s a clerk for a dollar
a week, same's you did, he's takin' a pretty good contract on his
shoulders. Did you pay Sim Jepson his wages all right?"

"Yes, I kept square with him, and I guess that's where most of my money
went. Sim owns the stand now."

"He owns it? Why, he was your clerk."

"Don't you s'pose I know that? But he was gettin' a dollar a week clean
money, an' it counted up in time. If things had been the other way, most
likely I'd own the place to-day."

Master Plummer was silent for an instant, and then a smile as of
satisfaction overspread his fat face.

"I'll tell you how to do it, Joe: hire out to Sim, an' after a spell
you'll get the stand back ag'in."

"That won't work; I tried it. You see, when it come yesterday, I owed
him a dollar for wages, an' thirty cents I'd borrowed. There wasn't
more'n ninety cents' worth of stuff in the stand, an' Sim said he'd got
to be paid right sharp. Of course I couldn't raise money when I'd jest
the same's failed, an' told him so. He offered to square things if I'd
give him the business; an' what else could I do? I left there without a
cent to my name; but earned a quarter last night, an' here's what's left
of it."

The ruined merchant mournfully jingled the coins in his hand, while he
gazed dreamily at the railway structure overhead, and Master Plummer
regarded him sympathetically.

"What you goin' to do now?" the fat boy asked, after a long pause.

"That's jest what I don't know, Plums. If I had the money, I reckon I'd
take up shinin' for a spell, even if the _I_talians are knockin' the
life out of business."

"Why don't you sell papers, same's you used to?"

"Well, you see when I went into the fruit-stand I sold out my rights
'round the City Hall, to Dan Fernald, an' it wouldn't be the square
thing for me to jump in down there ag'in."

"There's plenty of chances up-town."

"I don't know about that. S'posen I started right here, then I'd be
rubbin' against you; an' it's pretty much the same everywhere. I tell
you, Plums, there's too many folks in this city. I ain't so certain but
I shall go for a sailor; they say there's money in that business."

"S'posen there was barrels in it, how could you get any out?" and in his
astonishment that Joe should have considered such a plan even for a
moment, Master Plummer very nearly grew excited. "You ain't big enough
to shin up the masts, an' take in sails, an' all that sort of work,
same's sailors have to do."