rapidly in advance, suddenly brought himself up, and turned to his
companion with an interrogative "Eh?"
"I didn't speak," said Tommy, quietly.
"Who said you spoke?" said Johnson, with a quick look of cunning. "In
course you didn't speak, and I didn't speak, neither. Nobody spoke. Wot
makes you think you spoke?" he continued, peering curiously into Tommy's
eyes.
The smile which habitually shone there quickly vanished as the boy
stepped quietly to his companion's side, and took his arm without a
word.
"In course you didn't speak, Tommy," said Johnson, deprecatingly. "You
ain't a boy to go for to play an ole soaker like me. That's wot I like
you for. Thet's wot I seed in you from the first. I sez, 'Thet 'ere boy
ain't goin' to play you, Johnson! You can go your whole pile on him,
when you can't trust even a bar-keep.' Thet's wot I said. Eh?"
This time Tommy prudently took no notice of the interrogation, and
Johnson went on: "Ef I was to ask you another question, you wouldn't go
to play me neither,--would you, Tommy?"
"No," said the boy.
"Ef I was to ask you," continued Johnson, without heeding the reply, but
with a growing anxiety of eye and a nervous twitching of his lips,--"ef
I was to ask you, fur instance, ef that was a jackass rabbit thet jest
passed,--eh?--you'd say it was or was not, ez the case may be. You
wouldn't play the ole man on thet?"
"No," said Tommy, quietly, "it WAS a jackass rabbit."
"Ef I was to ask you," continued Johnson, "ef it wore, say, fur
instance, a green hat with yaller ribbons, you wouldn't play me, and say
it did, onless,"--he added, with intensified cunning,--"onless it DID?"
"No," said Tommy, "of course I wouldn't; but then, you see, IT DID."
"It did?"
"It did!" repeated Tommy, stoutly; "a green hat with yellow
ribbons--and--and--a red rosette."
"I didn't get to see the ros-ette," said Johnson, with slow and
conscientious deliberation, yet with an evident sense of relief; "but
that ain't sayin' it warn't there, you know. Eh?"
Tommy glanced quietly at his companion. There were great beads of
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