"Where do you board?" asked Ben, after a little pause.
Jerry Collins stared at the questioner as if he suspected that a joke was intended. But Ben's serious face assured him that he was in earnest.
"You're jolly green," he remarked, sententiously.
"Look here," said Ben, with spirit, "I'll give you a licking if you say that again."
It may be considered rather singular that Jerry, Instead of resenting this threat, was led by it to regard Ben with favor.
"I didn't mean anything," he said, by way of apology. "You're a trump, and you'll get over it when you've been in the city a week."
"What made you call me green?" asked Ben.
"Did you think I boarded up to the Fifth Avenue?" asked Jerry.
"What's that,—a hotel?"
"Yes, it's one of the big hotels, where they eat off gold plates."