"There's no need of your doing anything like that," Mrs. Hanson replied kindly. "Mr. Davis says he'll guarantee that the rent is paid promptly, and that should be enough for me, without taking money before it is due."
"Mr. Davis is mighty good, but there's no reason why he should back a couple of boys who are able to pay their own way. The rent is so cheap I was 'fraid he'd been puttin' up money on our account, so's we could afford to hire it."
"He said you were mighty independent, and I guess he's right; but you needn't be afraid of getting any more than you pay for. This room couldn't be let to many people, and those who would be willing to live in such a place we would not want in the house, except in a case like yours, where a friend of ours says everything is as it should be. Mr. Davis is a very nice man."
"You can jest bet he is," Seth replied emphatically. "He's been mighty good to me."
Then, having counted the money and promised to give a receipt in due form for the same, Mrs. Hanson left her new lodgers, and Dan cried when they were alone:
"Say, Seth, this kind-er knocks the spots out er Baxter's shed, eh? It ain't costin' me but ten cents a week more'n the other place did, an' that bed is worth three times them figgers. Talk 'bout fifteen-cent lodgin's! Why, the best I ever saw wasn't a marker alongside of this!"
"It's fine, an' no mistake; but we've got to put up twenty-five cents every week for it."
"That'll be all right. I owe you a quarter for this week's rent, an' I'll pay it to-morrow or next day; I've got enough in my pocket now, but kind-er reckoned on havin' a swell lay-out to-night for a celebration. Hold on here, an' I'll go after some grub."
"Do you s'pose we ought'er thank Mr. Davis now for findin' the room for us?"
"It'll do jest as well in the mornin', an' you're so 'fraid of hangin' 'round the engine-house that it don't seem as if you'd better go there for nothin' else but to tell him what we think of the place."