Teddy was the first to arrive at the packing-case home on the evening of the robbery; but before he had time to get supper—that is, spread out in the most tempting array possible the provisions he had brought home—a noise near the gate told that his partner had come.
Carrots's face was sadly swollen. He entered the box, and threw himself down wearily in one corner on the pile of straw.
"Anything else gone wrong?" Teddy asked in a friendly tone, as he lighted another candle for the purpose of increasing the cheerfulness of the apartment by an extra illumination.
"Anything wrong!" Carrots repeated. "I should think when a feller couldn't go 'round 'bout his business without bein' robbed, there was a good many things out er the way!"
"But, I mean, have you got inter any more trouble since then?"
"No; that was enough to last me the rest of this week, I guess."
"Now, see here, Carrots; it doesn't do any good to go fussin' 'bout that, an' the sooner you brace up, the better it'll be for all hands. Skip's got the money, an' you've got the thumpin', I know; but you can't change it by worryin' an' lookin' so glum."
"Do you count on a feller's grinnin' like a cat jest 'cause his face is swelled as big as a squash?" Carrots asked, dolefully.
"No; but I don't count on his thinkin' 'bout it all the time. We've got somethin' else to do besides botherin' with Skip Jellison. S'posin' you turn to an' give up everythin' for the next month jest to pay him back, an' then do it, what have you made? Why, nothin' at all—you 're jest where you are to-day. Now we've got a comfortable place to live in, and money enough to feed us for the next two or three days, even if we don't do any business; an' as good a chance to earn ourselves a stand as any other fellers ever had."
"So you 've laid right down, an' are goin' to let them keep that money, are you?"