“Why—what—what’s the matter?” asked Tommy in wonder.
“Matter!” exclaimed the man. “Matter! Everything is the matter! There isn’t a bit of lunch in the pail! Not a crumb! I must have taken the wrong pail this morning, for I have two. We haven’t a thing to eat, Tommy Tiptop! Here are only two empty tin cups in the pail, and my knife and fork wrapped up in a napkin! My! This is too bad!”
CHAPTER IV
TOMMY STARTS HIS NINE
For a few moments Tommy Tiptop just stood there, staring at the moving man. The moving man looked into the dinner pail again, as if possibly there might be something hidden in it which he had not at first seen. Tommy peered over and also looked into the pail.
“It isn’t any use,” said the moving man with a sigh. “There isn’t a thing here—not a thing.”
“Then we haven’t anything to eat, have we?” asked Tommy, faintly.
“No,” answered the man sadly, as he rattled the two cups in the pail. “That is, unless you can chew tin. I know I can’t,” he added, with a sigh.
“Me either,” went on Tommy. Then he looked off across the fields toward a large, white farmhouse. Next he looked at the horses standing comfortably in the shade, eating their oats from the bags that hung on their heads.
“I wish——” began Tommy, and then the moving man interrupted him by saying:
“I do myself, young man. I wish I was a horse, for they are getting over being hungry, and I am getting hungrier all the while. Is that what you were going to say?”