Just at that moment conversation was interrupted by the tide of travel, which had set in once more past that particular spot; and Sadie bent all her energies to the disposal of her wares, while Josiah looked around for a convenient place in which to remain with his satchel until the business for the day could be brought to a close.
Now that he had the promise of a guide, and one in whom he felt every confidence, he no longer had any anxiety regarding his ability to find the friends whom he proposed to visit.
Not until night had come was the girl willing to abandon her efforts toward procuring the amount of money which Mother Hunter might demand; and, despite his occupation of watching the ever changing sea of faces before him, Josiah grew impatient.
“If we don’t start pretty soon I’m ’fraid we won’t get there before mornin’,” he said, with just a shade of petulance in his tones. “Is it very much of a walk from here?”
“It might be, an’ then again it mightn’t. You see, I don’t know how far out West Broadway it is. I’d have started sooner; but it’s been dreadful hard sellin’ matches to-night, an’ I expect there’ll be an awful row when I get home.”
“When are you goin’?”
“Now; but I must stop into the house just a minute before we try to find Baker’s Court.”
“When will you get supper?”
“Oh I’ll run across somethin’ by an’ by. I don’t s’pose Mother Hunter’s got much of anything, so it won’t take me long to do my eatin’.”
Josiah, who had been accustomed to having his meals regularly, was astonished at the indifference displayed by his new acquaintance regarding this matter; and as he looked at her critically while trying to learn whether she was attempting to make sport of him, the fact that he was decidedly hungry presented itself.