While sight-seeing with his two friends, he had forgotten Sadie and her troubles to a certain extent; but now, as he saw her at her work, all she had told him came into his mind, and he grew down-hearted, regardless of the fact that he was soon to see the wonders of Coney Island.
He was beginning to learn that hunger and want are frequent visitors in cities; and as he thought of Berry’s Corner, where all who were willing to work could find some way to earn sufficient money for their necessities, the metropolis lost very much of its beauty in his eyes.
On arriving at the shop a short distance above Canal Street, the boys found it open, consequently there need be no time wasted in waiting, as had been feared.
The woodchuck skins were not as valuable, in this particular dealer’s estimation, as Josiah had fancied.
The merchant examined them, expressed considerable dissatisfaction at the method of curing, and ended by offering fifteen cents for each.
This was so much less than the boys expected, that they would not accept the offer, and during the next hour went from shop to shop, but without meeting any better success.
It really seemed as if every furrier in town had conspired against the trapper from Berry’s Corner, and had set the price of supposedly valuable pelts at a ridiculously low figure.
“Are you goin’ to sell them for that?” Bob asked when they emerged from one of the largest establishments on Broadway, where the clerks would not even examine the skins, after being told they were woodchucks.
“What else can I do?” and Josiah spoke in a mournful tone. “Father says they mustn’t lay ’round the house in the winter, an’ mother won’t have ’em there in the summer on account of the moths, so I’d better give the whole lot away than carry ’em home again.”
“Then let’s go back to the first store, ’cause that man acted squarer than the rest, and didn’t put on so many airs.”