Harry walked away, his cheeks burning, eyes snapping, leaving the disagreeable boy to gaze after him in positive astonishment.
Once outside the office, Harry paused and taking out the section of newspaper he had marked, scanned it earnestly. The next nearest place he had selected was at least a mile and a half from where he stood. It was twenty minutes to eight o’clock. “I guess I’d better ride,” mused Harry. “The earlier I reach a place, the better my chance will be to get something to do. I hope all the places won’t be like that mill. Why, I didn’t have a chance to talk to a soul except that smart office boy.”
When, at a few minutes after eight o’clock, Harry climbed the steps of an imposing building of white stone, and was waved to a door on the right by a uniformed attendant, he entered a good-sized ante-room, only to find it filled with boys of anywhere from fourteen to eighteen years of age. They were not making so much noise as one might expect at least fifteen active boys to make, yet a distinct buzz of conversation was going on.
Harry paused irresolutely. His eyes met those of a thin, red-haired, black-eyed boy with a mischievous face who stood just to the right of the door. The black-eyed boy grinned in friendly fashion. “Hullo,” he said.
“Good-morning,” returned Harry, answering the grin with a pleasant smile. “Are all these boys looking for the same position?”
“Yep,” nodded the black-eyed boy. “I guess the fellow that’s in the office now is going to get it. He’s been there quite a while.”
He had hardly finished speaking when the door to the inner office opened and a tall, severe-looking man appeared. “We won’t need you, boys,” he said curtly. “The position is filled.” He waved his arm as though to shoo the waiting throng of lads out of the ante-room, then disappeared. The door closed after him with a reverberating bang that shattered the hopes of the fifteen waiting youngsters.
“Huh,” ejaculated the black-eyed boy in disgust, “no more offices like this for me. I’ve been to two before this, and every time I’m too late. I guess these fellows that get the jobs get up in the middle of the night. Me for Martin’s Department Store. That’s where I ought to have gone in the first place.”
“Do they need boys there?” asked Harry. He had walked beside his new acquaintance as far as the door. Here they paused. The attendant eyed them threateningly.
“I hope so. Come on. Let’s get out of here. That man in the uniform will hurt his eyes tryin’ to look a hole through us.” The thin little boy urged Harry out of the building and down the steps to the street. “Say, what’s your name?” he asked curiously.