Page:Baum--Tamawaca folks.djvu/41

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Wilder
35

hotel on the other. It had wide porches set with tables for the convenience of consumers of ice-cream sodas. Inside, the building was divided into the meat market, the grocery and the bazaar, all opening on to the same porch.

Jarrod sat down at one of the tables, feeling homeless and despondent. He had eaten a dreadful breakfast in Kochton, an hour before, and it had n't agreed with him. Through the open door of the bazaar he beheld Mrs. Wilder talking earnestly with his wife. She had given his little girl a large and expensive doll to hold and his little boy a full-rigged toy sail-boat to play with.

"Ah!" cried Wilder, slapping the table with emphasis; "I have it! You are saved, dear boy—and not only saved but highly favored by fortune. How lucky I happened to think of it!"

"What is it?" asked Jarrod, with reviving interest.