"All right, I'll take you to your real mother," spoke the boy peddler. "I
guess I can walk now, thank you," he said to Betty. "Couldn't I give you
something--some letter paper--a pencil. I've got a nice line of pencils,"
he motioned toward his pack.
"Oh, no, thank you!" exclaimed Mollie.
"We are only too glad to help you," added Betty. "You have done us a
service in looking after the little girl."
"To say nothing of the five hundred dollar bill," added Grace, in
a low tone.
"Hush!" cautioned Betty, in a whisper. "Don't let him know anything
about it."
"And you are sure you wouldn't know that man again?" asked Mollie. "I
mean the one you spoke of?"
"Well, I'd know him if I saw him, but I'm not likely to. He was tall and
good looking, with a little black mustache. He got out of the train in a
hurry when he woke up. You see, he was sitting with his window open--it
was very hot--he fell asleep. I noticed him tossing around in his seat,
and every once in a while he would feel in his pocket. Then he hollered."
"Maybe someone robbed him," suggested Betty, yet in her heart she knew
the bill she had found must belong to this unknown young man--the very
man to whom they had once given something to eat.
"No one was in the car but him and me," said the boy, "and I know I
didn't get it. Maybe he didn't have it--or maybe it fell out of the
window. Anyhow, he cut up an awful row and rushed out. He might have
dreamed it."
"Me want to go home!" whined Nellie.
"All right--I'll take you," spoke the boy. "I can walk fine now. Thank
you very much," and he pulled on his shoe, gingerly enough, for the cut
was no small one. Then, shouldering his pack, and taking hold of Nellie's
hand--one having been refilled with chocolates by Grace--the boy peddler
moved off down the road limping, the girls calling out good-bys to him.
"I hope it's all right--to let that child go off with him," said Mollie.
"Of course it is," declared Betty. "That boy had the nicest, cleanest
face I've ever seen. And he must suffer from that cut."
"Oh, I think it will be all right," said Amy. "You could trust that boy."
"I agree with you," remarked Grace. "Fancy him seeing the man lose the
five hundred dollar bill we found!" she added.
"Do you think it's the same one?" asked Betty.
"I'm sure of it," said Mollie.
"I guess I am too," admitted the Little Captain. "He was the tramp. Now I
will know what to do."
"What?" chorused her chums.
"Let the railroad company know about it. They must have had some
inquiries. I never thought of that before. Look, he is waving to us."
"And little Nellie, too," added Grace. The boy and the little lost girl
had reached a turn in the road. They looked back to send a voiceless
farewell, the child holding trustingly to the boy's hand.
"Come on!" exclaimed Mollie, as the two passed from sight. "We'll hardly
get to my aunt's in time for supper."
And they hastened on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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