"'WHAT ARE YOU YELLIN' LIKE THAT FOR?' SAID SID."
"All I know is that you took it, an' you've got to give it up," Teddy remarked, decidedly.
"I'll let you have some to-morrow," Skip replied, with a whine.
"We've come here to settle matters," Teddy insisted, an' this is the place to square up. I can't afford to lose another morning's work on account of you."
Skip finally found eighteen cents, and then tried to borrow the rest from those whom he had counted as friends; but not one of his late admirers would have anything to do with him. He had shown himself to be a coward as well as a bully, and now his bitterest enemies were those with whom he had seemed most popular. Teddy soon understood that Skip had told the truth, and that he could not regain the whole amount stolen. So he said, as he took the eighteen cents on account:
"This will do for now; but you've got to come up with the balance by to-morrow night, or there'll be trouble. While you were talking so loud about pounding me, it would have looked as if I was scared an' didn't dare to do anything but go to the police, if I'd had you arrested. But now that every feller knows how much your brag amounts to, I'll have you right into court if the money isn't paid at the time I said. While I'm in court, it wouldn't be very queer if I should have somethin' to say 'bout the fire we saw last night."
"I'll pay back every cent just as soon as I can get it," Skip wailed.
"You'll have till to-morrow night," said Teddy, firmly, "but no longer. I don't think there's any need to tell you what'll be done if you try to bother Carrots or me again."
Then, although many of Skip's friends were eager to cultivate his acquaintance, Teddy left the barn in the same quiet way he had entered; and Carrots followed close behind, saying, when they were where the words could not be overheard:
"Well, Teddy, who'd 'a' thought you was such a fighter?"