"Let's go over and get it from him," suggested Nelson. "He won't dare say a word. I'll tell Molly if he does and she'll tell his mother."
Sunny Boy thought it would be nice to have the hat back, so he said he would go with Nelson. After a short walk the boys reached the section where the colored people lived and turned down a street where Nelson said he had seen the colored boy who had taken Sunny's hat.
"There he is now!" shouted Nelson, pointing to a boy sitting on the curbstone.
The boy heard him, looked up and started to run. Sunny Boy and Nelson ran pell-mell after him. As the colored boy dodged round a truck in the street the hat fell off.
"Told you we'd get it!" boasted Nelson, picking it up and holding it triumphantly out to Sunny Boy. "That's the very one, isn't it?"
They carried it home, and Sunny Boy went to find Harriet.
"Got my hat, Harriet," he announced soberly. "Nelson helped me chase the boy that stole it. It fell off."
"Well, you don't seem very joyful over it," commented Harriet. "Where is it?"
Sunny Boy held out the hat silently.
It was spotted, and the brim was crushed, the ribbon band was slashed in several places, and the crown was hopelessly faded from the sun.