"Do you s'pose the fellers down here, what run the newspaper business, are goin' to have you comin' in takin' the bread an' butter out er their mouths?" Sid asked, angrily.
"No, I don't reckon they will; but you see I'm not after that exac'ly. You fellers'll never find me tryin' to get your bread an' butter; but I'll tell you what you can count on for a fact," and now the stranger spoke in a very decided tone, "I'm reckonin' on stickin' to the newspaper business, if there's any money in it, jest as long as I want to. I didn't travel all the way down here to get scared the first day. You see, I figger it 'bout like this: Sam Thompson, he came to the city last summer, an' some fellers—I don't know whether it was you or not—made it hot for him. It wasn't more'n a week before he was glad to walk back, although he came down in the cars. Now, I thought I'd begin right where Sam left off: I'd walk the first way, an' then, perhaps, stand a better chance of ridin' the other, if I had to go; but it's got to be boys what are bigger than I am to scare me out er the plan. I've come to stay."
"Oh, you have?" and there was no mistaking the fact that Skip was sarcastic. "We may have something to say 'bout that."
"Then you want er talk quick, 'cause after I'm settled down, it'll be a pretty hard job to make any trade with me."
"Where you goin' to begin business?"
"I don't know yet. I'll look 'round a while, an' catch on before night, somewhere. I reckon there are fellers in this town that would show a green hand how to get his papers, an' where the best places were, eh?"
"That's jest 'cordin' to how you start in, young feller," and Sid arose to his feet in order to make his words more expressive. "If you want to go to work, an' mind your eye, I don't know but it can be done; but you won't get along this way. You're puttin' on too many frills—that's what's the matter with you, an' they'll have to be taken off."
"Well, perhaps they will," and Teddy turned as if to leave his new acquaintances. "You see, I'm pretty green, an' may be countin' on doin' too much. I'll try it a spell, anyhow."
"We allers 'low, when it's 'greed a new hand can go to work, that he stands treat the first thing."
"Oh, I see! Well, I don't have to do that, 'cause it ain't been 'greed yet. When I want you fellers to tell me what I can do, perhaps I may come down 'cordin' to your idees; but jest now I've got too much business on hand;" and the stranger walked away, as if these young gentlemen, who claimed to control the newspaper business of New York City, were of no especial importance in his eyes.