The question was still unsettled when the welcome sound of the dinner bell was heard. Obeying the first impulse, both boys started for home. Then Bob stopped.
"I don't believe it's safe to leave the store alone," he said.
"No, of course not. You stay till I come back. I'm awfully hungry."
"I guess I'm as hungry as you are," returned Bob, but John was half-way across the street; so Bob, calling to him to hurry back, sat down, hungrier than ever, to nurse his provocation over that selfish John. There was no help for it; he must try if another sour-ball would stop the gnawings of hunger and sweeten his temper for the next customer.
It seemed as if the whole town must dine at the same hour, for Bob was left quite lonely for a while.
Then John came back, devouring a biscuit as he came, and making some remarks beginning, "Aunt Sue says," which Bob did not stop to hear, for the boys passed each other in the middle of the street like two oppositely bound locomotives.
II.
Bob staid a long time. Neither did he move as swiftly on his return trip as he had when he started out.
"I'll tell you what it is, John," he said, at the first opportunity, "we'll have to take in some outside partners, after all. A couple of the Flemings could help us first-rate. They always have their meals later than we do."
"Well," said John, "I don't know but it would be a good thing to have somebody to share the responsibility."