“Half at Honesdale, an’ half when you git back here.”
“Well, I don’t know; I—”
“Make up your mind quick. If you don’t want the job, I’ll be lookin’ for another boy.”
Joe thought of his penniless condition. It might not be long, indeed, before he would be starving. Here was a chance to obtain at least food and shelter, and probably enough to buy an overcoat.
“Well,” he said, “I’ll go.”
“All right. Have you had any breakfast?”
“No.”
“Come along with me, an’ I’ll give you some.”
Joe’s spirits rose again at the thought of breakfast. He followed the man down the dock a short distance, then from the dock to a canal-boat lying close by, and from this boat to another, and still another.