“Fine,” says Catty, and he winked at me. “You and us fellers ’ll walk over, and maybe ketch the train back. Start in the mornin’.”
So in the morning we started over to Canton to see this man Phillips, the architect. I was wondering what kind of a man he was and how he would act, but that didn’t seem to bother Catty much. When we got there we found him in a little room up-stairs over the express-office, and he looked like he was just fresh from college. He was nice-lookin’ and I liked him right off.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” says he. “What can I do for you?”
“Be you the archytect?” says Mr. Atkins.
“I am,” says Mr. Phillips.
“When you make plans for a house kin you figger how much it’s goin’ to cost to build it?”
“I can.”
“I got some plans you drawed, and I want to git the costs, for diggin’, masonry, carpenter-work, and all—each sep’rate.... I’m a contractor, Mr. Phillips, and I calc’late to have quite some work for a handy archytect. Figger I’ll need a man with idees and brains.”
I was so surprised I almost bit myself. I’d never heard Mr. Atkins talk like that. He sounded almost like a business man.
Well, sir, we sat down and talked, and pretty soon it seemed like we was well acquainted, and we began telling each other about ourselves. Seemed that Mr. Phillips was new at his job and just out of college and hadn’t any money, and didn’t get much to do. He was interested a lot in Catty and Mr. Atkins.