"
"Thank you for your kind advice," said Dick. "Is it gratooitous, or
do you expect to be paid for it?"
"You're an impudent fellow."
"That's a very cheerin' reflection," said Dick, good-naturedly.
"Do you expect to get this place when there's gentlemen's sons
applying for it? A boot-black in a store! That would be a good
joke."
Boys as well as men are selfish, and, looking upon Dick as a
possible rival, the boys who listened seemed disposed to take the
same view of the situation.
"That's what I say," said one of them, taking sides with Roswell.
"Don't trouble yourselves," said Dick. "I aint agoin' to cut you
out. I can't afford to give up a independent and loocrative
purfession for a salary of three dollars a week."
"Hear him talk!" said Roswell Crawford, with an unpleasant sneer.
"If you are not trying to get the place, what are you here for?"
"I came with a friend of mine," said Dick, indicating Fosdick,
"who's goin' in for the situation."
"Is he a boot-black, too?" demanded Roswell, superciliously.
"He!" retorted Dick, loftily. "Didn't you know his father was a
member of Congress, and intimately acquainted with all the biggest
men in the State?"
The boys surveyed Fosdick as if they did not quite know whether to
credit this statement, which, for the credit of Dick's veracity, it
will be observed he did not assert, but only propounded in the form
of a question.
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