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.