next corner; then Nimble Dick, tossing back his head as one who had
thrown off an abstruse problem, and would have none of it, said:--

"Well, what next? We've got through with that fun for to-day. What are
you going to do, boys? Say we go around to Poke's, and see what is going
on there?"

To this proposition there was eager agreement from all the party save
one; he maintained a somewhat moody silence.

"What say, Dirk?" the leader asked, addressing him; "are you ready for
Poke's?"

"No; I don't think I'll go around, just now."

"What, then? If you've got something better on hand, why don't you let a
fellow know? We're not dying for Poke's place."

"I haven't got a thing on hand; only I don't care about going there."

"Where, then?"

"Nowhere."

"Nowhere! Mean place. Too cold weather to stop in the streets. There'll
be a good fire at Poke's. You come along; don't go to getting the sulks;
it ain't becoming, just after you've been to Sunday-school."

But the young fellow persisted in gloomily refusing to join them, and
presently they began to tease, in what they meant to be a good-natured