“Where then, pard?”
Nick hesitated. On the day before he had developed a generosity which had surprised himself quite as much as it had Glory; but, if allowed room, generosity is a plant of rapid growth, so that now the once niggardly boy was ready with a plan that was even more astonishing. His thin face flushed and he pretended to pick a sliver from his foot as he answered:
“Let’s me an’ you hire the littles’ house an’ pay the rent ourselves an’ Goober Glory do our cookin’ an’ sewin’ an’–an’–quit yer foolin’, Billy Buttons! This ain’t no make-b’lieve, this ain’t. I plumb mean it.”
For, the instant of its suggestion, this wild scheme had sent the partner of Nick Dodd’s fortunes to turning somersaults which would have befitted an acrobat. To put his head where his feet should be was Billy’s only way of relieving his emotion and he brought his gymnastics to an end, some distance down the Lane, by assuming a military uprightness and bowing profoundly to Nick, who joined him.
“That’s the ticket, pard! We’ll do it! We’ll do it! Wish to goodness I’d been the one to hatch it out, but does ye proud, parson. An’ how ’bout it? S’pose we two could sleep in his hammick?” asked Billy, his eagerness already outstripping Nick’s, as his liberality had always been greater.
Nick shook his head. Launched upon a course of reckless extravagance, he now hesitated at nothing.
“Nope. Nothin’. What’s the matter buyin’ ’nother? An’, say, we can sling ’em one top th’ other, like them berths in a sleepin’ car, an’ take turns which ’d be upper, which lower. ’Fore winter we’d get in a blanket an’ piller, though wouldn’t care much for ’em, in such a snug place, an’—”
“An’,” interrupted Billy, “we’d go snooks on the grub. Glory’d do her part chuckin’ in, ’sides the housekeep. My! ’Twould be a home, a reg’lar home, ’at I hain’t never had! Cracky! I–I ’most hope he never does come now, though fer Take-a-Stitch–maybe—”
“He won’t never. Don’t ye scare on it, never. Say! Let’s hurry through our sellin’ an’ get it fixed. An’ we’re late, a’ready.”
“All right!” and with visions of a delightful importance, that made them feel as if they were grown men, the little fellows scampered away through the morning twilight to obtain their day’s supply of newspapers, still damp from the press, for they had long ago learned that ’tis the early newsboy who catches the nickels and of these they must now have many. Neither realized that a property owner, even of a “littlest house,” would not be apt to trust it to a pair of youngsters like themselves, though to their credit it was that had their dream become reality, they would have done their utmost to follow the example of the former tenant to “pay as you go.”