Owing to the excitement of the morning his breakfast had been a light one, and since then he had had nothing but candy with which to satisfy the cravings of his stomach.
What seemed like a very happy thought occurred to him.
“Is there any place ’round here where we could get somethin’ to eat?” he asked abruptly.
“Of course. You can go to the Jim Fisk restaurant an’ fill yourself up for fifteen cents; but that’s a good deal of money to give for one supper. When trade’s been good I sometimes pay a dime down to Mose Pearson’s for a great big bowl of soup, an’ as much bread an’ butter as I want.”
Josiah was silent a moment, and then said with the air of one who has fully decided an important matter:—
“Look here, Sadie, if you an’ I can get a big supper for fifteen cents, we’re goin’ to have it, though it will make me kinder short on the presents I was thinkin’ of buyin’ for father an’ mother; but they won’t care when I tell ’em how I spent it.”
The match-girl’s eyes opened wide with astonishment and delight.
“Do you really mean that?” she asked, evidently fancying he was making sport of her, and then added almost in the same breath, “I don’t think you’d better do anything of the kind. It’s too much to put out jest for the sake of swellin’.”
“I guess I can stand it,” Josiah said loftily. “I never was to the city before, an’ it ain’t likely’s I shall get here again very soon, so we’ll make the most of it while I’m on a good time. Besides, I must have somethin’ to eat, an’ I want you to stay with me so’s to show me where Tom an’ Bob live.”
Sadie made no further objection, for to have spread before her a fifteen-cent meal at the Jim Fisk restaurant seemed the acme of happiness.