"I 'lowed to go down the first thing after we knocked off. It's all safe enough, anyhow. You stay here till I get back."
Teddy was off like a flash, and, impatient though Carrots was to have the business arrangements completed, his partner returned before he thought there had been sufficient time for Teddy to make the journey.
The preliminaries were quickly arranged, once they were ready to pay over the money, and, leaving Ikey in charge of the empty stand, the proud proprietors went hurriedly down-town, Teddy saying, as he parted with the clerk: "I'll come back soon's I can, with the mornin' papers, and we'll open right up."
"I'll get things fixed before then, if I can borrow a broom, 'cause the inside of the place must be cleaned up," the new clerk replied, thus showing that he was attentive to the interests of his employers.
If Carrots had done as he wished, every newsboy and bootblack in the lower portion of the city would have known that he and Teddy had gone regularly into business; but the latter was adverse to proclaiming the news so soon.
"Better hold on a day or two, an' see how it pans out," the cautious merchant advised. "You see, if it should bust up the first thing, the fellers would laugh at us. We're bound to stay a week, now the money's paid; but how long a time is that to brag 'bout? I want ter know if we're goin' to stick, before I say anything."
"When will you 'gree to tell the fellers?"
"If we can pay our bills an' have enough left to keep the stock up, by a week from to-day you shall go 'round to spread the news, an' I won't open my mouth till you've seen every feller you know."
This was satisfactory to the junior partner, and he promised to attend to his work in the lower portion of the city as if nothing out of the usual course of events had happened, even though the firm of Thurston and Williams had actually sprung into existence in a proper and a business-like manner.