t? What's that boy shouting out--that boy with the tray? A
call for Mr. Something or Other--say, must be something happened pretty
serious! A call for Mr.--why, that's for me! Hullo! _Here I am! Here,
it's Me! Here I am_--wanted at the desk? all right, I'm coming, I'm
hurrying. I guess something's wrong at home, eh! _Here I am_. That's my
name. I'm ready.

Oh, a room. You've got a room for me. All right. The fifteenth floor!
Good heavens! Away up there! Never mind, I'll take it. Can't give me a
bath? That's all right. I had one.

Elevator over this way? All right, I'll come along. Thanks, I can carry
it. But I don't see any elevator? Oh, this door in the wall? Well! I'm
hanged. This the elevator! It certainly has changed. The elevator that
I remember had a rope in the middle of it, and you pulled the rope up as
you went, wheezing and clanking all the way to the fifth floor. But this
looks a queer sort of machine. How do you do--Oh, I beg your pardon. I
was in the road of the door, I guess. Excuse me, I'm afraid I got in the
way of your elbow. It's all right, you didn't hurt--or, not bad.

Gee whiz! It goes fast. Are you sure you can stop it? Better be careful,
young man. There was an elevator once in our town that--fifteenth floor?
All right.

This room, eh! Great Scott, it's high up. Say, better not go too near
that window, boy. That would be a hell of a drop if a feller fell out.
You needn't wait. Oh, I see. I beg your pardon. I suppose a quarter is
enough, eh?

Well, it's a relief to be alone. But say, this is high up! And what a
noise! What is it they're doing out there, away out in the air, with all
that clatter--building a steel building, I guess. Well, those fellers
have their nerve, all right. I'll sit further back from the window.

It's lonely up here. In the old days I could have rung a bell and had a
drink sent up to the room; but away up here on the fifteenth floor!
Oh, no, they'd never send a drink clean up to the fifteenth floor. Of
course, in the old days, I could have put on my canvas slippers and
walked down to the bar and had a drink and talked to the bar-tender.

But of course they wouldn't have a bar in a place like this. I'd like
to go down and see, but I don't know that I'd care to ask, anyway. No, I
guess I'll just sit and wait. Some one will come for me, I guess, after
a while.

If I were back right now in our town, I could walk into Ed Clancey's
restaurant and have ham and eggs, or stea