“Well, they don’t swindle me that way again,” he said a trifle impatiently as they came out from the tent. “Why, the fellers in Berry’s Corner could rig up a better show than that for ten pins, an’ then not think they was doin’ very much.”
Sadie had nothing to say.
She was vexed because the exhibition was so much less than what it had been represented, but remained silent through fear of adding to Josiah’s disappointment, and the two walked up the beach where there were very many entertaining things to be seen free of charge.
During the next half-hour the sight-seers were oblivious to the passage of time.
A kindly-disposed waiter at one of the saloons on the board-walk allowed them to remain during the performance of an alleged band of negro minstrels, without intimating that they were bringing in no custom to the establishment, and the exhibition was so thoroughly satisfactory that for a while they forgot the engagement which should have been kept some time previous.
“The fellers’ll be waitin’ for us, an’ I expect Bill Foss is pretty nigh fussin’ hisself to death ’cause we don’t come,” Josiah said as he led his companion away from the entrancing spot where the music had held them spellbound. “It must be ’most an hour since we left ’em.”
Sadie, who depended upon her generous friend to show her the way, had given no heed to the direction in which they traveled; and now, when they wished to return, she followed Josiah readily, ignorant of the fact that he was walking directly away from the appointed place of meeting.
The young gentleman from the country believed he had a very good idea of the course which had been pursued, and, as he thought, retraced it correctly, until fifteen or twenty minutes were spent without bringing them to any familiar spot.
Then he halted in dismay, and looked around helplessly.
“We’ve been goin’ wrong,” he said in the tone of one who has made an important discovery; and Sadie replied, as if the matter was of little concern: