"Now, then, what do you want, young chap?" the officer asked.
"Nothin' at all," said Carrots. "It ain't ag'in' the law to speak to a fellow, is it, when he's walkin' through the streets?"
"Is this boy a friend of yours?"
"Bet your life he is, off'cer!" Carrots replied, earnestly. "Why, we're jest like twins. You don't s'pose I'm goin' to see him lugged away when he ain't been doin' nothin' at all, do you?"
"'NOW, THEN, WHAT DO YOU WANT, YOUNG CHAP?' THE OFFICER ASKED."
"If you boys who loaf near City Hall keep on doing this 'nothing at all' business, more of you will be arrested before a great while," the officer said, grimly. "You seem to think that park's made for you to fight in, but it won't take long to show you you're mistaken."
"But this fellow wasn't fightin'," Carrots replied in a positive tone. "I was only a little ways off when Skip Jellison come up, hit him a clip, an' knocked his papers out er his hands. What kind of a duffer would he be if he hadn't tried to square things? The only trouble is, he didn't have a chance to do any fightin' before that crooked-nosed park guard got hold of him. Say, it don't seem to me jest right that a reg'lar policeman should help that gray thing along in the way he's actin'."
"Why don't you come up before the commissioners, and give them an idea of how the police force of the city ought to be run?" the officer asked, sarcastically.