iting.
But Carl was essentially manly, and had sensible ideas about labor. It
was no sacrifice or humiliation to him to become a working boy, for he
had never considered himself superior to working boys, as many boys in
his position would have done.

He walked on in a leisurely manner, and at the end of ten minutes
thought he had better sit down and wait for Mr. Jennings. But he was
destined to receive a shock. There, under the tree which seemed to offer
the most inviting shelter, reclined a figure only too well-known.

It was the tramp who the day before had compelled him to surrender the
ten-dollar bill.

The ill-looking fellow glanced up, and when his gaze rested upon Carl,
his face beamed with savage joy.

"So it's you, is it?" he said, rising from his seat.

"Yes," answered Carl, doubtfully.

"Do you remember me?"

"Yes."

"I have cause to remember you, my chicken. That was a mean trick you
played upon me," and he nodded his head significantly.

"I should think it was you that played the trick on me."

"How do you make that out?" growled the tramp.

"You took my money."

"So I did, and much good it did me."

Carl was silent.

"You know why, don't you?"

Carl might have denied that he knew the character of the bill which was
stolen from him, but I am glad to say that it would have come from him
with a very ill grace, for he was accustomed to tell the truth under all
circumstances.

"You knew that the bill was counterfeit, didn't you?" demanded the
tramp, fiercely.

"I was told so at the hotel where I offered it in payment for my bill."

"Yet you passed it on me!"

"I didn't pass it on you. You took it from me," retorted Carl, with
spirit.

"That makes no difference."

"I think it does. I wouldn't have offered it to anyone in payment of an
honest bill."

"Humph! you thought because I was poor and unfortunate you could pass it
off on me!"

This seemed so grotesque that Carl found it difficult not to laugh.

"Do you know it nearly got me into trouble?" went on the tramp.

"How was that?"

"I stopped at a baker's shop to get a lunch. When I got through I
offered the bill. The old Dutchman put on his spectacles, and he looked
first at the bill, then at me. Then he threatened to have me arrested
for passing bad money. I told him I'd go out in the back yard and settle
it with him. I tell you, boy, I'd have knocked him out in one round, and
he knew it, so he bade me be gone and never dar