“I'll post you with a stick if you do it again; an' it won't be well for you if you bring that ten cent piece back here!”
Now Toby was very well aware that to pass the coin, knowing it to be bad, would be a crime, and be resolved to take the consequences of which Mr. Jacobs had intimated, if he could not find the one who had given him the counterfeit and persuade him to give him good money in its stead. He remembered very plainly where he had sold each glass of lemonade, and he retraced his steps, glancing at each face carefully as he passed. At last he was confident that he saw the man who had gotten him into such trouble, and he climbed up the board seats, saying, as he stood in front of him and held out the coin: “Mister, this money that you gave me is bad. Won't you give me another one for it?”
The man was a rough looking party who had taken his girl to the circus, and who did not seem at all disposed to pay any heed to Toby's request. Therefore he repeated it, and this time more loudly.
“Get out the way!” said the man, angrily. “How can you expect me to see the show if you stand right in front of me?”
“You'll like it better,” said Toby, earnestly, “if you give me another ten cent piece.”
“Get out an' don't bother me!” was the angry rejoinder; and the little fellow began to think that perhaps he would be obliged to “get out” without getting his money.
It was becoming a desperate case, for the man was growing angry very fast and if Toby did not succeed in getting good money for the bad, he would have to take the consequences of which Mr. Jacobs had spoken.
“Please, mister,” he said, imploringly—for his heart began to grow very heavy, and he was fearing that he should not succeed—“won't you please give me the money back? You know you gave it to me, an' I'll have to pay it if you don't.”
The boy's lip was quivering, and those around began to be interested in the affair, while several in the immediate vicinity gave vent to their indignation that a man should try to cheat a boy out of ten cents by giving him counterfeit money.
The man whom Toby was speaking to was about to dismiss him with an angry reply, when he saw that those about him were not only interested in the matter, but were evidently taking sides with the boy against him; and knowing well that he had given the counterfeit money, he took another coin from his pocket and, handing it to Toby, said, “I didn't give you the lead piece; but you're making such a fuss about it that here's ten cents to make you keep quiet.”