This chapter will tell why Mrs. Plummer had to sew very odd-looking patches on the Jimmyjohns’ sailor-suits. It will also tell what boy cut holes in those sailor-suits, and why he cut them, and when; and will show, that, at the time it was done, the three boys were in great danger.

It was on a Monday morning that people first took notice that the Jimmies’ trousers were patched in a curious manner. Johnny was carrying the new dog, and Jimmy was taking hold of Johnny’s hand. After Rover was lost, the twins had a new dog given them, named Snip. He was the smallest dog they ever saw: but he was a dog; he was not a puppy. Mr. Plummer brought him home in his pocket one day, two weeks after Rover went away. It was Rover, you know, that ran off with poor little Polly Cologne. People talked so much to him about this piece of mischief, that at last he began to feel ashamed of himself; and, as soon as Polly Cologne’s name was mentioned, he would slink into a corner, and hide his head. One day Annetta showed him an apron that poor little Polly used to wear,—it was a bib-apron,—and said to him, “St’boy! Go find her! Don’t come back till you find her!”

The bib-apron was about three inches long. Rover caught it in his mouth, and away he went, and—did not come back. They looked for him far and near; they put his name in the newspapers; but all in vain. The apron was found sticking to a bramble-bush, about a mile from home; but nothing could be seen or heard of Rover. There was a circus in town that day, and he might have gone off with that. Perhaps he was ashamed to come back. Little Mr. Tompkins, the lobster-seller, thinks the dog understood what Annetta said, and that he may be, even now, scouring the woods, or else sniffing along the streets, peeping into back-yards, down cellar-ways, up staircases, in search of poor Polly Cologne.

Mr. Tompkins was among the very first to notice the sailor-suits. He met the twins that morning as he was wheeling along his lobsters, and quickly dropped his wheelbarrow, and sat down on one of the side-boards. Being a small, slim man, he could sit there as well as not without tipping the wheelbarrow over.

Mr. Tompkins wore short-legged pantaloons and a long-waisted coat. The reason of this was, that he had short legs and (for his size) a long waist. His coat was buttoned up to his chin. His cap had a stiff visor, which stood out like the awning of a shop. He had a thin face, a small nose, small eyes, and a wide mouth; and he wore a blue apron with shoulder-straps.

“What’s happened to your trousers, eh?” asked little Mr. Tompkins. His way of speaking was as sharp and quick as Snip’s way of barking. “Say, what’s happened to your trousers?”

The trousers were patched in this way: Jimmy’s had a long strip on the left leg: Johnny’s had a round patch above each knee, one being much farther up than the other.

“Oh, yes! I see,—I see how it is,” said Mr. Tompkins. “Your mother did that so as to tell you apart. Oh, yes! Yes, yes! Very good! Johnny Shortpatch, Jimmy Longpatch; or Jimmy Shortpatch, Johnny Longpatch,—which is it?”

“She didn’t do so for that,” said Johnny, and then Jimmy after him. Johnny was commonly the first to speak.

“She didn’t?” cried Mr. Tompkins: “then what did she do so for?”

“Perhaps to tell which is good, and which is naughty,” said a lady who had stopped to look on.

Then the butcher’s boy stepped up, and he wanted to know about the trousers. Then a woman looked out of the window, and she wanted to know about the trousers. Then a great black dog came up, and he smelt of the trousers, which made Snip snap his teeth. Then came a flock of school-children, and they had something to say. “Halloo!” “What’s up?” “What’s the matter with all your trousers?” “Hoo, hoo!” “How d’ye do, Mr. Patcherboys?”

Now, the truth was, that Amos Dyke cut holes in those trousers with his jack-knife. It happened in this way: The Jimmies, the Saturday before that Monday, started from home to spend a cent at Mr. Juniper’s store. They had, in the first place, two cents; but one was lost. They got those two cents by having a show in the barn. The price for going in to see the show was four pins. The Jimmies sold the pins to the funny man. He gave a cent for sixteen straight ones, but would take no crooked ones at any price. Sometimes the Jimmies tried to pound the crooked ones straight on a stone. Their pins, that Saturday, came to nearly a cent and three-quarters; and the funny man made it up to two. Jimmy let his fall on the barn-floor; and Johnny, in helping him find it, hit it accidentally with his toe, and knocked it through a crack. Then Mrs. Plummer said they would have to divide between them what was bought with the other cent.

The little boys left home to go to Mr. Juniper’s store at half-past two o’clock in the afternoon, taking Snip with them. Probably, if they had not taken him with them, all would have been well.

In passing a garden, they looked through the pickets, and saw a kitten racing along the paths. Snip was after her in a moment.

“Now, you stay and take care of Snip,” said Johnny to Jimmy, “and I’ll go spend the cent, and bring your half here.” And just so they did. Jimmy found Snip, and then went along to a shady place under a tree; and there he climbed to the top rail of a fence, and sat down to wait.

Johnny went round to Mr. Juniper’s store, and asked for a cent roll of checkerberry lozenges. Mr. Juniper had no cent rolls of lozenges; but he had striped candy, and some quite large peaches, which he was willing, for reasons known to himself, to sell for a cent apiece. Johnny felt so thirsty, that he longed to bite of a peach: so he bought one, and turned back towards the garden. Having no knife to cut it with, he ate off his half going along; and this tasted so good, that he could hardly help eating Jimmy’s half. But he only nibbled the edges to make them even.

Turning a corner, he spied Jimmy, and jumped over into a field, so as to run across by a short cut. In the field he met Amos Dyke. Amos Dyke is a large boy, and a cruel boy. He likes to hurt small children who cannot hurt him.

