work singin' an'
whistlin'. Just before noon I found a hundred dollars on the floor
close to the door.

I asked every one around if they had lost any money, an' most of 'em
said no, an' them what bad lost any--an' the' was a purty high average
that mornin'--had all lost the wrong amount, or else it was in a
different kind of a sack; so I knocked off at noon, went to a new
restaurant, an' et a fair meal, which they charged me one dollar for. I
thought that was goin' a little stout for a porter, but I knew I'd find
a place where I could live on my income as soon as I got better
acquainted, an' I was purty light-hearted when I got back that noon.

"You're nineteen minutes late," sez the floor boss.

"Is that so; what's happened?" sez I, pleasantly.

"You are not supposed to take more than an hour for lunch," sez he.

"Well, you can just take the nineteen minutes out of the time I saved
up yesterday," sez I.

"You must understand right at the start that business depends on
method," sez he, sour like. "Mr. Hailsworth wishes to see you at once."

Hailsworth was the capital letter o' that outfit, an' I was glad o' the
chance to see him, 'cause the' was some several changes I wanted to
make in the porterin' department. I follered the floor boss upstairs
an' back to a private room, where a little wizen-faced old man sat up
an' looked at me over his spectacles. "I understand you found some
money?" sez he.

"I did," sez I. "Do you know who lost it?"

"Well, no, not yet," sez he; "but of course you understand that any
money that is found in this building belongs to the firm, unless its
rightful owner claims it."

"Well that's a new wrinkle" sez I. "Why don't it belong to me?"

"'Cause you have hired your time to me, an' whatever you find here you
find in my time, so it's mine. This is the law, an' I am very busy.
Just hand it over at once."

"That ain't right," sez I, "an' I don't intend to hand over a nickle of
it."

"Then we'll have to arrest you," sez he. I put my hand down to my leg,
but both my guns was rolled up in my blankets. "I'm goin' out to see a
lawyer," sez I, thinkin' that would be more business-like than to tell
him I 'd blow the top of his head off. The' was lots more things I
wanted to tell him, but it took most o' my strength to manage my
self-control; an' I allus like to have good footin' when I make my
spring. I didn't feel at home, either, an' that's a heap. It kind o'
got on my nerves to see