that had been ripe a very long time. So at last the tall Doctor with
his fine fur collar--but without his silk hat--hitched up his horses
with trembling fingers, and he and his helper Jake and the Red Indian
drove out of town "lickety-split." You could hear the wagon-wheels
rattling away long after he turned the corner.

Then the Toyman "tlucked" to Hal and they drove off, too.

"How did you know him?" Jehosophat asked, after they had trotted a
little way.

"Oh, I used to know him out West. He didn't remember me, but I did
_him_. I bought one of his bottles once."

"Is he a robber?"

"Well, he calls himself a patent-medicine man, but I'd call him a
'fakir.'"

"What's a 'fakir,' Toyman?" put in Marmaduke, very sleepily.

"Oh, a man who pretends to be something he isn't, and who sells folks
something that's no good, and takes all their money for nothing.
But"--and he laughed--"some folks like to be fooled."

"It's too bad!" sighed Marmaduke.

"What's too bad, sonny?"

"Why, to smash all those big bottles and waste all that lovely