arper's Weekly'?"

"Ten cents."

"Ten cents is too much to pay for any paper. I don't see how they have
the face to ask it."

"Nor I," said Ben; "but they don't consult me,"

"I'll give you eight cents."

"No you won't, not if I know it. I'd rather keep the paper for my
private readin'," answered Ben.

"Then you are at liberty to do so," said the gentleman, snappishly.
"You'd make profit enough, if you sold at eight cents."

"All the profit I'd make wouldn't pay for a fly's breakfast," said Ben.

The gentleman deigned no response, but walked across the street in a
dignified manner. Here he was accosted by a boot-black, who proposed to
shine his boots.

"He'll get 'em done at the wholesale price, see if he don't," thought
Ben. He kept an eye on the boot-black and his patron until the job was
finished. Then he witnessed what appeared to be an angry dispute between
the two parties. It terminated by the gentleman lifting his cane in a
menacing manner. Ben afterwards gained from the boy particulars of the
transaction, which may be given here in the third person.

"Shine yer boots?" asked the boot-black, as the gentleman reached his
side of the street, just after his unsuccessful negotiations with Ben.

"What do you charge?" he inquired.

"Ten cents."

"That's too much."

"It's the reg'lar price."

"I can get my boots blacked for five cents anywhere. If you'll do it for
that, you can go to work."

The boy hesitated. It was half price, but he had not yet obtained a job,
and he yielded. When the task was finished, his generous patron drew
four cents from his pocket.

"I haven't got but four cents," he observed. "I guess that'll do."

The boy was indignant, as was natural. To work for half price, and then
lose one-fifth of his reduced pay, was aggravating. What made it worse
was, that his customer was carefully dressed, and bore every appearance
of being a man of substance.

"I want another cent," he demanded.

"You're well enough paid," said the other, drawing on a kid glove. "Four
cents I consider very handsome pay for ten minutes' work. Many men do
not make as much."

This reasoning did not strike the little boot-black as sound. He was no
logician; but he felt that he had been defrauded, and that in a very
mean manner.

"Give me my money," he screamed, angrily.

"I'll hand you over to the authorities," said the gentleman,--though I
hardly feel justified in calling him such,--lifting his cane men