ht to
him, and the very small quantity 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 tonight."

"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 abuses you, just let me know it, an' I'll keep
him from cuttin' up any monkeyshines."

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 anyone 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