“But you are not a bootblack now. You are a telegraph boy.”
“There are plenty that mind me when I blacked boots down in front of the Astor House.”
“You are just as good a boy for all that. How much did you make last week?”
“Four dollars salary, and a dollar and a half in extra tips.”
“Hereafter you must save your rent money for clothes. We must have you looking respectable.”
“Won’t you adopt me, Rodney?” asked Mike with a laughing face.
“That’s a good idea. Perhaps I will. In that case you must obey all my orders. In the first place, what are you most in want in the way of clothing?”
“I haven’t got but two shirts.”
“That is hardly enough for a gentleman of your social position. Anything else.”
“I’m short on collars and socks.”