Dick succeeded in reaching the boat-landing without falling in with any one who seemed disposed to laugh at him; but there, right on the wharf, was a white boy of about his own age, and he felt a good deal like backing out.
"Nebber seen him afore, either," said Dick to himself. "Den I guess I aint afeard ob him."
The stranger was a somewhat short and thick-set but bright and active-looking boy, with a pair of very keen, greenish-gray eyes. But, after all, the first word he spoke to poor Dick was:
"Hullo, clothes! where are you going with all that boy?"
"I knowed it! I knowed it!" groaned Dick. But he answered, as sharply as he knew how: "I's goin' a-fishin'. Any ob youah business?"
"Where'd you learn to fish?" the stranger asked. "Down South? Didn't know they had any there."
"Nebbah was down Souf," was the surly reply.
"Father run away, did he?"
"He nebber was down dar, nudder."
"Nor his father?"