“Yes; but you needn’t fuss ’bout it,” Bob replied promptly. “I reckon he’s feelin’ kinder ’shamed of hisself ’cause of the way he acted yesterday, an’ there won’t be any trouble. Bill’s a decent sort of a feller; but you see it mixed him all up to have a girl along. He allers counts on goin’ ahead in everything, an’ was ’fraid somebody’d see him there with Sadie. He knows pretty nigh every one of the folks in this town.”
“Bill wasn’t scared ’bout bein’ seen with me last week, when he wanted to borrow ten cents,” the match-girl retorted quite sharply.
“Did you lend it to him?” Tom asked quickly.
“I didn’t have it, else I should; but since I’ve been livin’ with Mother Hunter there ain’t any chance to get that much money ahead, ’cause she’s allers ’round by the time I’ve earned a nickle. I spoke ’bout it to show he wasn’t frightened of me then.”
“Now don’t get riled,” Bob said soothingly. “You know jest as well as we do, Sadie, that a feller like Bill wouldn’t want to have it told ’round the city that he’d been swellin’ down to Coney Island with a girl, and I can’t blame him.”
“It doesn’t seem to hurt Josiah very much.”
“It’s different with him; he don’t live here.”
“Then I think it would be a good idea for Bill to stop out in the country awhile,” Sadie replied; and the boy from Berry’s Corner, fearing lest she might lose her temper, proposed, as the best means of putting an end to the conversation, that they go to the museum at once.
Now, as a matter of fact, neither Bob nor Tom cared to be seen with Sadie, lest some of their friends should accuse them of a desire to “stick ’round where the girls were;” but they were very careful not to let her fancy that such might be the case.
Inasmuch as she and Josiah started on ahead, they could walk a short distance in the rear without seeming to belong to the party, and neither was disposed to approach too near until they had arrived at the door of the museum.