“Why the clerk, who was on duty here when you ate breakfast, said he thought you would, and I said I didn’t believe you would show up again. I said if you did I’d give you some pie. See?”
“Oh,” Ned answered with a laugh, “much obliged.”
That afternoon he bought a second-hand shovel and went about looking for more walks to clean. By night he had earned a dollar additional, which gave him considerable more capital than he had possessed since the episode at the hotel.
“I’ll get a room at the lodging house to-night,” he said as he finished a simple supper. “I don’t like those beds all in a heap.”
It was still snowing the next day, and though Ned found the field pretty well covered by scores of other men and boys, he managed to earn two dollars, which made him feel quite like a capitalist, as he shut the door of his lodging-house room that night.
The three chums, who wanted to find John Newton had no trouble. They met him coming from the rear of the theater, as he had done his “turn,” and was not to go on again for three hours.
The “Bird Warbler” was as much surprised to see his former acquaintances from Darewell as they were to find him engaged at a theater.
“I’m studying to be an actor,” John said, “but it’s dull times now and I took this job. It pays pretty well.”
“I never knew you could whistle good enough for this work,” said Fenn.