Once in the street, Mopsey stopped under the nearest gas-light and asked Ben to see how much money Mr. Weston had given them. Ben unfolded the bills, which he held crumpled up in his hand, and the surprise of all four may be imagined when he unrolled five twenty-dollar notes.
“Jinks!” squeaked Dickey, with delight, after he had turned four consecutive hand-springs to quiet himself down a little, “that’s a hundred dollars; an’ if we don’t swell ’round with that it’ll be ’cause we don’t know how to put on style.”
Then, quite as fast as they had left Mrs. Green’s, they ran back to relate the startling news, and surprise their landlady and her daughter with the treasure that had come because of their generous act.
Chapter XIV.
A DAY’S PLEASURING.
As may be supposed, Paul’s good-fortune in finding his father was the topic of conversation during the forenoon following that happy event, and there was even more excitement regarding it in the news-selling world than there had been when the fact was first circulated that Ben and Johnny had embarked in a theatrical enterprise.
Of course the good-fortune that had come to the firm through Paul was known as soon as the other, and whenever one of the partners passed a group of merchants in his same line of business, he was sure to be pointed out as one of the boys who were the happy possessors of a clear hundred dollars.
As it was quite likely that Paul and his father would come down town during the day, no one of the merchants knowing of the facts went very far from the City Hall, lest they should miss the chance of seeing him. There was a great deal of pride manifested because they had had a rich man’s son among their number, even though it had only been for a few days; and those who had tried to drive him away during the first of his attempts to sell papers now tried to show how often they had befriended him.