"
Toby was more than half convinced that Ben was putting the matter
in its proper light, and he would have believed all that had been
said if, just at that moment, he had not seen that brown hand
reaching through the hole to clutch him again by the coat.
The action seemed so natural, so like a hungry boy who gropes
in the dark pantry for something to eat, that it would have taken
more arguments than Ben had at his disposal to persuade Toby that
his Mr. Stubbs could not understand all that was said to him.
Toby put another doughnut in the outstretched hand, and then sat
silently, as if in a brown study over some difficult problem.
For some time the ride was continued in silence. Ben was going
through all the motions of whistling without uttering a sound -- a
favorite amusement of his -- and Toby's thoughts were far away in
the humble home he had scorned, with Uncle Daniel, whose virtues had
increased in his esteem with every mile of distance which had been
put between them, and whose faults had decreased in a corresponding
ratio.
Toby's thoughtfulness had made him sleepy, and his eyes were almost
closed in slumber, when he was startled by a crashing sound, was
conscious of a feeling of being hurled from his seat by some great
force, and then he lay senseless by the side of the road, while
the wagon became a perfect wreck, from out of which a small army
of monkeys was escaping.
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