One by one, he greeted the acquaintances whom he met, repeating the story which he had already told Teddy relative to his experiences on the farm, and asked concerning the welfare of those friends whom he had left behind.
As a matter of course, all this required considerable time, and the forenoon was nearly half spent when he reached City Hall Park.
Business in the newspaper line was usually dull at this hour, and he found quite a party of his brother merchants in the vicinity of the park, with apparently no other idea than that of passing the time as pleasantly as possible.
Carrots approached as he would have done a week previous, and was soon in the centre of the interested throng, who were listening to his views of country life in general and his own experience in particular, when a stranger approached him and whispered:
"Did you get that box you wanted to buy?"
"No," Carrots replied. "Have you got one to sell?"
"A feller I know of has, an' it's a dandy!"
"Where is it?"
"Down on Rose Street, under the bridge."
"I'll go there in a minute." And Carrots turned to continue his story, when the stranger whispered: