"You talk as if I was already in the Department, instead of havin' to work my way up to it."
"I only wish I was as near there. By the time you're captain of a company I'll jest about get so I can pay my own way, with never two cents ahead."
"Now, don't begin to jump on yourself 'cause it seems as if I was gettin' along pretty fast; but wait an' see how I pan out, an' as for doin' nothin' but sellin' papers, why, that's 'cordin' to the way you want it. There ain't any need of stickin' to sich business unless you hanker for it."
"Yes there is, except I'm willin' to starve," Dan replied mournfully, and to raise him from the depths of despondency into which he had been plunged by a sight of the uniform, Seth began to ask him questions concerning Jip.
"We left him down at the ferry. Bill Dean struck a feller there who promised to give Jip a lift now an' then. I don't reckon he'll have any trouble, 'cause them as are sellin' papers down that way don't seem to have much sand to 'em. He's goin' to sleep with Bill's friend, an' take it all in all I think he's gettin' along mighty well, considerin' it ain't a week since he burned us out. Say, goin' into the house now, or do you count on swellin' 'round a spell first?"
"We'll go home, Dan, an' in the mornin', after I've shined for Ninety-four's men, I'll meet you down-town."
"What? You goin' to do any more shinin'?"
"I am for them in that house, an' I'll keep it up till I get to be reg'larly in the Department. They've done so much for me, Dan, that if I should spend half my time as long as I live blackin' their boots, I wouldn't square things."
"If I counted on bein' a fireman I'd be one; I wouldn't black boots for anybody."
"Neither will I when I'm really in the Department; but I'm a long ways from there yet a while. Come home, an' to-night I'll stand a spread so's to celebrate wearin' the new uniform."