CHAPTER XI.
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.