Part 6 (1/2)

”There, little Toby Tyler,” she said--”there's something for you to eat, if Mr. Job Lord and his precious partner Jacobs did say you shouldn't have any supper: an' I've brought you a picture of Samuel an' me. We sell 'em for ten cents apiece, but I'm going to give them to you, because I like the looks of you.”

Toby was quite overcome with the presents, and seemed at a loss how to thank her for them. He attempted to speak, but could not get the words out at first; and then he said, as he put the two photographs in the same pocket with his money, ”You're awful good to me, an' when I get to be a man I'll give you lots of things. I wasn't so very hungry, if I am such a big eater, but I did want something.”

”Bless your dear little heart, and you _shall_ have something to eat,”

said the Fat Woman, as she seized Toby, squeezed him close up to her, and kissed his freckled face as kindly as if it had been as fair and white as possible. ”You shall eat all you want to; an' if you get the stomach-ache, as Samuel does sometimes when he's been eatin' too much, I'll give you some catnip-tea out of the same dipper that I give him his. He's a great eater, Samuel is,” she added, in a burst of confidence, ”an' it's a wonder to me what he does with it all sometimes.”

”Is he?” exclaimed Toby, quickly. ”How funny that is! for I'm an awful eater. Why, Uncle Dan'l used to say that I ate twice as much as I ought to, an' it never made me any bigger. I wonder what's the reason?”

”I declare I don't know,” said the Fat Woman, thoughtfully, ”an' I've wondered at it time an' time again. Some folks is made that way, an'

some folks is made different. Now, I don't eat enough to keep a chicken alive, an' yet I grow fatter an' fatter every day--don't I, Samuel?”

”Indeed you do, my love,” said the skeleton, with a world of pride in his voice; ”but you mustn't feel bad about it, for every pound you gain makes you worth just so much more to the show.”

”Oh, I wasn't worryin', I was only wonderin'. But we must go, Samuel, for the poor child won't eat a bit while we are here. After you've eaten what there is there, bring the plate in to me,” she said to Toby, as she took her lean husband by the arm and walked him off toward their own tent.

Toby gazed after them a moment, and then he commenced a vigorous attack upon the eatables which had been so kindly given him. Of the food which he had taken from the dinner-table he had eaten some while he was in the tent, and after that he had entirely forgotten that he had any in his pocket; therefore, at the time that Mrs. Treat had brought him such a liberal supply he was really very hungry.

He succeeded in eating nearly all the food which had been brought to him, and the very small quant.i.ty which remained he readily found room for in his pockets. Then he washed the plate nicely; and seeing no one in sight, he thought he could leave the booth long enough to return the plate.

He ran with it quickly into the tent occupied by the thin man and fat woman, and handed it to her, with a profusion of thanks for her kindness.

”Did you eat it all?” she asked.

”Well,” hesitated Toby, ”there was two doughnuts an' a piece of pie left over, an' I put them in my pocket. If you don't care, I'll eat them some time to-night.”

”You shall eat it whenever you want to; an' any time that you get hungry again, you come right to me.”

”Thank you, marm. I must go now, for I left the store all alone.”

”Run, then; an' if Job Lord abuses you, just let me know it, an' I'll keep him from cuttin' up any monkey s.h.i.+nes.”

Toby hardly heard the end of her sentence, so great was his haste to get back to the booth; and just as he emerged from the tent, on a quick run, he received a blow on the ear which sent him sprawling in the dust, and he heard Mr. Job Lord's angry voice as it said, ”So, just the moment my back is turned, you leave the stand to take care of itself, do you, an'

run around tryin' to plot some mischief against me, eh?” And the brute kicked the prostrate boy twice with his heavy boot.

”Please don't kick me again!” pleaded Toby. ”I wasn't gone but a minute, an' I wasn't doing anything bad.”

”You're lying now, an' you know it, you young cub!” exclaimed the angry man as he advanced to kick the boy again. ”I'll let you know who you've got to deal with when you get hold of me!”

”And I'll let you know who you've got to deal with when you get hold of me!” said a woman's voice; and, just as Mr. Lord raised his foot to kick the boy again, the Fat Woman seized him by the collar, jerked him back over one of the tent ropes, and left him quite as prostrate as he had left Toby. ”Now, Job Lord,” said the angry woman, as she towered above the thoroughly enraged but thoroughly frightened man, ”I want you to understand that you can't knock and beat this boy while I'm around. I've seen enough of your capers, an' I'm going to put a stop to them. That boy wasn't in this tent more than two minutes, an' he attends to his work better than any one you have ever had; so see that you treat him decent. Get up,” she said to Toby, who had not dared to rise from the ground; ”and if he offers to strike you again, come to me.”

Toby scrambled to his feet, and ran to the booth in time to attend to one or two customers who had just come up. He could see from out the corner of his eye that Mr. Lord had arisen to his feet also, and was engaged in an angry conversation with Mrs. Treat, the result of which he very much feared would be another and a worse whipping for him.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JOB LORD LEARNS A LESSON.]

But in this he was mistaken, for Mr. Lord, after the conversation was ended, came toward the booth, and began to attend to his business without speaking one word to Toby. When Mr. Jacobs returned from his supper Mr. Lord took him by the arm and walked him out toward the rear of the tents; and Toby was very positive that he was to be the subject of their conversation, which made him not a little uneasy.