"It's all right now," he replied complacently. "I've had my say, an' if Sam knows what's good for him, he'll keep his tongue quiet. There ain't any reason why I shouldn't fight, an' he'll soon find it out."
Then Seth turned to the attorney, who was yet talking with Jip, and asked:
"How's he goin' to pay you for lookin' after him?"
"I don't expect he can. The bill was settled by some firemen belonging to Ninety-four engine."
With this the lawyer, after advising Jip to call upon him from time to time, went his way, and Mrs. Hanson's lodgers stood looking at each other as if expecting some important proposition was about to be made.
"It won't do to take you up to our house, Jip, 'cause there are three of us already, an' the boss of the place can't have all the boys in the city runnin' in an' out there for sixty cents a week," Seth said hesitatingly, wondering what could be done with the lad who had been put on probation.
"I ain' thinkin' you could take me there," Master Collins replied promptly. "Now I'm out, I'll begin to sell papers down by the ferry again, 'cause I've got fourteen cents left, an' if Sam Barney leaves me alone, I'll pull through all right."
"If he so much as looks crossways at you, I'll give him something to remember me by," Bill cried.
"It's a good thing to get right at your work," Seth said approvingly. "Stick at it, an' us fellers will come to see you whenever we get a chance."
"You've been mighty good to me, all three of you, an' I only wish I could——"