“That makes a dollar and ten cents!” he remarked confidentially as he and Lou went down the hill road together toward the bustling little city nestled at the river’s edge. “Quite a fortune, isn’t it?”
102“She gave me a quarter for helping with the ironing, too, so that’s thirty-five that I’ve got.” Lou exhibited a hard knot tied in the corner of her handkerchief. “I couldn’t get all of the egg out of my hat, but it’s good enough. Where do we go from Riverburgh?”
Jim gave a groan of mock despair.
“That’s the dev–I mean, the deuce of it!” he exclaimed. “We’ve got to cross the river there someway, and go on down on the other side. We can’t keep on this, or we will run into New Jersey and–and I mustn’t leave the State.”
He blurted the last out in a dogged, uncomfortable way, but Lou did not appear to notice his change of tone.
“Well, there look to be plenty of boats goin’ back an’ forth,” she observed placidly. “I guess we can get over.”
“But you don’t understand. I–I can’t pay our way over; that’s another of the things I mustn’t do.” Jim flushed hotly.
“I wish I could tell you all about it.”
“It don’t make any difference.” Lou kept her eyes fixed straight ahead of her. “There 103ought to be some way for you to work your way across.”
The road dipped sharply, and became all at once a pleasant, tree-lined street with pretty suburban cottages on either hand. To the east and north hung the smoke cloud of countless factories, but their way led them through the modest residential quarter. The street presently turned into a paved one, and trolley lines appeared; then brick buildings and shops, and before they knew it they were in the busy, crowded business thoroughfare.