"Never mind what happens to me," he whispered. "I've now got nearly money enough to pay off all we owe, an' it has been earned honestly, too, although I believe they paid a big price for what Dan an' I did on the creek."
"I'm thinking more of the praise you earned than the money, Teddy. It was very sweet to hear the deacon say so much to you before all those people."
"Then both of us will be awfully jolly to-night, an' to-morrow I'll be home, an' bring Dan with me."
"Invite him to stay just as long as he wishes, and I will have a nice supper ready when the last stage arrives."
Teddy gave his mother nearly all the money he had, including the "testimonial," and as she walked away he said to Tim:
"I'm willin' to be arrested, an' put into jail a good many days for the sake of being able to help her as I can do now."
It was only natural that both Teddy and Dan should feel highly elated after this public expression of admiration which culminated in the presentation of the purse, but they immediately returned to attend to their several duties when the ceremonies were finished.
Dan went back to the exhibition as if he had done nothing worth remembering, and in less than half an hour from the time the deacon concluded his flowery speech it would have required a very ardent student of humanity to discover that anything out of the natural course of events had taken place.
At the cane-board Teddy waited upon his customers as before, and without the slightest sign of having been honored by the magnates of the fair, while Dan fired at the target as if he had been a boy with no other claim upon the public's attention than his ability to hit a mark.
Yet it must be confessed that both experienced a very pleasing sense of having satisfied the public, and each, in his own peculiar way, knew he had risen a little above the average boy.
There can be no question that any one placed in the same position must have felt gratified by the many expressions of friendship and good-will with which these two were literally overwhelmed, and it would have been more than could be expected of human nature had they remained unmoved under the extravagant flattery which was showered upon them immediately after the close of Deacon Jones' speech.