they led the way to Baker’s Court.