"To me, if you like. I'll take him."
Mr. Smithers laughed in a tremulous manner.
"What!" he exclaimed. "Apprentice him to an undertaker?"
"Why not? You might require his services sooner than you expect. If ours is not such a respectable trade as the dry-goods business, we are as much in request as you are. You clothe the living, we clothe the dead."
"I couldn't hear of such a thing," replied Smithers. "Besides, the boy hasn't finished his schooling. He knows nothing."
Tommy re-entered the room and spread a snow-white cloth over the table.
"There's a little man," said Barker, encouragingly. "What a nice tablecloth."
"'Tain't a tablecloth," replied Tommy. "It's a sheet. Mother says the clothes ain't out of the wash yet."
Mr. Smithers looked disgusted.
"Didn't I tell you he was a fool?" he exclaimed.