Teddy and Carrots: Two Merchants of Newpaper Row Part 17

"Why, how do I know?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: "WHY, HE WAS ALL OVER THAT PASTURE QUICKER'N YOU COULD WINK!"]

"That old skinflint said I hadn't any business runnin' cows jest before they was milked! I s'pose he thought I ought to stood there and let that ram have fun with me. Well, it took him an' me pretty nigh an hour to get 'em untangled, an' then he told me to drive 'em back to the pasture.

I told him I'd go home before I'd trust myself in the lane alone with that black-faced sheep of his ag'in. Then he said I couldn't have any supper, so I started down once more, picked up plenty of rocks, an'

after a while got 'em in. Then I came back to the house hungrier'n a bear. He had the nerve, after all that, to tell me he was a man of his word, an' so long as he'd promised I shouldn't have any supper, he'd stick to it. I didn't get any, either! Why, I could have eaten a brick that night, if there'd been b.u.t.ter on it."

"Didn't you have a thing to eat?"

"Not so much as a bite. I didn't want to come back an' say I got tired in less'n a day, so thought I'd make the best of it, an' p'rhaps in the mornin' things would be better."

"Of course then you got your breakfast."

"Oh, yes; then I got my breakfast! Want to know what I had? Well, if Mose Pearson flashed up sich grub, an' asked me to pay five cents for it, I'd tell him to go off somewhere an' lose hisself. There was three slices of some kind er bread all full of hard lumps. It tasted bad when you got one of 'em in your mouth. I thought they was plums first, an'

took four of 'em. You ought ter seen me when I found out my mistake!

Then there was some fried pork,--an' jiminy crickets! wasn't it salt?"

"Was that all they had?"

"There was a big dish of somethin' I called puddin'. I reckon it was made of apples smashed up, an' I guess there was _some_ mola.s.ses in it, only I couldn't taste any. I spread a little on the bread, an' had to eat it, of course. Then I put some on the pork, an' got sick. I was through breakfast, an' all hands went outdoors. Why, look here, Teddy; it wasn't daylight, an' I'd been up as much as three-quarters of an hour! The farmer asked me if I could feed the calf. I told him if the calf didn't get any more to eat than I had since I'd been there, I could feed him an' not half try. That made him kind er mad; but he didn't say much, an' showed me how to go to work. If I had to feed that calf for a week, I wouldn't have more'n one hand left, an' not the whole of that."

"I know what it is," Teddy said, sympathetically. "Well, what else did you do?"

"Little of 'most everything, till it seemed as if my legs an' arms would drop off. Got somethin' to eat at dinner, though, an' that helped along; but when I turned in last night--say, Teddy, I allers wanted to know what a bed was like; but when you tell 'bout gettin' comfort out er a blanket stretched over a lot of ropes, why, I ain't in it at all! When I went up-stairs last night it seemed as if I was goin' all to pieces, an'

I thought of you jest as snug in here as a bug, takin' your comfort countin' the money; an' I says to myself, 'The farm's no place for me, if my name is Carrots,' so I'll take a sneak'. I got out of the window after the folks was asleep, an' I've walked ever since."

"How far was it?"

"A man said it was sixteen miles; but if it wasn't fifty, my name's Dennis! Now I'm here, an' I'm goin' to stay. Say, ain't it time to go to bed?"

"I reckon it is for you, Carrots; so turn in, an' I'll keep awake a little longer. See you in the mornin', old man."

"So long," Carrots replied, sleepily; and almost before the words had been uttered his eyes were closed in slumber.

CHAPTER X.

SKIP'S VENGEANCE.

It was necessary to shake the amateur farmer very rudely next morning before he could be awakened; and even after he had opened his eyes Teddy was obliged to repeat several times the well-known fact that they ought to get out of the yard before the shop was opened.

"Seems to me it's taken half an hour to get you awake," he said, "an'

now it's time we was over the fence. I've got stuff enough for breakfast in my pocket, an' we'll eat as we go."

By this time Carrots was fully alive to the surroundings, and in a twinkling a.s.sumed his old character, which he fancied had been thrown off nevermore to be resumed.

As soon as they were in the street, and had begun breakfast while walking toward South Ferry, he asked his companion regarding business during his absence, and received a most satisfactory reply.

"I've been gettin' along first-cla.s.s," Teddy said; "an' we've got a good big capital to begin on."

"But I'm dead broke," Carrots replied, mournfully. "I spent some of my money when I went out with the farmer, an' the rest of it while I was walkin' in yesterday."

"You can't be broke so long's you've still kept your interest in the firm, an' that eighty-six cents has grown to more'n two dollars."

"But I don't own a share of it."

"Course you do, an we won't have any talk 'bout it either. I 'lowed you'd stay longer'n you did, and so wanted you to take the whole of the cash; but you wouldn't, an' we're pardners jest the same's if you'd been here all the time, 'cause your money was in town even if you wasn't."

"But I didn't do any work, did I?"

"It doesn't make any more difference now than it did when I was locked up in the station-house. I didn't work then, but you made me take all the profits. It seems to me it would be a good idea to buy another box and brushes. I've had such luck with this, an' earned so much more'n I did with only the papers, that we'd better keep the two goin'."

"All right," Carrots replied, enthusiastically. "I'll get a new one, an'

sell papers too."

"Do you s'pose you can buy a box ready-made?"

"I reckon so. Let me have some money, an' I'll snoop 'round City Hall, or down to Fulton Ferry. Some of the fellers will know of an outfit for sale."

Teddy handed him a dollar as he asked:

"Who'll tend to the lawyer this mornin'?"

"I guess you'd better, 'cause I mightn't get my box in time, an'

to-morrow I'll start in reg'lar. Where'll I see you this noon?"

"Come down to the ferry."

"I'll be there, sure."

With this promise the two parted, and Teddy, quite as cautious regarding the possibility of meeting Skip as ever, went after his morning's stock of papers.

Half an hour later he was busily at work when Teenie Ma.s.sey came running towards him, evidently in the highest state of excitement.

"Say, Carrots got home last night!"

"Well, don't you s'pose I know it?"

"Yes; an' so does Skip Jellison."

"How'd you hear of it?"

"Reddy saw him down on Fulton Street, an' Skip's just wild. Says he's goin' to thump the head off er Carrots if he shows hisself 'round this town to-day. You'd better come right up to City Hall an' see if you can't help him!"

"Help who?"