Amos Dyke knocked Johnny’s elbow with a basket he was carrying, and made him drop the half-peach in the grass. Then Johnny began to cry.

“Now, if you don’t stop crying, I’ll eat it,” said Amos, taking up the half-peach, and setting his teeth in it.

“Oh! don’t you! don’t! give it to me! it’s Jimmy’s half!” cried Johnny. Amos took two bites, and then threw away the stone. The stone was all there was left after the two bites were taken. Johnny cried louder than before.

“Here! stop that! stop that!” some one called out from the road. It was Mr. Tompkins the lobster-seller. “Stop!” cried Mr. Tompkins. “Let that little chap alone! Why don’t you take one of your own size?”

The fact is, that Amos Dyke never does take one of his own size. He always takes some little fellow who can’t defend himself.

Just about this time the funny man came along with his umbrellas under his arm. The funny man is an umbrella-mender. Then Amos Dyke, seeing that two men were looking at him, whispered to Johnny, “Hush up! Quick! Don’t tell! Come down to the shore, and I’ll let you go graping with me in a boat. I’ll run ahead and get the oars, and you go get Jimmy.”

The boat was a row-boat. Johnny sat at one end, and Jimmy at the other. Amos Dyke sat in the middle, and rowed. Before starting, he fastened a tall stick at the stern of the boat, and tied his handkerchief to it, and called that the flag.

They rowed along-shore, then off beyond the rocks, then in-shore again, and farther along, for nearly a mile, to a place called “High Pines,” and there landed. The grapes grew in the woods, on the top of a steep, sandy cliff as high as a high house. Twice, in climbing this cliff, did the little Jimmies slide down, down, down; twice was poor Snip buried alive; and many times were all three pelted by the rolling, rattling stones.

They reached the top at last, and found Amos already picking grapes. He told them, that, if they would pick for him, he would give them two great bunches. The grapes were of a kind called sugar-grapes, light-colored, fragrant, and as sweet as honey. Amos told the little boys not to eat while they were picking. When he had filled his basket, he borrowed the Jimmies’ pocket-handkerchiefs, and tied some up in those. They were their “lion” pocket-handkerchiefs: each had in its centre a lion, with a b c’s all around the lion. Amos gave the Jimmies two great bunches apiece. He then hid the basket and two small bundles behind a bush, and they all three went to find a thick spot. When they found the thick spot, Amos, not having any thing else to pick in, took off his jacket, and filled both sleeves. Then he borrowed the Jimmyjohns’ jackets, and filled the four sleeves. Then he filled his own hat and the Jimmyjohns’ hats.

As it grew later, the wind breezed up, and the Jimmies began to feel cold. Amos had long pantaloons and a vest; but the Jimmies’ little fat legs were bare, and they had no vests: they only had thin waists, and their trousers were rolled up.

It began to sprinkle, and Amos said it was time to go. They went back for the basket and two small bundles, but were a long time in finding the bush, on account of the bushes there looking so much alike. They did find it, though; or rather Snip found it. The Jimmies took one apiece of the bundles, and wanted to take more; but Amos was afraid they might lose some of the grapes. Perhaps he knew pretty well how they would reach the foot of the cliff; perhaps he knew pretty well that they would begin slowly, and that the sliding sands would take them along so fast they couldn’t stop themselves, and would land them at the bottom in two small heaps.

Now about the row home. Such a time as they had! There was no rain to speak of; but the wind blew hard, and this made the sea very rough,—so rough that the boat pitched up and down, and sometimes took in water. Amos told the Jimmies to hold on by the sides. They were seated at the ends, as before, and, by stretching their arms apart, could take hold of each side, and did so. Amos put on his own hat, and let them have theirs, but said it wouldn’t do to stop to empty the jacket-sleeves. The grapes from the hats were emptied into the bottom of the boat. Snip was in the bottom of the boat too. As there was no one to hold him, he lay down on the Jimmyjohns’ jackets.

And there he did mischief. The boat, it seems, was an old, leaky boat, and the leaks were not well stopped. Snip pulled out with his teeth, and chewed up, what had been stuffed into the cracks; and, before they knew what he was about, the water had begun to come in, and was wetting their feet and all the things in the bottom. The wind took their hats off, and blew the flag away. They caught their hats, and held them between their knees. Amos began to look sober. The little boys, half crying, held fast by the sides of the boat, saying over and over, “Oh, I want to go home!” “I want to see mother!”

This was the time when the trousers were cut. “I must cut pieces out of your trousers,” said Amos, “and stop the leaks, or we shall be drowned. Mine are too thick cloth.”

He took out his jack-knife as quick as ever he could, and cut pieces from their trousers, and stuffed the pieces into the cracks. Even this did not wholly keep the water from coming in: so, just as soon as they got past the rocks, Amos steered the boat to the land; and there he pulled her up, the Jimmyjohns pushing behind.

By this time it was after sunset. Amos emptied all the grapes, except those in his basket, out upon the ground behind a log, and covered them with dry seaweed. He let the Jimmies have a part of what were in their handkerchiefs. They all started then to walk along the sands. As the jackets were too wet to be worn, each boy carried his own on his arm. The Jimmies took turns in carrying Snip. In this manner they walked for nearly a quarter of a mile to the place they started from. There were two men coming down toward the water. As soon as Amos saw those two men, he ran away; for one was Mr. Plummer, and the other was the umbrella-man. The umbrella-man, it seems, had told Mr. Plummer that he saw his little boys in the field with Amos Dyke, and had come to help him find them.

Mrs. Plummer sat up very late that Saturday night.