"But you've got to have the checks if you count on gettin' papers. Give me your money. How many do you want?"
"I'll take twenty cents' worth, anyhow, an' see what I can do with them as a starter;" and Teddy handed the pennies confidently to his new acquaintance.
Carrots laid the coins in front of the busy man at the desk, received the bits of brass, and with them went to the counter on which large numbers of newspapers were lying, where he received Teddy's first stock in trade.
"Find out what the news is, an' yell the best you know how," Carrots said, pushing the young gentleman from Saranac toward the street-door; and five minutes later the new merchant was following his friend's advice to the letter, by crying his wares in such a manner as excited the mirth of the other dealers.
"It seems to me I ain't doin' this jest right," Teddy said to himself, and then he waited a moment, listening to the more experienced venders.
It was not long before he succeeded in imitating their cries, and had already sold four papers when Skip Jellison, who was accompanied by his friends Sid Barker and Teenie Massey, appeared in view.
"There he is!" Teenie cried in his shrillest tones. "Now let's see you go for him! He's actin' as if he owned the whole town!"
Skip prepared for battle by rolling up his coat-sleeves, and settling his dilapidated cap more firmly on his head. Then, running swiftly forward, he confronted Teddy as he was on the point of selling a paper to a gentleman through a horse-car window.
Skip did not wait to be attacked, for he believed in striking the first blow as a means of confusing the enemy; and, before Teddy recognized the boy who had threatened him, he received a severe blow in the face which caused him to reel backward.
The paper fell from his hand, the horse-car continued its way, and this important transaction in news was nipped in the bud, to the serious loss of the young merchant.