“Well, I was,” admitted Tommy, slowly. “I was just going to say that, and then I happened to think of something else to say.”
“What?” inquired the moving man. “Has it got anything to do with something to eat?”
“Yes,” said Tommy, slowly, “it has. I was thinking that perhaps if I went over to that house,” and he pointed to a white one across the fields, “I might ask for something to eat. Then you could be looking for the nut to fasten the wheel on, or you could go to the blacksmith shop—that is, after I brought you back something to eat.”
“The very thing!” exclaimed the man. “I wonder I didn’t think of that myself.”
“I could take the empty pail, and the cups,” went on the boy, “and if they had milk, I could bring some of that with me. I could tell them I wasn’t a tramp, you know, and, if they didn’t believe me, I could point to this wagon, and tell them it had some of my father’s things in it. Then I guess they’d give me some food. Anyhow, I can pay for it!” he added quickly, “for I have a quarter my mother gave me the other day.”
“Oh, I guess they won’t want pay,” said the moving man. “Country folks aren’t generally that way. And I’m sure they wouldn’t take you for a tramp, even if they didn’t see my moving wagon.”
And that was very true, for Tommy was a very nice appearing boy, and now, though he did not have on his best suit, and though his clothes were a trifle dusty from having carried out chairs and other articles, still he looked very different from a tramp.
“I think it would be a good plan for you to go to the farmhouse,” went on the moving man, after thinking over the matter. “Please tell them that you have a man friend, who is very hungry, or otherwise they might give you only enough for two boys, you see, and I can eat more than a boy can.”
Tommy was sure this was true, for the moving man was big and strong, and he felt that if the man’s appetite was anything like his own, it must be very good.
“I’ll be sure to tell them that,” said the baseball-loving boy, and then he started off across the fields with the empty dinner pail and the cups.