"Don't get discouraged, my boy, no matter what happens. If you have any trouble it can't last long, for you've plenty of friends at the Run, and after what happened here yesterday there should be a good many on the grounds."
The kind-hearted musicians marched away without giving Teddy an opportunity to thank them, and as if to atone for their previously spoken harsh words the bystanders devoted themselves with unusual zest to the task of winning a cane worth a dollar by an outlay of five cents.
It was nearly an hour before trade began to grow dull again, and both the boys were quite willing to rest a few moments.
"At this rate we stand a chance of getting rich before the fair closes," Teddy exclaimed, in a tone of satisfaction. "I wonder what Uncle Nathan would have said if he'd been here to hear the leader?"
"I'll tell you," a disagreeable but familiar sounding voice replied from the rear of the stand where its owner had been concealed by an adjoining booth, and Nathan Hargreaves stalked into view with a comically tragic air. "Things have come to a pretty pass when a man's own relations, an' them as he has set up in business with his own hard-earned money, try to bring scorn and reproach upon him. You are a snake in the grass, Teddy Hargreaves, an' not content with helpin' rob me, concoct such a disgraceful scene as I have jest witnessed."
"What could I have had to do with it?" Teddy cried, in surprise. "I didn't know they were going to give me a lift."
"Of course you did; I ain't blind if I am such a fool as to put you in the way of makin' so much money. There wasn't a man in that band who'd have countenanced the speech the leader made if you hadn't been workin' on their sympathies. But your race won't be much longer. Don't think that I've stopped all proceedings, for it may be that you're shoved into jail this very day unless you make a clean breast of the whole thing."
"I've got nothing to tell simply because I don't know anything; but I believe the same man who took my fifteen dollars robbed your store. Dan and I heard him and another fellow talking, and in trying to find out something for your benefit got knocked down."
"What did they say? Who are they?" the old man asked, eagerly, his bearing toward Teddy changing very suddenly. "Tell me! Tell your poor, old uncle, who'll be mighty near the poor-house, if he don't get his own again."
This appeal touched Teddy's heart immediately, but Tim said, half to himself, taking good care Uncle Nathan should hear him, however: