ptuous young ladies, and basely left him to explain his presence
as he could.

But it was worse when they happened to meet an Italian boy with a tray
of plaster images on his head.

'Here's a lark!' said the clown, and elbowed Tommy against him in such a
way that the tray slipped and all the images fell to the ground with a
crash.

It was certainly amusing to see all the pieces rolling about; but, while
Tommy was still laughing, the boy began to howl and denounce him to the
crowd which gathered round them. The crowd declared that it was a shame,
and that Tommy ought to be made to pay for it; and no one said so more
loudly and indignantly than the clown!

Before he could escape he had to give his father's name and address, and
promise that he would pay for the damage, after which he joined the
clown (who had strolled on) with a heavy heart, for he knew that that
business would stop all his pocket-money for years after he was grown
up! He even ventured to reproach his friend: 'I shan't sneak of you, of
course, he said, 'but you know _you_ did it!' The clown's only answer to
this was a reproof for telling wicked stories.

At last they passed a confectioner's, and the clown suddenly remembered
that he was hungry, so they went in, and he borrowed sixpence from
Tommy, which he spent in buns.

He ate them all himself slowly, and was so very quiet and well-behaved
all the time that Tommy hoped he was sobering down. They had gone a
little way from the shop when he found that the clown was eating tarts.

'You might give me one,' said Tommy; and the clown, after looking over
his shoulder, actually gave him all he had left, filling his pocket with
them, in fact.

'I never saw you buy them,' he said wonderingly, which the clown said
was very peculiar; and just then an attendant came up breathlessly.

'You forgot to pay for those tarts,' she said.

The clown replied that he never took pastry. She insisted that they
were gone, and he must have taken them.

'It wasn't me, please,' said the clown; 'it was this little boy done it.
Why, he's got a jam tart in his pocket now. Where's a policeman?'

Tommy was so thunderstruck by this treachery that he could say nothing.
It was only what he might have expected, for had not the clown served
the pantaloon exactly the same the night before? But that did not make
the situation any the funnier now, particularly as the clown made such a
noise that two real policemen came hurrying up.