"Oh!" gasped the man's voice.

Before Jerry could stir he heard a clink as of metal falling on board.
He half turned on his back and looked dazedly up at the man, who was
pressing both hands into the pit of his stomach. His face was very red.
He spoke to Jerry hesitatingly, as though he could not get his breath.

'Are you--hurt--much?"

"N-no, I guess not," Jerry replied, sitting up and feeling of a bruised
place on his arm.

"You just about knocked the breath out of me," said the man in a more
natural voice and one which Jerry now recognized as belonging to Harry
Barton, the clerk at the corner drug store.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Barton. If I'd of seen you--"

"You wouldn't have run into me," finished Mr. Barton. "Of course not.
There are a lot of things we wouldn't do if we could see what the
results were going to be. Why, bless me, it's Jerry Elbow! Well, I guess
there wasn't much harm done this time. You seemed to be in quite a
hurry. Have I delayed you?"

"Yes, sir, I was in a hurry," Jerry answered. "Danny was running to ask
Mother 'Larkey for fifty cents to see the circus."

"And what were you running for?"