"I heard you say you were going after tomales some day. I should think you would have been scared, Jack, to wander off by yourself."
"I didn't wander; I went straight down to where we saw the Chili wagon. I wasn't scared, because it is easy to ask the way, and the cars take you right where you want to go. I don't see why people get so fussy over a little thing like that when everybody goes back and forth on the cars all day long. I must have come back just ahead of you, and it is a wonder I didn't see you."
"Probably I was just behind you all the way along. I went all around and I even got into Chinatown. It was tremendously interesting and I should like to have prowled around there longer, but I had you on my mind. We must get Carter or Mr. St. Nick to take us there some day. You feel as if you were really in a foreign country. I saw lots of beautiful things I wanted to buy, and lots of awful, queer-looking eatables I wanted to get away from. I don't see how they can eat such messes."
"Maybe they think that way about the things we eat."
"Probably they do, though I shouldn't think they would, for it is because there are such swarms of them in their own country that they can't get enough decent food and have to fall back on anything they can get whether it is good or not."
"I'm glad I'm not a Chinaman," said Jack reflectively.
"So am I," said Nan. "Tell me, where did you meet that boy?"
"Right here where I got off the car. I believe he saw me go in town by myself and waited around till I came back."
"I think it is very likely, and I shouldn't wonder if he tried again to do something mean."
"I'm not afraid."