aid Sam. "I said corns."
"Stand out of my way, boy, or I'll cane you," exclaimed the incensed
fop.
"Your cane wouldn't hurt," said Sam, regarding the slight stick with
disdain. "Never mind; you needn't go up. I don't believe you've got a
dollar."
This was rather impudent in Sam, I acknowledge; and the dandy would
have been glad to chastise him.
"Miss Winslow," he said, "I hope you won't mind the rudeness of
this--ah, ragamuffin."
"Oh, I don't," said the young lady, merrily; "he amuses me."
"So he does me; ha, ha! very good joke," said the dandy, laughing too,
but not very merrily. "I hope you are quite well to-day."
"Thank you, quite so. But don't let me detain you, if you have an
engagement upstairs."
"I assure you," protested the young man, hurriedly, "that I have no
intention of going up at all."
"Then I must say good-morning, at any rate, as I am out shopping;" and
the young lady passed on.
"I've a great mind to flog you," said the dandy, frowning at Sam. "I
would if you wasn't so dirty. I wouldn't like to soil my hands by
taking hold of you."
"That's lucky for you," said Sam, coolly.
The answer was a withering frown, but Sam was tough, and not easily
withered.
"Aint he stuck up, though?" thought he, as the young man left him. "He
don't seem to like me much."
"Have you got any corns, sir?" he asked, thrusting a paper into the
hands of a portly gentleman with a merry face.
The gentleman laughed.
"Really, my boy," he said, "that is a very singular question."
"Is it?" said Sam. "I don't know why."
"Why do you ask?"
"Because Dr. Graham upstairs will cure you before you know it. It's
only a dollar."
"You are sure you are not Dr. Graham, yourself?" said the stout man,
regarding Sam with an amused expression.
"If I was, I'd wear better clothes," said Sam. "He makes lots of
money, the doctor does."
"You'd better learn the business, my young friend."
"I guess I will, if he'll learn me," said Sam. "It'll pay better than
standin' here, givin' away papers."
"Don't that pay?"
"Not very well," said Sam. "I only get ten cents a hundred."
"Can you pay your board out of that?"
"No, but I make commissions, besides," said Sam.
"How is that?" asked the stout gentleman, in some curiosity.
"If you'd gone upstairs, and had two corns cured, the doctor,--he'd
have given me a quarter."
"Would he really?"
"Yes, he would. Hadn't you better go?"
"I have no occasion fo
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